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- Convenors:
-
Zsuzsanna Renner
(Central European University)
Károly Belényesy (Hungarian Southeast Asian Research Institute)
- Chair:
-
Claude Jacques
- Location:
- Salle du Lesc F308 MAE
- Start time:
- 9 July, 2015 at
Time zone: Europe/Paris
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
The objective of this panel is to show up the latest results of archaeological, epigraphic and art historical research of Koh Ker and thereby highlight its importance in the early history of the Khmer Empire as well as its significance as part of Cambodian cultural heritage.
Long Abstract:
According to the generally accepted view Koh Ker was the centre of the Khmer Empire between 928 and 944 CE. King Jayavarman IV moved the centre of his kingdom from the area of Roluos to the mountain of Chok Gargyar, only to be returned in less than two decades to its earlier location at Angkor.
The apparently ephemeral history of Koh Ker, nonetheless witness to grand scale constructions turning a vast landscape of 81km2 into a royal city, a sacred area dotted with temples and shrines adorned with magnificent sculpture, has been in many respects an enigma for the researchers of Khmer history. The great number of temples and the concentration of archaeological surface finds, sherds of datable commercial ceramic ware as well as inscriptions, many of which are dated later than the period as royal centre, however, indicate that the importance of Koh Ker did not fade even after the mid-10th century. At the other end of its timeline, it has also been suggested that the emergence of Koh Ker may considerably predate its central role.
The scope of the panel will cover the latest results of archaeological, epigraphic and art historical research of Koh Ker, thereby highlighting its importance in the early history of the Khmer Empire as well as its significance as part of Cambodian cultural heritage. The application in archaeological research of the data provided by the LiDAR survey of Koh Ker as well as laboratory methods in establishing chronology will also be considered.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
Koh Ker is a site where a number of Inscriptions have been discovered long time ago. Generally showing only long lists of names of men and women, considered as uninteresting, they have been forgotten after the first conclusions. In fact, it might be useful to reconsider them.
Paper long abstract:
A great number of inscriptions have been discovered on the Koh Ker site, from the very beginning of Khmer studies. Written in Sanskrit or in Khmer, they are engraved in a comparatively small number of monuments (9 only). These inscriptions are often in a poor or even a very poor condition, so that some conclusions that have been drawn from them were naturally flimsy.
Though no better reading has been found since their last edition, it might be useful to carefully reconsider these texts. The main Sanskrit text, K 184, appears as more disappointing than thought before. Yet we may find in the Khmer texts some elements useful to revise opinions on the famous Devarāja.
About king Jayavarman IV, we know that the charge of "usurper" that had been made by George Cœdès might be moderated from inscriptions coming from other sites than Koh Ker.
On the other hand, the Khmer inscriptions show generally very long and tedious lists of men and women, considered as "slaves". We have at least to question this opinion.
Finally we may say also that inscriptions help archaeology to consider that the life of the Koh Ker site was much longer than told.
Paper short abstract:
In the field, all that is left today of the statuary of Koh Ker are countless fragments and decapitated pedestals, cut hastily and coarsely by the looters : sad remains that are nevertheless precious, as they help to identify and locate the lost statues.
Paper long abstract:
Chok Gargyar (the modern site of Koh Ker) was the ancient royal city that eclipsed even the magnificence of Angkor during its short lifetime for the twenty years of Jayavarman IV's reign (AD 921-941). The statuary from this site is typical of this unusual movement of the centre of the kingdom away from the Siem Reap plain. It remained unrivalled throughout the Angkor period. The narrative iconography is not sculpted in bas-reliefs, as on the pediments and lintels of other sites, but takes the form of round bosses on human or heroic scale. Yet because of the remote location of the ancient city, nowhere else does the modern pillage of the angkorean sculptures appear to have been as systematic as in Koh Ker. All that is left today in the temples are countless fragments and decapitated pedestals, cut hastily and coarsely by the looters : sad remains that are nevertheless precious, as they help to identify and locate the lost statues.
Paper short abstract:
Having received the influence of Indian civilization since the first century AD, Khmer kings of Cambodia created architectural marvel of temples dedicated to Siva. In the early 10th century the city of Lingapura or Chok Gargyar (Koh Ker) was founded by the King Jayavarman IV, and he lived there for 20 years.
Paper long abstract:
In the tenth century, Khmer king Jayavarman IV relocated the capital at ChokGargyar, it have been known now as Koh Ker, at Angkor area. At that place, Jayavarman IV built and had stayed in his new capital for twenty years. He also built many religious monuments dedicated to Hinduism, as well as infrastructure for supporting the economy such as irrigation system, road. The concept of urban planning was also implemented during his reign. We also found the consolidation of king's power and politic to ensure the country's stability, security, and prosperity.
