Research & Article

Although long occupancy of south Thailand has been recorded at Lang Rongrien rock shelter, little detailed palaeoenvironmental work has been published from the peninsula. This account begins to rectify the situation using palynology and microfossil charcoal analyses from a core extracted at Nong Thale Song Hong. Interpretation of the results is difficult, and there are unresolved inconsistencies in the radiocarbon dates. The fire record is longer than expected, given the latitude of the site, and the vegetation was never stable for long, probably due to hydrological changes, altering climate and soils, as well as human impact. The topography makes the site more useful for tracing local vegetation changes and lake level variations than oscillations in regional vegetation.