The Hoabinhian in South East Asia and elsewhere

Abstract

A resolution defining the Hoabinhian culture, passed by the First Congress of Prehistorians of the Far East in 1932, is discussed in the light of the relevant excavation reports. Of these the most important is Colani's report published in 1927 describing the excavation of nine sites in Hoa Binh. Celani attempted to set up a typolog cal classification for the collections of stone tools from these sites.This classification is examined and found to be inadequate. Colani further divides the collections into three parts which are supposed to represent three chronological phases. These are examined in the light of the published evidence and found to be unsatisfactory. Other material recovered from these sites is then described. Further sites excavated in Hoa Binh and region are then examined. None of the excavation reports confirm the conclusions reached by Celani in 1927 - conclusions which Celani herself seems to have abandoned. The results of a brief visit to Hoa Binh by Boriskovsky in 1960 are given. A suitable vocabulary for the description, analysis and synthesis of the data of prehistoric archaeology is briefly described, and Colani's reports examined in the terms of that vocabulary. <...>