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- Convenors:
-
Jean-Baptiste Chevance
(Archaeology & Development Foundation)
Pierre Bâty (INRAP)
- Location:
- 2. Salle de cours rez-de-jardin MAE
- Start time:
- 8 July, 2015 at
Time zone: Europe/Paris
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
Everyday life and Man’s place in Angkorian society, far from an archeology of temples and elites.
Long Abstract:
In recent years, the number of excavations devoted to the archeology of ancient Cambodia has risen substantially; especially those focused outside the sanctuary and into the heart of the cities and villages, in urban spaces as well as in the countryside. This approach, far from an archeology of religious and secular elites, far from the study of the temples and religious history, enables new new light to be shed on the vernacular aspects of society through the investigation of the organization of housing, domestic and craft activities and everyday objects. This approach is as interested in Man’s place in Angkorian society as in its relationships with the natural environment, or to cultural and secular practices. Close to social anthropology perspectives, this approach integrates Man within a broader frame that takes into account the organization of the territory and the movement of people, goods and ideas. The chronological spectrum goes from preangkorain to postangkorian period.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Christophe Pottier (EFEO)
Paper short abstract:
The talk intends to investigate the main steps and ruptures in the evolution the Khmer settlements, from the earliest open urban settlements founded in the Angkor plain, to the multiplication of inhabited enclosures, culminating in the formal configuration of Angkor Thom.
Paper long abstract:
The road has been long enough to get out of the standard image of the urban history of Angkor as a series of successive cities, each enclosed behind their walls. We observe henceforth the resolutely open character of the first urban settlements established in the Angkor region after the 6th century. At the other end, recent cartographic studies also confirmed unsuspected density of settlements and features in the heart of Angkor, especially in the vast enclosure of the later temples. We will try to identify various developments and key ruptures that have led to this configuration, which peaks in the late 12th century at the singular symbiosis of a temple and a city that is Angkor Thom.
Pierre Bâty (INRAP)
Paper short abstract:
The rescue archaeological excavations of the Siem Reap airport have covered a huge area over the past five years. Steering away from elitists and religious archaeology research, these excavations have dealt with the habitat and its organisation inside a peri-urban area between the 9th and 14th centuries.
Paper long abstract:
In order to allow planned further development of the Siem Reap international airport, rescue excavations have been carried out and established a diagnosis and subsequent digging of large areas inside the airport domain and surrounding areas. All this research has been facilitated thanks to an international partnership between the APSARA National Authority, the Cambodian authority in charge of the conservation of the World Heritage site, the private corporation, Vinci Groupe, and Inrap. Today, a total area of 444,300 m² has been studied, of which 38,100 m² has been extensively researched, including 12,600 metres of archaeological trenches distributed over 24 excavation sites.
The archaeological research focused on largely unstudied temples, isolated habitats, ponds and agrarian structures dating from the 9th until the 14th century, including famous complexes inscribed on the World Heritage List.
Looking back at the past five years of research, this presentation strives to take stock of the archaeological activities and in particular the outcomes on habitat and related issues such as form, organisation, domestic and handicraft activities, materials, etc.
These thorough excavations of just some of the habitats have opened up new perspectives, useful for the understanding of the society that lived on the margin of the Angkorian megalopolis.
Jean-Baptiste Chevance (Archaeology & Development Foundation)
Paper short abstract:
Phnom Kulen archaeological studies has recently evolved with the discovery of an unknown “urban” network and associated features on this plateau located northeast of Angkor. This talk intends to illustrate the interpretation of this network and features, over the angkorian period and beyond.
Paper long abstract:
Archaeological research in Phnom Kulen, northeast of Angkor, has started with the first exploration in the late XIXth and early XXth century. Trough archaeological surveys and epigraphic studies, it was then established that the plateau must have been the former capital of Jayavarman II, Mahendraparvata, in the early IXth century AD. Nevertheless, Angkor has focused most of the attention of the researchers, leaving this area quite unexplored until the 1960.
For more that 12 years, our work revealed numerous and various archaeological sites, illustrating a long and diversified occupation, with a particular focus on key sites such as the mountain temple and the royal palace of this capital.
