Hoabinhian variability in Mainland Southeast Asia revisited: The lithic assemblage of Moh Khiew Cave, Southwestern Thailand

The Hoabinhian has been a major topic in prehistoric research Mainland Southeast Asia for nearly 90 years. However, its variability terms of lithic assemblages is still poorly understood, as limited number sites have analyzed from technological perspective. This to be expected, considering that the covers timespan more than 30,000 years, wide region extending mountainous south-western China insular Indonesia and diversified sub-tropical tropical environments. In this research, we present tools at site Moh Khiew Cave Southern Thailand. Unlike other ‘typical’ discovered region, assemblage (~11,000–9000 BP) dominated by unifacially shaped limaces unifaces, on large/medium thick flakes, thus involves mixed operational sequence (chaîne opératoire) debitage shaping methods. No classic sumatralith were found site, which are usually made river cobbles considered hallmark Hoabinhian. Another exceptional tool type biface, shale slabs or blocks, cutting types include chopper-chopping-tools flake tools, etc. view production methods unifaces limaces, their distinct volumetric structures, co-existence with types; different sites, may represent local variant