Angkorian Period Research Articles

Prasat Sambor as a Prototype of the Pyramidal State-Temple in Khmer Temple Construction

Sambor Prei Kuk is the site of an ancient city called īçānapura, which flourished as the capital of Chenla in the late 6th early 7th century. This capital was home to several Hindu temples that marked the start of a process of architectural evolution culminating in the spectacular architecture of the Khmer civilization, as exemplified in Angor Wat. During pre-Angkorian times before the foundation of Khmer Empire in the beginning of 9th century, religious places generally consisted of a single brick shrine, in contrast to the large and varied temple complexes that emerged later. However, current comprehensive field research in the archaeological site of Sambor Prei Kuk recorded a number of unknown brick structures and diverse temple layouts by composing several structures. Among these, three temple complexes stand out for their distinctive features: Prasat Sambor, Prasat Yeai Poeun, and Prasat Tao. These temple complexes consisted of square enclosures with a central shrine at the center and numerous other structures in the adjacent precinct, and were the prototype of the three different types of temple complexes in the Angkorian period. This article focuses on the layout of these three temple complexes to reveal the fundamental components and principle layout of temple complexes in the early stage of development and illustrate the progression to more complexities in temple construction in the later period. Based on the precise analysis of the dimensional layout of Prasat Sambor, along with findings from archeological surveys, it was revealed that this temple complex embodied the features of the pyramidal state-temples that served as the central religious facility of their respective periods. Additionally, from an analysis of their dimensional layout, the planning techniques for the temple complex, as well as the unit of construction measure used for planning this temple, were identified.

Two Traditions: A Comparison of Roof Tile Manufacture and Usage in Angkor and China

The production of Khmer roof tiles underwent dramatic technical and stylistic changes during the pre-Angkorian (ca. c.e. 500–802) and Angkorian (c.e. 802–1431) periods. It has long been assumed that the regional expansion of Khmer political power and its intensive interregional trade and interactions with China during the Angkorian period were crucial factors in this transformation. This article presents the first integrated study on the production sequence and usage of Khmer roof tiles in Angkor (Cambodia) and its provincial centers in Northeast Thailand. Furthermore, it evaluates the extent to which the Khmer people made technological and social choices as they embraced new ceramic manufacturing technologies. Combining archaeological excavation findings with comparative analyses of two regions, this study argues that the contact the Khmer had with China motivated Khmer to begin roof tile production for elite residences and temples. The subsequent Khmer local architectural tradition is defined by distinctive production techniques of Khmer roof tiles and ancient ranking systems for roof tile usage in the greater Angkorian region. This article makes important observations about the specific choices that were made in the process of emulating the roof tile tradition. Roof tile manufacture and usage were ways for Khmer rulers to establish the legitimacy of their polities in mainland Southeast Asia.

Archaeometrical study of Khmer stoneware from the Angkorian period: Results from the Cerangkor Project

In the area around Angkor, Cambodia, several ceramics kilns dating from the ninth to 15th centuries ce have been discovered since 1995. The technical, typological and compositional characterization of their production has been one of the main goals of the Cerangkor Project. Samples of green‐glazed ‘Kulen‐type' stoneware and non‐glazed stoneware produced in five kiln sites in the Angkor region were analysed chemically by wavelength‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry (WDS‐XRF) and also petrographically. The data indicate that some workshops used similar raw materials for the same types of ceramics, suggesting the exploitation of the same geological formations in the whole region. Several references groups were established for each type of stoneware offering an important database for future provenance studies of sherds from consumption sites.

Glass artifacts at Angkor: evidence for exchange

Although glass beads were found in large quantities in Southeast Asia during the Iron Age and into the first millennium CE, glass artifacts from the Angkorian period (ninth–fifteenth centuries CE) are less common and have not been as well-studied. This paper presents the results of an analysis of 81 glass beads and artifacts from the ninth-century royal capital of Hariharālaya and later (twelfth–fourteenth centuries CE) contexts from the walled city of Angkor Thom. Compositional analyses using laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) have identified glass belonging to three broad compositional groups. The earlier Hariharālaya sites have numerous glass beads and vessel fragments made from vegetal soda glass, associated with Middle Eastern production, as well as high-alumina mineral soda glass of a sub-type frequently found at Iron Age sites in Southeast Asia and likely produced in South Asia. Beads from the later-period sites within Angkor Thom are primarily lead glass, associated with Chinese glass production, and different sub-types of high-alumina mineral soda glass that have also been found at sites in Southeast Asia dating from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries CE. A small number of beads from Angkor Thom also have a vegetal soda composition distinct from beads at Hariharālaya. The results of this study provide a new type of evidence for elite participation in broader regional exchange networks during the Angkorian period.

