The Nakarin Journal of Archaeology

 

 

Foreword
Dr. Sdeliya Aran

Exploratory excavation in dry river valley; discovery of walls, pottery and figurine
Aran, S., Kemish, N., Psullen, L., Psullen, U., Namarant, P.

(This post was last modified: 05-02-2019, 06:31 PM by Nakari.)

Reply

Editor’s Note: A Brief History of Nakarin Archaeology

 

Dr. Sdeliya Aran, Founder

 
 

It is only in the last few years that Nakarin archaeology has come into its own as a field. Indeed, it is only in the last few years that Nakarin archaeology was ever considered. While the wonders of Nanath and Psuthit in the north plain have been known for centuries, the uninhabited land further south on the Nakarin plain has, as long as we remember, been inhospitable enough that it seemed unlikely anything could survive there. And thus it was overlooked as an area of any historical interest.

 

The seminal climatological study ‘After the Cataclysm’ (Miyel et al) proposed that an extreme climactic event of unknown origin circa five thousand years ago caused this inhospitality. Before this, the southern Nakarin plain would have indeed been habitable – highly fertile, even. The lakes, and the salt flats, are the remnants of a great Nakarin sea. Millenia of layers of silt and salt deposits have swept over the coasts of this sea, burying any trace of habitation.

 

We had of course known for centuries that Psuthit and Nanath traded with other cultures, but even these settlements are not well examined, and the assumption has always been that these cultures were distant, and traded by land – for who could live close by? With Miyel’s model of the Nakarin sea, Nanath was only kilometres from the coast, and could have easily traded via sea with other coastal civilisations. Archaeologists identified several river valleys in the southern Nakarin plain that matched patterns of early civilisations elsewhere. A several-year survey in areas deemed most conducive to habitation was successfully petitioned for. We did not yet get our hopes up.

 

After less than a month, with few of us having much experience in practical archaeology, we discovered the first conclusive proof of human habitation in the ancient Nakarin plain. It was a moving and impactful discovery. Today, a total of four cities of the southern Nakarin coast have been discovered, at varying states of excavation. For thousands of years this civilisation was forgotten. Now they emerge from the sand and silt and salt into the sun.

 

~

 

The Nakarin Journal of Archaeology was founded to give a focused academic outlet to studies on ancient Nakarin civilisation, now that we know there was ancient Nakarin civilization. Our first volume includes reprints of articles first published in The Nakarin Historical Review to provide the context for initial exploration of the south Nakarin coast area, along with more recent research, both publications of archaeological discoveries and analysis of what has already been discovered. If you wish to contribute or comment, please contact Dr. Sdeliya Aran.

Reply

 

Exploratory excavation in dry river valley; discovery of walls, pottery and figurine

 

(Originally published in The Nakarin Historical Review)

 

2. 12. LS16

 

Aran, S., Kemish, N., Psullen, L., Psullen, U., Namarant, P.

 

The Nakarin plain is ostensibly unsuitable for human life, owing to the extreme high temperatures, extreme aridity, and extreme salinity of the lakes which provide the only accessible water (Fig. 1). However, Miyel’s ‘After the Cataclysm’ proposed that much of the Nakarin plain had once been sea (Fig. 2) and that the climate was once suitable for habitation. This opened up the idea that there may once have been settlement on the Nakarin plain, especially the south, where four river valleys offered a fertile ground for civilisation. An excavation series was planned to explore this possibility.

Figure 1. Modern land and water on the Nakarin plain.

Figure 2. Land and water circa five thousand years ago on the Nakarin plain according to the cataclysmic model (‘After the Cataclysm’, Miyel et al, LS12).

 

Sites were proposed for accessibility to archaeologists, projected likelihood of inhabitation using Miyel’s cataclysmic model and Sdiran’s model of spatial demographics, and to cover a large geographic area (Fig. 3). The order of sites was decided by accessibility. Six north-south trenches were planned per site, each forty metres long and four metres wide. Depth was determined individually for each site according to soil deposition estimates.

Figure 3. Proposed sites for exploratory excavation, using the cataclysmic model (‘After the Cataclysm’, Miyel et al, LS12).

 

Excavation began at the first trench of Site 1 in late autumn of LS16. Soil deposition was estimated at 16 metres thus the target depth was 18 metres to account for uncertainties in the model.

 

The first 8 metres of excavation yielded no material of archaeological interest.

 

At 8.56 metres, four walls of baked clay were discovered. They formed an internal rectangle of 3.06m by 3.15m. The walls were approximately 0.19m wide with variation of 0.05m.

 

Excavation was redirected to this structure. A flat surface of baked clay was discovered 1.08m beneath the top of the walls. This surface had an open 0.81m by 0.63m rectangle in one corner cut through the clay. Two notches lay along the side closest to the wall. The topmost layer of this structure is depicted in Figure 4.

Figure 4.  Topmost layer of structure.

 

Further excavation revealed another flat surface 3.96m below the top of the walls (Fig.5). This surface was surrounded by its own 0.72m walls. It formed an L-shaped platform with the initial walled room at the end of one limb and an open rectangle at the end of the other limb, with similar dimensions and notches. There were traces of a wall across the L-shape that had been removed (indicated with dashed lines).

 

Figure 5.  Second topmost layer of structure.

 

The initial walled room had a 2.60m tall and 1.48m wide archway facing inwards to the node of the L-shape (Fig. 6).

Figure 6.  Doorway on second topmost layer of structure.

 

Inside the walled room, potsherds were situated in the north corner (indicated with a cross in Fig. 5). We were able to reconstruct these into two jars (Fig. 7). A small figurine was situated among the potsherds (Fig. 8). The figurine appears to be made of flattened clay and in the shape of a bird, roughly 0.5cm deep. Hemispherical black beads were embedded into the clay, along with rectangular light blue beads. On one side are crescents of flat clay either mixed with or covered with a white pearlescent pigment, also embedded in the main body of the figurine.

 

Figure 7.  Reconstruction of Pot A.

 
 

Figure 8.  Figurine of bird.

 

We had planned to progress through each trench and then each site searching for any traces of human inhabitation. Discovering not only ambiguous traces but almost irrefutable proof of construction, pottery and art so early into the project was utterly unexpected. It is remarkable that such proof of settlement remained intact for so long and then remained undiscovered for so long.

 

In light of the vast significance of this discovery, continued trench surveying was abandoned, and the decision was made to publish the excavation so far. We plan to continue excavating the already discovered structure then expand our scope outwards from the initial trench. The scope of the settlement, and, indeed, ancient Nakarin civilisation, is yet to be seen.

Reply