Spirit Cave excavations

Record summary

Chester Gorman’s excavations at Spirit Cave in 1966–1967 produced plant remains, shell, stone tools and other evidence used to reconstruct early subsistence in mainland Southeast Asia. The site became central to arguments about plant domestication, seasonal mobility and the transition from foraging to cultivation. Its importance lies partly in the methodological shift toward flotation and environmental archaeology, not only in claims about early agriculture. Chronology and the interpretation of domestication indicators remain subjects for verification through field reports and later archaeobotanical studies.