My first experience of fieldwork in Southeast Asia found me in Roi et province of Northeast Thailand. It was a total accident that led me to this spot. The mighty Mekong River was then in the early stages of being seriously affected by the construction of hydro dams on its tributaries. One of these, the Lam Dom Noi, was located within a few kilometres of the border with Laos. The area to be inundated was in my archaeological sights. But, in January 1970, a huge American airbase there was being used to bomb Vietnam, and it was regularly targeted from over the border. The Thai authorities banned me from what they euphemistically described as a ‘sensitive area’. Instead, we moved well inland, to Roi et. There, the Governor could not have been more helpful. He arranged for his motorcade to incorporate our ancient vehicle, and we drove to where, he told me, there was a promising area for my investigations. It was my first experience of rural Thailand and, after passing through several villages, we arrived at our destination, an extensive swamp that, because it was the dry season, had little standing water. The swamp was surrounded by villagers toiling away doing something that I didn’t comprehend on the high banks that flanked the flat.
I alighted to find that the ground was thick with broken potsherds. Then the Governor took us to a nearby village, arranged a house, cooks, and our basic needs, and left us to our own devices. My small team spent the next few days walking over the unfamiliar landscape, identifying potential places to dig. I chose one on the fringes of the seasonally dry swamp, where the ground was littered with thick potsherds. The second site was a mound south of the swamp, and the third lay within what I later learned were prehistoric banks and moats surrounding a prehistoric site so extensive that today it encloses five villages.
As we worked, I could hardly fail to notice the swarm of villagers labouring on and next to the swamp. As the sun burnt into the soil, so the briny water evaporated to leave a layer of white salt. They were transporting this to the edge of the flat, to fill hollowed tree trunks fitted at the base with a tap and a tube. They then filled the trunks with water that concentrated the brine before it was piped into a large metal tray over a fire-pit. As the brine evaporated, a thick layer of salt crystallised.