This city, however, lasted for only 20 years. It was abandoned immediately after his death. His successor, king Rajendravarman II, moved the capital back to Angkor with unknown reason. Because of the returning of the capital from Koh Ker to Angkor, many historians believe that the Jayavarman IV was a "usurper king".
What was really happening in tenth century concerning Jayavarman IV and his city, Koh Ker? What was the reason behind his relocation of the capital from Angkor to Koh Ker?
This presentation will explore the accurate answering to these questions, which related to: history, arts, archaeology, architecture, iconography of the style of Koh Ker under the reign of King Jayavarman IV.
Paper short abstract:
We extend a project of systematic, landscape-scale surface ceramic collection from the greater Angkor area to include Koh Ker, with a view to elucidating similarities and differences between assemblages from the two sites, and assessing the dynamic linkages between them and broader trade networks.
Paper long abstract:
Understanding settlement and urbanism at the site of Koh Ker is important not only for what it reveals about the history of Koh Ker, but also for understanding its political and cultural relationship Angkor. In this paper we describe research that was undertaken with a view to understanding the dynamic interplay between Angkor and Koh Ker, including differences and similarities in the structure of temple sites and their environs, water management features, and patterns of urbanism and urban planning from the state-level to the domestic level. A large number of occupation mounds have been found in the Koh Ker area, and these are often associated with dense distributions of surface ceramics. This largely-neglected archaeological material is potentially very informative about issues such as the history and chronology of Koh Ker, and also the city's economic linkages to other parts of the Khmer Empire and beyond. We have initiated a large-scale, systematic surface survey of settlement areas at Koh Ker including the collection of ceramic material for lab-based analyses, similar to surveys undertaken or underway at Angkor. In this paper we present a range of preliminary conclusions about the ceramic material at Koh Ker based on the analysis of diagnostic material collected in the field, and analyse the implications for our understanding of the city's history. Furthermore, we present a comparison between the material collected at Koh Ker and Angkor, in order to provide insights into the relationships between settlement systems, histories and political economies of both sites.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, we assess the strengths and weaknesses of the water management system of Koh Ker to better understand the role of water management in the sustainability of Khmer cities.
Paper long abstract:
Several studies have argued that the collapse of an unsustainable hydraulic network was a major factor in the abandonment of medieval Angkor (~9th to 15th centuries AD) as the capital of the Khmer civilisation. However, Angkor presents us with a great deal of uncertainty due to the spatial and temporal complexity of the archaeological remains. The Angkor-period city of Koh Ker, in contrast, provides the opportunity to study a medieval water management system whose structure and functioning can be discerned with relative clarity. Here we present the results of an investigation into the archaeological landscape of Koh Ker, including the use of airborne laser scanning (lidar). We argue that the system at Koh Ker was a hybrid one, combining elements of a 'highland system' of damming river valleys (as on Phnom Kulen) with elements of the classical 'lowland system' of reservoirs, canals and bunded fields (as at Angkor). We identify weaknesses in the engineered landscape that rendered the water management system unsustainable and ultimately led to the catastrophic failure of the system, possibly within a few decades . Finally, we assess the implications of these data for our understanding of the importance of water management systems for the sustainability of medieval Khmer cities.
Paper short abstract:
Under the guidance of the Khmer Archaeology Lidar Consortium project, a comprehensive Lidar survey of Koh Ker was undertaken in 2012. New processing methods have been applied to the Lidar dataset based on surface water flow analysis enabling new ways of visual interpretation.
Paper long abstract:
Under the guidance of the Khmer Archaeology Lidar Consortium (KALC) project, a comprehensive lidar survey of greater Angkor was undertaken in 2012. Koh Ker was also included in this survey of the central 67 km2 area.
The lidar dataset contains several data products: terrain (surface) model, colour aerial photography and raw lidar measure data. Our first level approach was to use the terrain model exclusively, leaving the option of utilising aerial photography for interpretation later where necessary. Examining the density of the dataset, the decision was made to use a grid density of 0.2 metres. In technical terms this represents a major oversampling of the area. Inverse distance squared weighting (IDW) was applied to the sparse set of points.
By thinking of an Angkorian landscape in which a network of roads, buildings, hydrologic features and irrigated agricultural areas built up the mesh of a low-density habitation pattern, we realised that our tests should target water flow. Thus instead of using traditional coloured or shaded terrain model visualisations we saw water flow as the key phenomenon. Water flow directions are highly sensitive even to the smallest changes in surface curvature.