Iron and fire: Geoarchaeological history of a Khmer peripheral centre during the decline of the Angkorian Empire, Cambodia

Preah Khan of Kompong Svay (Preah Khan) was a vast peripheral outpost of the Angkorian Khmer Empire, managed with either strong influence from the capital or semi-autonomously between the 11th and 13th centuries AD. It is believed to have held significant economic importance to the Angkorian elite given its assumed trade partnerships with the neighbouring Kuay hill tribes as well as its proximity to Phnom Dek, or “Iron Mountain”, one of Cambodia's richest known sources of iron oxide. However, the dating of a number of iron metallurgy sites found within the complex placed the heaviest period of industrial activity between the 13th and 17th centuries AD — during the decline of the Angkorian period and beyond into Cambodia's Middle Period. In this paper we present a more extensive record of occupation and use of the site, using a series of geoarchaeological and geochemical records, and show that occupation likely occurred in three stages (Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3). We suggest that in Stage 1 Preah Khan was initially established as a politico-religious expression of power in this strategically important region, and during this time maintained a small, non-industrial population. By the mid-late 14th century AD (Stage 2) macrocharcoal levels increase suggesting that Preah Khan's purpose may have shifted as it became increasingly occupied or utilised for iron smelting activity, before it was finally abandoned in Stage 3, approximately half a century before the supposed abandonment of Angkor. An important question raised from this transition is whether the increased activity in the later phase represents a new wave of Khmer occupants or parasitic occupation of an abandoned temple complex by neighbouring forest-based minority groups. These results highlight the benefit of using geoarchaeological approaches in reconstructing the histories of Angkorian settlements and in increasing our understanding of the response of Khmer peripheral cities to the abandonment of the capital.

Differentiating Khmer Stoneware Production: An NAA pilot study from Siem Reap Province, Cambodia

We report analytical results for stoneware samples from four excavated Angkor-period kilns in the Greater Angkor area. Previous work has suggested that establishing distinct chemical signatures for kiln complexes in this region is problematic. The current study highlights the effectiveness of neutron activation analysis (NAA) for differentiating the products of Angkorian kiln complexes; it also confirms the viability of a larger-scale research programme to understand the relationship between Khmer stoneware production and patterns of distribution across the wider Angkorian territory. Evidence of ceramics excavated at kiln sites but produced elsewhere highlights the complexity of consumption patterns during the Angkorian period.

The Iron Kuay of Cambodia: tracing the role of peripheral populations in Angkorian to colonial Cambodia via a 1200 year old industrial landscape

The Industries of Angkor Project (INDAP) is the first scientific study combining investigation of the chronology, supply network and technology of raw and finished iron within Angkorian (9th to 15th c. AD), Middle Period (15th to 19th c. AD) and Colonial (1863–1953) Cambodia. This paper is concerned with the production technology employed at five iron smelting sites in the northern province of Preah Vihear, three loci within the enclosure walls of the Angkorian Preah Khan complex and two, c. 30 km east, near Phnom Dek or ‘Iron Mountain’. The Phnom Dek area is a historic homeland of the ethnic minority Kuay people, who continued to smelt iron from local mineral sources into the 1940s. With the aim of testing a previously proposed ‘Angkorian Kuay’ hypothesis, that Kuay ancestors were responsible for Angkorian period iron smelting at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay (Preah Khan), the objective of this preliminary study was to establish whether any technological continuity could be detected across a 1200 year old industrial landscape, and thus if any socio-culturally homologous relations could be proposed for the ironmakers respectively responsible. Our preliminary results suggest that the iron smelting remains at Preah Khan date from Angkor's terminal phase and into the subsequent Middle Period, whereas as the two studied production sites near Phnom Dek range from the 9th–11th c. AD and to the 19th/20th c. AD. Preah Khan and Phnom Dek production systems appear to have used different iron ore sources but, in the absence of well-preserved furnace remains, statistical analysis of slag chemistry indicates a technological conservatism spanning more than a millennium. At this stage the ‘Angkorian Kuay’ model can be neither rejected nor sustained but the complexity of Preah Vihear province's settlement and industrial history is becoming increasingly apparent and will only become clearer with further excavation and study of chronologically and geographically intermediate sites.

