Forager subsistence regimes in the Thai-Malay Peninsula: An environmental archaeological case study of Khao Toh Chong Rockshelter, Krabi

Environmental archaeology is a holistic approach to understanding human environmental intervention. This study examines a late-Pleistocene-to-Holocene archaeological rockshelter site in the Thai-Malay Peninsula, known as Khao Toh Chong Rockshelter (KTC). A mixed-method approach is applied to investigate human behavioral adaptation to a changing climate in the tropical environment of Peninsular Thailand. The changing subsistence regime at KTC describes the shift from hunting-gathering and foraging to opportunistic horticulture. The archaeological and multi-disciplinary methodologies utilized in this research include geoarchaeological sedimentary science, zooarchaeological analysis of faunal remains, and paleobotanical study of deposits of the stratigraphy of the rockshelter site.;The environmental archaeological study of KTC indicated that the hunter-gatherer and foraging groups that occupied the site exploited a wider array of fauna during the mid-Holocene (increasing diet breadth). The geoscience results of this research provided details about shifting from C4 to C 3 photosynthetic plant ratios during the Holocene, which indicates that more fruiting plants were available during this time. The low pollen yield indicated poor organic preservation, whereas sedimentary analysis illustrated clay-rich deposits that were beneficial for material-culture preservation. Human environmental intervention at the rockshelter indicates that people began moving away from a hunter-gatherer and foraging lifestyle to a more sustainable practice of resource consumption during the mid-Holocene.