FIELD PROJECT: Tràng An Archaeological Project (Ninh Binh province, Vietnam)

This long-term project involves an inter-disciplinary programme of field survey, archaeological excavations (to-date from three previously unstudied cave sites) and multi-proxy palaeo-environmental reconstruction of the Tràng An limestone massif, SW margin of the Red River delta. TAAP aims to reconstruct tropical forager subsistence and mobility strategies in upland and lowland settings since before the Last Glacial Maximum. A new five-year programme is commencing in 2015 to study the effects of a series of Pleistocene and Holocene marine transgressions (including the Mid-Holocene high-stand) on the massif and its long-term occupation. Output from this project featured centrally in the cultural component of the Vietnamese State Party’s nomination of Tràng An as a World Heritage property Key collaborating institutions: Queen’s University Belfast, University of Cambridge, Tràng An Management Board, Ninh Binh People’s Committee, Xuan Truong Enterprise, Vietnam Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources, Institute of Archaeology Hanoi.