Inaccuracy and Testimonial Literature: The Case of Loung Ung's First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

In his 2001 review essay of three survivor accounts of the Cambodian genocide (1975-79), Sody Lay criticizes Loung Ung’s First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (2000) for historical and cultural inaccuracies, calling Ung’s testimonial text “a sensationalization and over-dramatization of the Killing Fields experience” (“Cambodian” 173). Lay not only accuses Ung of consciously manipulating her story for “the sake of making a buck,” but he also questions her status as a Cambodian: “Given Ung’s lack of memory and her apparent disdain for everything Khmer, it is not only ironic but misrepresentative for her book to be subtitled ‘a daughter of Cambodia remembers’” (181). The Khmer Institute Web site, which Lay co-founded and for which he serves as Executive Director, has published scathing reviews of Ung’s book with similar accusations regarding historical inaccuracies and cultural inauthenticity. One group of reviewers examines a section in First They Killed My Father in which the Ung family takes a trip in the early 1970s to Angkor Wat, pointing out that such a trip was impossible because the area was a battle zone at that time. The reviewers then note that Ung miscalculates Cambodia’s Angkorian period (from approximately the ninth to the fifteenth centuries) when she wrote that “Angkor Wat was built by powerful Khmer kings as monuments of self-glorification in the ninth century and completed three hundred years later” (Ung 67), reducing this seven-hundred-year period to half of its length. The reviewers conclude: “A true ‘daughter of Cambodia’ would not be so careless as to provide such blatantly incorrect information about these [Angkor Wat] temples, as they are an integral part of Khmer heritage and pride” (Hor, Lay, and Quinn). However, such harsh criticism does not take into account the impact on survivors such as Ung of losing family members, being separated from their homeland, and struggling with a new language and culture in an attempt to build a new home thousands of miles away from Cambodia, in a place with unfamiliar customs and rituals. Furthermore, not every Cambodian American has had identical experiences. In attempting to make sense of this controversy, we must explore how to take Lay’s charges into account while still valuing Ung’s memoir. This essay begins with a discussion of the Lay-Ung controversy in the context of the Cambodian diasporic community, paying close attention to the politics of representation and our need for multiple and diverse representations. Teri Shaffer Yamada’s work on Cambodian American autobiography informs the discussion of Ung’s First They Killed

Using In-Slag Charcoal as an Indicator of “Terminal” Iron Production within the Angkorian Period (10th–13th Centuries AD) Center of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay, Cambodia

Recent fieldwork by the Industries of Angkor Project (INDAP) has identified the first extensive evidence of iron production within an Angkorian Khmer (9th to 15th centuries AD) center at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay (Preah Khan) in Preah Vihear province, Cambodia. This immense 22-km2temple complex appears to be an outpost of Khmer settlement situated in close proximity to Phnom Dek ("Iron Mountain"), the richest known source of iron oxide in Cambodia. Combined with the fact that Preah Khan's temple architecture dates between the late 10th to early 13th centuries, the period that the Khmer greatly expanded their territorial influence, our primary hypothesis is that this complex was established to gain access to and monitor production of iron for the capital of Angkor. The vast number and size of these iron slag concentrations, some up to 5 m in height by 35 m in length, precludes the use of traditional excavation and dating methods. Instead, this paper employs14C dating of “in-slag” charcoal from surface slag cakes to produce a spatial chronology of late or “terminal” industrial activities. The results indicate that metallurgy was “last” practiced at various locations within Preah Khan in the mid-13th to late 17th centuries, with 3 distinct clusters between the late 13th and late 15th centuries. Based on this initial survey of surface collections, it appears that iron production at Preah Khan occurred after the final phase of masonry construction. More significantly, this work provides the first robust set of dates for late Angkorian and Middle period industrial activities in Cambodia.

