| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this survey was further findings of the prehistoric human skeletons with cultural remains which were still expected for the examination of microevolution and population history of the Thai.This research was carried out by an archaeological excavation in the Goat Cave site, located in Amphoe Sai-Yok, Kanchanaburi province.In Goat Cave, at first, the cave chamber was cleared of surface finds and the area was prepared for gridding and mapping.Given the large amount of stalactites and stalagmites on the cave floor, the smallest conveneient grid size for excavation was a 2X2 meter square.The squares and grid were set along the North line and labeled.In restricted duration of this survey, we excavated in area of approximately 4m X 4m (total 4 grids) square, and in depth of about 1.5m bellow the surface.Next, the excavation was proceeded according to 10cm spits using only trowels, scrapers, icepicks and brushes.As a result, plenty of Mesolithic stone tools, which are comparable to those of the Hoabinian Culture, were recovered at the level of 1.2m bellow the surface.Another important finding was one individual of human skeleton buried at same layr.Unfortunately the skeleton was fragile and only tibia and fibula were well preserved.All the artifacts and skeletons were brought to the Sood Sangvichen Prehistoric Museum, Mahidol University, Bangkok, and here cleaning, examination analysis were carried.As a result, the human skeletons found from Goat Cave, probably of Mesolithic period (Early Holocene), was similar to the Ban Kao Neolithic skeletons in those lower limb morphology.On the other hand, cultural remains suggested that the prehistoric Sai-Yok people were not necessarily cave dwellers.They might have lived in the plains near rivers side and used caves as burial sites.
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