Pa Chang Cliff

From the late stone age, some 28,000 years ago, until into the metal age, the area around Pa Chang Cliff was a camp and ceremony site for nomadic groups of hunters-gatherers.

Besides his work on the graves mentioned above, in 1983 Mr.Sayan Prishanchit, discovered several ancient wall paintings and utensils made of stone in the area.Together with the two French archeologists Dr. Marielle Santoni and Dr. Jean Pierre Pautrean he started another joint Thai-French project and during the excavations in 1986 more evidence of the hunter-gatherers were found in the area of Pa Chang.

The findings consisted mainly of stone tools and a large amount of animal bones estimated to be from the middle stone age.Carbon test on the animal bones revealed, that the first group of nomads lived here about 28,000 years ago, which makes this site one of the oldest archeological sites found in the north of Thailand.

The wall paintings at the Pa Chang cliff are dated back to 2,500-3,000 years ago and show an elephant, a person and many other symbols, confirming its use as a ceremonial site.

All the excavations are at present displayed at the National museum in Chiangmai.