Using In-Slag Charcoal as an Indicator of “Terminal” Iron Production within the Angkorian Period (10th–13th Centuries AD) Center of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay, Cambodia

Recent fieldwork by the Industries of Angkor Project (INDAP) has identified the first extensive evidence of iron production within an Angkorian Khmer (9th to 15th centuries AD) center at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay (Preah Khan) in Preah Vihear province, Cambodia. This immense 22-km2 temple complex appears to be an outpost of Khmer settlement situated in close proximity to Phnom Dek (“Iron Mountain”), the richest known source of iron oxide in Cambodia. Combined with the fact that Preah Khan's temple architecture dates between the late 10th to early 13th centuries, the period that the Khmer greatly expanded their territorial influence, our primary hypothesis is that this complex was established to gain access to and monitor production of iron for the capital of Angkor. The vast number and size of these iron slag concentrations, some up to 5 m in height by 35 m in length, precludes the use of traditional excavation and dating methods. Instead, this paper employs 14C dating of “in-slag” charcoal from surface slag cakes to produce a spatial chronology of late or “terminal” industrial activities. The results indicate that metallurgy was “last” practiced at various locations within Preah Khan in the mid-13th to late 17th centuries, with 3 distinct clusters between the late 13th and late 15th centuries. Based on this initial survey of surface collections, it appears that iron production at Preah Khan occurred after the final phase of masonry construction. More significantly, this work provides the first robust set of dates for late Angkorian and Middle period industrial activities in Cambodia.

New insights into ‘les interminables listes nominatives d’esclaves’ from numerical analyses of the personnel in Angkorian inscriptions

This study, based on records of thousands of individual people from over 100 Angkorian temple inscriptions, looks at changes in status among the non-elite temple labour force between the 9th and 12th centuries. The personnel have been broadly categorised as being either sanctuary or non-sanctuary workers. Indications are found of the declining importance of non-sanctuary personnel and juveniles after the early Angkorian period. This raises the question of the availability of labour and the age ranges for participation in the workforce. Overall, there are more females than males in sanctuaries. However, the sex ratios in non-sanctuary lists are close to those of natural populations. In the relative rankings of the male categories, si and gho, the si appear to have a higher status than the gho in the early Angkorian period, and to reverse after the reign of Jayavarman IV. Did he rule from Koh Ker to shore up his power base, effectively hindering an impending shift in the power structure ?

Using Inscription Data to Investigate Power in Angkor’s Empire

An analysis of aggregated spatial and temporal data from pre-Angkorian and Angkorian period inscriptions allows us to appreciate the use of power in the Angkorian Empire. This paper argues that the Khmer empire depended to a significant degree on administration operating through regional centres and on its longestablished communication and trade links. The mode of control varied with distance from the capital and over time. The empire’s political economy is marked by three concurrent cycles indicative of changing power relationships : cycles of royal inscriptions, of non-royal inscriptions, and of control over peripheral territories. Angkor’s processes and strategies were sufficiently flexible for it to endure for approximately six centuries. At some stage from the fourteenth century, key processes and strategies for maintaining its integrity as an empire became less effective than before, and the cyclical pattern ended.

The Archaeological Landscape of Koh Ker, Northwest Cambodia

This article provides a summary of research activities and outcomes following several years of aerial and ground-based surveys undertaken at Koh Ker, in Preah Vihear Province in northwest Cambodia. Key findings include the discovery of a sophisticated and multi- period system of hydraulic engineering works bearing some similarities to that of Angkor in the 10th century ; the identification of areas likely devoted to intensive agriculture during the Angkorian period ; a re-appraisal of previously identified "roadways" and "city enclosures" ; evidence for domestic habitation and stone working sites ; the degree of connectivity of the northern "road" from Koh Ker to the Beng Mealea to Vat Phu road ; possible continuity of occupation from early historic to post-Angkorian periods ; evidence for the collapse of the water management system ; and indications of large-scale changes to the local environment including alterations in the flows of entire river systems.