In 2012, le Lidar campaign has revealed a spectacular and unknown "urban" network, with numerous associated features. This presentation will focus on the results from recent surveys and excavations on these features, major axis, plots, mound fields and various other sites, all revealing a massive organization of the landscape, an important attempt of settlement and an obvious powerful political authority.
Damian Evans (École française d'Extrême-Orient)
Paper short abstract:
This paper offers an overview of past, present and future applications of remote sensing technologies to the study of archaeological landscapes in Southeast Asia, focusing on Khmer temples and their broader socio-environmental context, and on the use of emerging technologies such as lidar.
Paper long abstract:
Following on from a lengthy tradition of archaeological remote sensing in Southeast Asia, the analysis of aerial and satellite imagery has these days become a standard method within the archaeologist's toolkit, and in the last few years most projects in places like Cambodia have incorporated the use GIS and remote sensing techniques to some degree. With rare exception, for much of the 20th century remote sensing was little more than a way of augmenting traditional approaches to monuments and their well-defined "city walls" or "enclosures". In recent decades however advances in technology, methods and theory have created a kind of synergy in which the perspective has broadened to areas far beyond the central monumental zones to include the social, cultural and environmental context of the temples. Techniques of remote sensing, with their ability to quickly and efficiently accumulate vast amounts of data at a landscape scale, have been a crucial part of this agenda in Cambodia, and have allowed us to revisit and reconsider some preliminary theories about human-environment interactions offered by French archaeologists since the 1950s, these days using very sophisticated techniques such as airborne laser scanning (lidar). This paper offers an overview of the current status of archaeological remote sensing and mapping in Cambodia, including some preliminary results from a 2015 lidar campaign, as well as broadly considering the future potential of remote sensing technologies for studies of human-environment interactions in the archaeology of Southeast Asia.
Michel Lorrillard (EFEO)
Paper short abstract:
The paper deals with the important issue of the Khmer occupation of the Champassak area (South-Laos). Satellite photographs and recent surveys have shown the existence of numerous and complex hydraulic infrastructures, most of them being linked with the ancient Angkorian road leading to Vat Phu.
Paper long abstract:
Les Khmers ont accordé une importance exceptionnelle au complexe religieux connu aujourd'hui sous le nom de Vat Phu (Sud-Laos). Malgré des contributions fondamentales, la recherche historique sur ce site apparaît encore gravement lacunaire. Les conditions qui ont permis la création et le développement de cet ensemble monumental restent en particulier non étudiées : celles-ci touchent bien sûr à l'environnement humain, mais aussi et surtout aux capacités qu'ont eu les Khmers à aménager l'espace. L'examen attentif de photographies satellitaires et des prospections au sol ont permis récemment d'en savoir davantage sur la façon dont les populations anciennes ont humanisé les paysages de la province de Champassak, en particulier autour de la voie qui a relié Angkor et Vat Phu. Ses quinze derniers kilomètres, entre les temples de Ban That et de Hong Nang Sida, se distinguent par une très grande richesse d'aménagements. Il convient d'insister en particulier sur les dispositifs hydrauliques : arroyos, ruisseaux et rivières, canaux et digues, ainsi que des bassins de toutes tailles, ont en effet joué un rôle essentiel dans le processus historique qui a assuré pendant près de mille ans le maintien de l'importance de Vat Phu dans l'imaginaire religieux des Khmers.
Michel Pichon (INRAP)
Paper short abstract:
Presentation of the results and objectives of the first archeological survey campaigns on the earth fortification of choeung-Ek according to preventive archeology skills.
Paper long abstract:
Located close to south Phnom-Penh and directly threatened by the rapid urban growth, the large circular enclosure of Choeung-Ek has been this year the place of a second archeological survey campaign. Ideally situated to control the tip of the Mekong Delta, this potential ancient citadel is now the focal point of very current issues. To train future archaeologists to skills of preventive archeology, to convince decision makers of its importance and to bring knowledge about the cambodian realm rising period are the three objectives of the work of wich the first results we present.