Charles F. H. Higham

Charles Frank Wandesforde Higham (UK, 1939), a research professor at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and a member of the British Academy, is a prolific archaeologist most noted for his work in Southeast Asia, including the neolithic sites of Northeast Thailand and the Angkorian civilization.

His current research involves excavations at the Iron Age site of Non Ban Jak, Thailand, where he has identified an extensive area comprising the residential quarter of an Iron Age town, complete with houses, a lane, an iron working area and several ceramic kilns.

In conjunction with other researchers, he has linked a period of increased aridity with the start of an agricultural revolution that stimulated the rise of early states in Southeast Asia. In July 2018, he was a co-author of a pioneering publication on ancient human prehistoric DNA from several sites in Southeast Asia. The result identified a series of population movements beginning with the arrival of anatomically modern humans over 50,000 years ago.