Prosperity along the Sea: The South China Coast at 5000-3000 BC

This project aims to address how complex hunter-gatherers sustained large villages along the South China Coast for 2 millennia. About 7000 years ago, the people and landscape of this region began a long journey of transformation that forms the subject of a new proposed interdisciplinary study of archaeology with archaeo-botany, palaeo-landscape reconstruction, and bio-archaeology. The investigation seeks to learn how these early coastal societies contributed to regional social-economic developments, and in the context of world cultural history, dating to a time long prior to written chronicles. The results may support new comprehension of these unique coastal communities and their relations with others in the broader Asia-Pacific.