The Iron Age of Mainland Southeast Asia began in the fifth centurybcand lasted for about a millennium. In coastal regions, the development of trade along the Maritime Silk Road led to the growth of port cities. In the interior, a fall in monsoon rains particularly affected the Mun River valley. This coincided with the construction of moats/reservoirs round Iron Age settlements from which water was channelled into wet rice fields, the production of iron ploughshares and sickles, population growth, burgeoning exchange and increased conflict. We explore the social impact of this agricultural revolution through applying statistical analyses to mortuary samples dating before and after the development of wet rice farming. These suggest that there was a swift formation of social elites represented by the wealth of mortuary offerings, followed by a decline. Two associated changes are identified. The first involved burying the dead in residential houses; the second considers the impact of an increasingly aquatic environment on health by examining demographic trends involving a doubling of infant mortality that concentrated on neonates. A comparison between this sequence and that seen in coastal ports suggests two interconnected instances of rapid pathways to social change responding to different social and environmental stressors.

中文翻译：

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铁器时代泰国东北部的环境和社会变迁

东南亚大陆的铁器时代始于公元五世纪公元前并持续了大约一千年。在沿海地区，海上丝绸之路沿线贸易的发展带动了港口城市的发展。在内地，季风降雨的减少尤其影响了门河谷。这恰逢铁器时代定居点周围建造护城河/水库，水从那里流入潮湿的稻田，铁犁头和镰刀的生产，人口增长，迅速发展的交换和增加的冲突。我们通过对湿稻农业发展前后的太平间样本进行统计分析，探索这场农业革命的社会影响。这些表明，以丰富的殡葬品为代表的社会精英迅速形成，随后出现了衰落。确定了两个相关的变化。第一个涉及将死者埋葬在住宅中；第二个研究通过研究人口趋势来考虑日益增加的水生环境对健康的影响，其中包括以新生儿为中心的婴儿死亡率翻倍。将此序列与沿海港口的序列进行比较表明，两个相互关联的快速社会变革路径实例响应不同的社会和环境压力源。