The area’s ecology however recovered and the site was again occupied in the late 18th century by farmers migrating across the nearby Mekong River who, once again, took up wet-rice cultivation.
It is speculated that climate change in the middle of the 1st millennium AD may have led to the temporary abandonment of the site and the sealing of the prehistoric habitation layers, assuring their archaeological integrity.  The area’s ecology however recovered and the site was again occupied in the late 18th century by farmers migrating across the nearby Mekong River who, once again, took up wet-rice cultivation. To this date the area around Ban Chiang retains its environmental and ecological integrity as a traditional agricultural landscape, representative of the rice cultures of Southeast Asia.