PHOTO
Internationally respected University of Otago archaeologist Prof Charles Higham is being honoured for his research this week at an archaeology forum in Shanghai, Dunedin's Chinese sister city.
Prof Higham (73), who has worked as an archaeologist for more than four decades, was ''highly surprised and delighted'' to have been chosen as one of 10 top international researchers to be honoured in a major archaeological research findings section of the scientific gathering.
Prof Higham will be among about 150 leading academic specialists from throughout the world who will attend the three-day forum, which begins tomorrow.
He has also been invited to give a high-profile keynote address.
Prof Higham was pleased to have been selected, not only for himself but also because of the recognition being given to the extensive team of people who had also taken part in the fieldwork and other aspects of the collaborative research project in Thailand over the past 20 years, with the backing of three Marsden Fund grants.
About 40 Thai villagers undertook excavation work each summer, and about 15 overseas volunteers and funding were provided by the US-based Earthwatch Institute, a non-profit body which supports scientific field research.
Thai researchers, including Dr Rachanie Thosarat, were co-directors of the project, and Otago University graduate students and other academic colleagues also participated.
Prof Higham noted that his son and Otago graduate Prof Tom Higham, of the Oxford University School of Archaeology, had also undertaken important radio carbon dating work.
It was ''very comforting and rewarding'' to have been recognised by his peers as having undertaken research of the ''top rank'', but the honours also reflected the work of the wider team, Prof Charles Higham said.
Prof Higham's nomination noted that he had, for the past 20 years, directed archaeological research in the Upper Mun Valley of northeast Thailand, in a project designed to investigate the prehistoric foundations of the early Angkorian state.
Prof Higham also won the international Graham Clark Medal last year, and its citation noted he was one of the southern hemisphere's most distinguished field archaeologists.