Dr Dan Penny, PhD

ARC Research Fellow

Madsen Building (F09), Rm 404
Phone: +61 2 9351 6464
Fax: +61 2 9351 3644
Email:

Major research interests include long-term environmental change and variability in Indochina, particularly monsoon variability and plant biogeography. The interaction between people and the natural environment is a particular focus of interest.

Dan is currently investigating the demise of Angkor, Cambodia, using micro-palaeontological techniques (pollen and spores from higher plants and ferns respectively, and algae, particularly diatoms). Angkor was capital to a sprawling medieval empire that encompassed much of the Indochinese peninsula between the 9th and sometime after the 15th C AD. His research will seek to explore the timing of and reasons for Angkor's decline and eventual collapse.

Dan is co-Director of the Greater Angkor Project, a multi-disciplinary
international research group co-ordinated by University of Sydney Department
of Archaeology. More information on the Greater Angkor Project is available online.

• Penny, D., Cook, G. & Im, S.S. (2005) Long-term rates of sediment
  accumulation in the Tonle Sap lake, Cambodia: a threat to ecosystem health? Journal of Paleolimnology 33(1): 95-103.
• Penny, D. & Kealhofer, L. (2005) Microfossil evidence of land-use
  intensification in north Thailand. Journal of Archaeological Science 32:
  69-82.
• White, J.C., Penny, D., Maloney, B. & Kealhofer, L. (2004).
  Vegetation changes from the Terminal Pleistocene through the Holocene from three areas of archaeological significance in Thailand. Quaternary
  International 113: 111-132.
• Fletcher, R.J., Barbetti, M., Evans, D., Than, H., Sorithy, I., Chan,
  K., Penny, D., Pottier, C. & Somaneath, T. (2003) Redefining Angkor:
  structure and environment in the largest, low density urban complex of the
  pre-industrial world. Udaya, 4: 107-121.
• Bishop, P, Penny, D., Stark, M. and Scott, M. (2003) A 3.5ka record of paleoenvironments and human occupation at Angkor Borei, Mekong delta, southern Cambodia. Geoarchaeology 18(3): 359-393.
• Kershaw, A.P., David, B., Tapper, N.J., Penny, D. and Brown, J.(eds.) (2002)
  Bridging Wallace's Line: The Environmental and Cultural History and Dynamics of the Southeast Asian - Australian Region. Advances in Geoecology 34. Catena Verlag., Reiskirchen, Germany, 360 pp.
• Kershaw, A.P, Penny, D., van der Kaars, S., Anshuri, G. and Thamotherampillai, A. (2001) Palaeoecological evidence for vegetation and climate in lowland Southeast Asia at the Last Glacial Maximum. In Metcalf, I., Smith, J.M.B., Morwood, M., Davidson, I. and Hewison, K. (Eds.) Faunal and floral migrations and evolution in Southeast Asia - Australasia. A.A. Balkema. 227-236.
• Penny, D. (2001) A 40,000 year palynological record from north-east Thailand; implications for biogeography and palaeo-environmental reconstruction. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 171: 97-128.
• van der Kaars, S,. Penny, D., Fluin, J., Tibby, J. & Dam, R. (2001) A Late Quaternary palaeoecological record from Rawa Danau, West Java, Indonesia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 171; 185-212.
• Penny, D. (1999) Pollen grains in the sands of time; lake sediments contribute to the archaeology of Thailand. Expedition, Volume 14(3); 32-36.
• Penny, D. (1999) Palaeoenvironmental analysis of the Sakon Nakhon basin, north-east Thailand; palynological perspectives on climate change and human occupation. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 18, Vol. 2: 139-149.
• Kealhofer, L. & Penny, D. (1998) 14,000 years of vegetation change in Northeast Thailand. Review of Palaeobotany & Palynology Vol. 103; 83-93.
• Penny, D., Grindrod, J., & Bishop, P. (1996) Holocene palaeoenvironmental reconstruction based on microfossil analysis of a lake sediment core, Nong Han Kumphawapi, Udon Thani, Northeast Thailand. Asian Perspectives, Vol. 35, No.2; 209-228.
• Reid, M., Tibby, J., Penny, D., & Gell, P. (1995) The use of diatoms to assess past and present water quality. Australian Journal of Ecology. 20; 57-64.