Charles Higham (archaeologist)
Charles Higham ONZM (born 1939) is a British archaeologist most noted for his work in Southeast Asia. Among his noted contributions to archaeology are his work (including several documentaries) about the Angkor civilization in Cambodia, and his current work in Northeast Thailand. He is a Research Professor at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand and lives at Company Bay.
Early years and education
Charles Higham was educated at Raynes Park County Grammar School in South London. It was here that he developed an interest in archaeology after volunteering to excavate at the Bronze Age site of Snail Down and Arcy sur Cure in France. In 1957, he was offered a place at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge to read Archaeology and Anthropology. However, being too young for National Service, he spent two years at the Institute of Archaeology, London University, specialising in the archaeology of the Western Roman Provinces under Sheppard Frere. His teachers included Sir Max Mallowan, the husband of Agatha Christie, and Dame Kathleen Kenyon. During his time at the Institute, he excavated at the Roman city of Verulamium, and the Iron Age site of Camp du Charlat in France. In 1959, he went up to Cambridge, and studied the Neolithic Bronze and Iron Ages of Europe. His contemporaries included Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, Sir Barry Cunliffe, Sir Paul Mellars and the Crown Princess of Denmark. He took a double first, was elected a Scholar of his college in 1960, and played for Cambridge University against Oxford in the University Rugby matches of 1961-2. He was provided with a State Scholarship in 1962, and embarked on his doctoral research on the prehistoric economic history of Switzerland and Denmark. In 1966 he was awarded his doctorate. During the course of his research he played rugby for Bedford, Eastern Counties and became an England triallist in 1963-4. In the latter year, he married Polly Askew. They have two sons, two daughters and eleven grandchildren.
Career
Following the completion of his doctorate, Higham accepted a lectureship in Archaeology at the University of Otago, and in December 1966 he moved to New Zealand with his family. In 1968, he was appointed the Foundation Professor of Anthropology at the University of Otago. Following a visit to the University of Hawaii, he was invited by Professor W.G. Solheim II to undertake research in Thailand, and in 1969, he began his fieldwork with excavations in Roi Et and Khon Kaen Provinces. He joined Chester Gorman from 1972-5 for excavations at Ban Chiang, Pang Mapha District's Banyan Valley Cave, and has subsequently excavated the sites of Ban Na Di (1981-2), Khok Phanom Di (1984-5), Nong Nor (1989-92), Ban Lum Khao (1995-6), Noen U-Loke (1999-2000), Ban Non Wat (2002-7) and Non Ban Jak (2011-3). His research at the Bronze Age sites of Ban Non Wat have shown that the initial Bronze Age in this part of Southeast Asia began in the 11th century BC. With his son Thomas, Professor of Archaeological Science at Oxford University, he has re-dated the site of Ban Chiang, showing that there too, contrary to claims from the University of Pennsylvania, bronze casting also began in the 11th century BC. His current research involves excavations at the Iron Age site of Non Ban Jak. There, he has identified for the first time in Thailand, an extensive area comprising the residential quarter of an Iron Age town, complete with houses, a lane, an iron working area and two ceramic kilns.
Charles Higham is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St. Catharine's College Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In 2012, he was awarded the Grahame Clark medal of distinguished research in archaeology by the British Academy. He was awarded the Mason Durie medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2014, the citation noting that he is New Zealand's premier social scientist.
Publications (selection)
- "The Archaeology of Mainland Southeast Asia", Cambridge University Press 1989, ISBN 0-521-25523-6
- "The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia", Cambridge University Press 1996, ISBN 0-521-49660-8
- Early Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia, Art Media Resources 2003, ISBN 1-58886-028-0
- The Civilization of Angkor, University of California Press 2004, ISBN 0-520-24218-1
translated into German, French, Korean and Magyar
- "Encyclopaedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations", Facts on File 2004. ISBN 0-8160-4640-9
- "Early Thailand. From Prehistory to Sukhothai" (with R. Thosarat), River Books 2012, ISBN 978-974-9863-91-6
"The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor" River Books, 2013 ISBN 978-1-78093-419-8 " Early Southeast Asia: From the First Humans to the Civilization of Angkor". Bangkok: River Books, 2014. ISBN 978-6167339443
Sources
- Tom Gidwitz - Uncovering Ancient Thailand (Archaeology magazine July/August 2006)
External links
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