Abstract
Phum Snay is renowned for its numerous burial sites belonging to the later half of the Cambodian Iron Age, which are unfortunately also famous for the extensive and large-scaled looting. Recent excavations performed by a Japanese team revealed that the Phum Snay site could provide us with richer chronological data than ever thought before. The Phum Snay artifact collection includes Snay vases and type-C deep bowls (mostly black ware) which are the typical chronological indicators, in addition to black/brown wares which are pottery types produced with deliberate design. The author describes the condition of the site from looting, salvage archaeology, a recovery campaign, and the Wat Bo Temple’s pottery collection, and then discusses how the findings can enable us to create a time frame by analyzing the “set of burial pot-types.” This procedure sheds light on the condition of the Phum Snay burial site, the age of the artifacts and a proposal for future regional heritage management. The key idea in this study is the comparison of the vessel catalogues of Phum Snay and those of Professor Dougald O’Reilly’s collection with the Wat Bo Temple’s collection using the Wat Bo Earthen Ware Ceramics Database (Calthorpe, Wat Bo earthen ware ceramics, 2007). This scheme is a step forward in an attempt at cross-dating between similar burial sites, regardless of their distances from the Phum Snay site.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The administrative divisions of Cambodia consist of three levels. The first-level consists of provinces (khaet) and the capital (krong). The subdivision in the capital is the section (khan), which is further divided into quarters (sangkat). Provinces are subdivided into districts (srok) and municipalities (krong) on the second level, which are then subdivided into communes (khum) and quarters (sangkat). Villages (phum) are subdivisions of communes and quarters (Kumano 2005).
- 2.
Based on Calvert and Roeun (2003) and O’Reilly et al. (2004, 2006). The original 2001 survey map of the location of Professor O’Reilly’s excavations consisted of regions near the 2001 trench, shown by a solid black rectangle. With the 2003 excavations in the schoolyard of Phum Snay Elementary School, the location map was expanded to include the areas near the school, resulting in an increase in the number of looters’ pits in the count. On the original survey map, 548 pits are counted. To this is added 473 pits (including the pits near the farm path). The number of looters’ pits totals 1,021.
- 3.
“Heritage Watch” http://www.heritagewatchinternational.org/.
- 4.
“Alison in Cambodia” A blog about archaeology and related issues in Cambodia http://alisonincambodia.wordpress.com/about/.
- 5.
NGO “Khmer Archaeological Society” http://www.khmeras.org.
References
Calthorpe J (2007) Wat Bo earthen ware ceramics (Manuscript)
Calvert B, Roeun V (2003) Banteay Meanchey Office houses treasure trove. The Cambodia Daily, WEEKEND Saturday, July 14. http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/selected_features/artifate.htm
Cort AL, Lefferts HL Jr (2000) Khmer earthenware in Mainland Southeast Asia: an approach through production. UDAYA J Khmer Stud 1:49–68
Heng S (2005) Village 10.8 excavation results of an Iron Age cemetery in the red soil region, eastern Cambodia. Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Cambodia
Higham CFW (2002) Early cultures of mainland Southeast Asia. River Books, Bangkok
Higham CFW, Kijingam A (2009) The excavation of Ban Non Wat: the origins of the civilizations of Angkor, vol 3. The Fine Arts of Department, Bangkok
Higham CFW, Thosarat R (2004) The excavation of Ban Lum Khao: the origins of the civilizations of Angkor, vol 1. The Fine Arts of Department, Bangkok
Higham CFW, Kijingam A, Talbot S (2007) The excavation of Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao: the origins of the civilizations of Angkor, vol 2. The Fine Arts of Department, Bangkok
Huffer D (2009) Conserving the past through play: educational aaming and antilooting outreach in Cambodia. Bull Indo-Pacific Prehistory Assoc 29:92–101
Kumano T (2005) Local administration in Cambodia. Singapore Office of the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) (in Japanese). www.clair.or.jp/j/forum/c_report/pdf/275-2.pdf
Mitome T (2004) Kanashiki Angkor Wat (The sad story of Angkor Wat). Shueisha, Tokyo (in Japanese)
Nitta E (2000) History of the people inhabiting the Cambodian plains and the relevance of the prehistoric settlement remains: on the prehistoric settlements in western Angkor. Cult Renaiss Cambodia 17:115–123 (in Japanese)
O’Reilly DJW (2003) A preliminary report on the excavation of a late prehistoric cemetery in northwest Cambodia. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Assoc Bull 1:129–132
O’Reilly DJW, Chanthourn T, Domett K (2004) Preliminary report on the excavation of an Iron Age cemetery at Phum Snay, Banteay Meanchey, Cambodia. UDAYA J Khmer Stud 5:219–225
O’Reilly DJW, von den Driesch A, Voeun V (2006) Archaeology and archaeozoology of Phum Snay: a late prehistoric cemetery in northwestern Cambodia. Asian Perspect 45(2):188–211
Seeley N (2003) Preying on the past: looters steal clues to history from prehistoric sites. The Cambodia Daily, December 20–21
Thosarat R (2001) Report from Southeast Asia. Culture without Context: Newsletter of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre 8. http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/projects/iarc/culturewithoutcontext/issue8/thosarat.htm
Yasuda Y, Phoeurn C (eds) (2008) Preliminary report for the excavation in Phum Snay 2007. International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Japan
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Akayama, Y. (2013). Comparative Study of the Artifacts of Phum Snay Site and the Wat Bo Temple’s Pottery Collection Database. In: Yasuda, Y. (eds) Water Civilization. Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54111-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54111-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-54110-3
Online ISBN: 978-4-431-54111-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)