Early Evidence for Pig and Dog Husbandry from the Neolithic Site of An Son, Southern Vietnam

Abstract

An Son in southern Vietnam is one of a series of Neolithic (food producing) settlement/cemetery sites in Southeast Asia that appear, archaeologically, shortly before and after 2000cal. bc. Excavations in 2009 produced a small but important assemblage of vertebrate remains that permit relative comparisons with other zooarchaeological assemblages of similar date in Thailand and northern Vietnam. At An Son, domestic dogs are present from the earliest known phases of occupation with butchery evidence and a high proportion of canid remains, suggesting they were possibly used as a food resource. Suid bones were recovered from the earliest phases of the site excavated, and pig husbandry can be identified from at least 1800 to 1600cal. bc. There is also evidence for the use of a range of other resources including fishing, hunting and the capturing of turtles.