Nouvelles perspectives pour la connaissance de l'histoire de la fin de la période angkorienne au Cambodge : notes sur quelques bas-reliefs de la galerie intérieure du Bayon

This paper refers to some conclusions of a Ph.D. thesis which deals with the history and art history of Ancient Cambodia at the end of the Angkorian period (ca. 1220-ca. 1431). After a presentation of previous studies about these little documented centuries, a brief picture of historical and religious context is provided, emphasizing the principal events. While dynastic chronology is interrupted for fifty years (1220 -1270), the Mahāyānic form of Buddhism is suddenly ousted by Saivite sectarian devotees. At the same time, the Theravāda, the alternative Buddhist current, comes to the fore. On such subjects, we open new vistas based on the study of "bas-reliefs" pertaining to the inner gallery of the Bayon temple at Angkor. First, we determine some dating criteria which confirm that these bas-reliefs have been sculpted at the end of the Angkorian period. Then, looking at some of the iconographical subjects appearing here, we have been able to show the presence of the two latest Mahāyānic scenes known in Ancient Cambodian art and to underline the historical consequences of that fact : it proves that Mahāyāna Buddhism, which is usually said to have disappeared after the death of king Jayavarman VII, has in fact persisted after that. We have also noticed that these bas-reliefs are, on the whole, innovative and they prove that Indian contributions are not forsaken.

New evidence of brown glaze stoneware kilns along the East Road from Angkor

New evidence of brown glaze stoneware kilns along the East Road from Angkor

Words across Space and Time: An Analysis of Lexical Items in Khmer Inscriptions, Sixth–Fourteenth Centuries CE

The study presents a relational database of words referring to material items and institutional processes in over 700 Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian inscriptions, from the sixth to the fourteenth centuries CE. The lexical items within the database have been spatially and temporally referenced, and a geographic information system (GIS) is used to show trends and anomalies over time and space in the distributions of temple sites; key items and materials; and the roles of the rulers, the founders, the donors and temple workers. The current study identifies changes in the socio-economic institutions and relationships within Khmer society through the Pre-Angkorian and into the Angkorian period in Cambodia.

Les couteaux angkoriens de Trapeang Thlok et de Prasat Trapeang Ropou

Pierre Bâty “The Angkorian knives from Trapeang Thlok and Prasat Trapeang Ropou” A group of iron knives dated to the 10th and 11th century CE was recently brought to light in Cambodia during archaeological excavations in the Angkor region and on the Phnom Kulen. Restoration work was carried out in France over four knife blades from these archaeological contexts. During the process, leather sheaths were found to have been preserved thanks to their impregnation by iron oxide. This essay provides a first attempt at building up a typology based on the very few contemporary finds of iron knives and from their representations at Angkor Vat and the Bayon. The use of leather during the Angkorian period appears never to have been documented so far by archaeologists. This discovery should restrain some preconceived notions about the “permanence of forms” of various kinds of tools. It also poses the question of the status of such tools: were they ostentatious, military, personal?

D'Angkor au Lān Xāng: une révision des jugements

The only explicit references made to Cambodia in the Lao chronicles are related to the reign of Fa Ngum (fourteenth century), unquestionably a historical figure. These acknowledged the support of his father-in-law, the Khmer king, towards Fa Ngum's founding of the Lan Xang kingdom, and towards the introduction there of Theravāda Buddhism. Although historians down through our own times have accepted this recounting, it may nevertheless turn quite questionable when the sources are subjected to stringent critical analysis. Indeed, there is no shortage of arguments challenging the received wisdom on the implantation of a Khmer kingdom in central and northern Laos during the Angkorian period. In light of these, it seems that the Khmer influence there may have been much less than is commonly assumed.

INDIC IMPETUS? INNOVATIONS IN TEXTILE USAGE IN ANGKORIAN PERIOD CAMBODIA

AbstractDetailed analysis of Khmer costumes and textiles on sculpted images of the Angkorian period reveals a wealth of styles and usages. Vocabulary from contemporaneous inscriptions supplements this information. It is argued that Khmer costume and textile usage at this time was influenced principally by contact with India's culture, the stimulus not only of stylistic innovations and but also the main source of textiles with which to create them.

Some Buddha Images and the Cultural Developments of the Late Angkorian Period

Some Buddha Images and the Cultural Developments of the Late Angkorian Period