Dr Judith Cameron

My research focus is the analysis of archaeological textiles, a generic term for a wide range of prehistoric fibre based artefacts, including cordage, basketry, matting and textiles and the tools used to produce them to obtain insights into central issues in Southeast Asian and South Chinese archaeology.

An early highlight of my career was the discovery and successful recovery (with Prof. Peter Bellwood, Nguyen Viet, Vui Van Liem) of a complete textile shroud from a waterlogged Dongson boat-burial from Dong Xa in the Red River region of northern Vietnam in 2004. The find was of cultural significance in Vietnamese archaeology as it was the first complete shroud and Dongson clothing unearthed.The excavation funded, by the ARC, was a joint Australian/Vietnamese Archaeology Project with the National Museum of Australia and written up in Science, 21 April 2006, 312, p. 360. 

As part of my ARC Future Fellowship (2013-2016), I analysed cloth production tools excavated by (Prof. Sun) at the 7000 year old site of Tianluoshan in the lower Yangzi Valley and identified the earliest weaving tools found thus far, anywhere which are now on display in the China National Silk Museum.  In Vietnam, my excavations of the Hoa Loc site in Thanh Hoa Province with Prof. Bui Van Liem) yielded new evidence for long-distance trade and interaction in Southeast Asia producing the earliest Neolithic stone workshop in Vietnam as well new radicarbon dates that now assign the Hoa Loc culture to the Early Neolithic.

Southeast Asia, South China, Cloth production, Fibre technology

Tracy Martens, M. Arch. Science 2014, PhD Fibre technology in the Caleta Vitor Archaeological Complex, Northern Chile, 2019 

Over the past decade, I have been involved as the textile specialist on 15 international archaeology projects in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, including the Origins of Angkor Project and the Niah Cave Project.

• Hoa Loc Revisited Project with Professor Bui Van Liem, Vietnam Institute of Archaeology (current)
• Tianluoshan Project with Professor Sun Guoping (Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Tianluoshan Site Museum (current)