The results of flow-direction analysis are not intended for visual interpretation in general. Assisting professionals working on the interpretation, we worked out a method that converted the result of water flow analysis into a pseudo shading image. This change enabled us to visualise the area as a whole without losing the detail of local topographical differences.
Paper short abstract:
Recent investigations in the framework of the JAYA-KOH KER Project have contributed to our understanding of the settlement pattern and landscape aspects of the Koh Ker area. Various surveys carried out by our team have indicated architectural remains which can be interpreted as a palace complex.
Paper long abstract:
The area of the Koh Ker region has been investigated for relatively long time by archaeological and architectural programs. These projects were mainly focusing on the standing monuments of temple sites and more recently on the landscape archaeological features. At the same time, relatively little is known about the residential areas around and between the temple sites. Some of them can be identified as rural settlements (such as the site around the Boh Lohong temple), while in other cases, high status residential sites can be taken into consideration. Intensive field survey, aerial archaeological investigation combined with various survey techniques have revealed architectural, landscape and surface find features not connected to temple sites. The paper will investigate different interpretations of these features and will offer a topographical,, archaeological and functional analysis of different sites in the area. A comparison to other sites will also be presented for interpreting high status residential sites.
Paper short abstract:
The primary goal of the systematic archaeological research works at Prasat Krachap was the investigation of the original built structures and anthropogenic environment of the building complex, before long-term research and planned reconstruction works.
Paper long abstract:
In 2011, the Hungarian Indochina Company and the Hungarian Southeast Asian Research Institute, in close cooperation with the APSARA National Authority launched systematic archaeological research work at Prasat Krachap. The trial trenching works constituted the preparatory phase for a long-term archaeological and reconstruction programme, which is aimed to excavate the building complex and unveil its once-inhabited surroundings. As a result of systematic field walking and archaeological investigations, we found the ruined storage building in front of the entrance and the sandstone-covered original floor level inside the sanctuary area, and we have excellent information about the sophisticated basement structure and periods of the building complex. On the basis of the LIDAR analysis we identified an original, laterite-made road construction towards the Rahal and close to this construction we found a few marks of the extraction of sandstone. The archaeological finds that came to light in the surface collection and excavations offered a rich resource of information on the operation of Prasat Kracap and the everyday life of those living in its surroundings. The density of fragments in certain places indicated that the direct environs of the Prasat must also have been inhabited. The preliminary examination of the finds demonstrated an active and intense contemporary life both in the immediate neighbourhood and the surrounding area of the building complex between the 10th-11th and the 11th-13th centuries.
Paper short abstract:
Koh Ker is a promising site in terms of the Khmer culture and tradition. For this reason the chronology of the archaeological complex has to be established. In the present paper the TL dating of eight pottery samples, excavated at Prasat Krachap, is presented. Results refer to a complex history.
Paper long abstract:
Koh Ker is a promising archaeological site in terms of investigating the Khmer culture and tradition. However, by systematic research the overall history of the area can be outlined as well. For this reason the chronology of the archaeological complex has to be established. In the present study 8 pottery fragments, excavated at Prasat Krachap, were investigated by the means of thermoluminescence dating. The additive dose method was applied to determine the age and production date of samples. In some cases the precision of the measurements was decreased by the insensitivity, and low natural signal of the analysed polymineral extracts. However, in general we consider that reliable values were received. Most of the investigated samples fall to the first and second occupational periods of the complex, namely between the 9th and 13th centuries. The differentiation of the ceramics between the two periods is not possible at present. Two fragments proved to be significantly older than the archaeologically expected age range. As these samples were problematic neither in terms of paleodose nor in terms of annual dose assessment, it is highly probable that the received ages are acceptable and there were also earlier occupational periods in the Prasat Krachap area.
Paper short abstract:
The future goal of the systematic archaeological and planned reconstruction works of Prasat Krachap site is to present the historical Khmer environment to the public as a tourist attraction of special character showing the interaction of the temple and the historical landscape.
Paper long abstract:
Koh Ker has a special historic character and image. The site, in fact, comprises several separated groups of archaeological features spread over a huge area. When surveying the Koh Ker site, one has to take into account that most of the sites include built elements which requires a special archaeological attitude, namely that in addition to the below-ground archaeological features, the research of standing ruins and buildings must also be carried out. It is even more important as the final aim of the development project should be the restoration and presentation of the monuments and the creation of a tourist attraction, similar to the heritage complex of the Angkor region. The archaeological excavation and the historical research of Koh Ker monuments constitute the first phase in this process. The question, however, inevitably arises, how after the investigations we could present the original atmosphere of the historical environment and the communication between the historical landscape and Prasat Krachap temple.