THE ĐA BÚT PERIOD IN NORTHERN VIETNAM: CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

This paper presents an overview of the pre-agricultural, ceramic producing, Neolithic Đa But culture in its archaeological, bioarchaeological and environmental contexts. Drawing on numerous examples from the ‘grey literature,’ often published solely in Vietnamese, we review the diversity of known sites and the faunal, floral, material cultural, mortuary and osteological evidence they provide regarding the structure, life histories and foodways of Đa But communities. We conclude with a discussion of possible future research directions that would improve what is known about the inhabitants of lowland northern Vietnam during this period, should appropriate new sites be discovered.