Floodplain deposits, channel changes and riverbank stratigraphy of the Mekong River area at the 14th-Century city of Chiang Saen, Northern Thailand
- Wood Spencer H, Ziegler Alan D, Bundarnsin Tharaporn
- Geomorphology SCI(E) SCOPUS
- Elsevier in 2008
- Cited Count
Riverbank stratigraphy and paleochannel patterns of the Mekong River at Chiang Saen provide a geoarchaeological framework to explore for evidence of Neolithic, Bronze-age, AD 5th Century Yonok and AD 14–16th Century Lan Na Cultures. Typical bank stratigraphy charted on the Thailand side is imbricate cobble gravel overlain by 5–10 m of reddish-brown sandy silt. The silt section is composed chiefly of 1/2 to 2-m thick layers of massive silt without paleosols interpreted as near-channel floodplain and gently-inclined levee deposits laid down by episodic, infrequent, large floods. The surface soil is dark-brown clay loam (< 1-m thick) with abundant brick fragments, pottery shards and charcoal of Lan Na time. Brick ruins of 14–16th Century Buddhist temples are crumbling into the river at Chiang Saen Noi, and formerly did so at Chiang Saen until banks were stabilized by rock walls. Bank retreat from river erosion has been > 20 m since Lan Na time, and has exposed a silt-filled moat. A radiocarbon age of 1475 cal yr AD was obtained from charcoal at the bottom of the moat, beneath 5.6 m of silt. Lag material from erosion of the silt banks contains Neolithic and Bronze Age artifacts out of stratigraphic context, as well as ceramics and bricks of Lan Na age. These artifacts as well Neolithic artifacts obtained from a 1972 excavation near the mouth of the Kham River indicate long human habitation of this riverbank area.
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