Smelting in the Shadow of the Iron Mountain: Preliminary Field Investigation of the Industrial Landscape around Phnom Dek, Cambodia (Ninth to Twentieth Centuries A.D.)

The high-grade mineral ores of the Phnom Dek region in central Cambodia have long been suspected of playing a major role in the rise of Angkor, the largest medieval polity in mainland Southeast Asia. This article presents the first comprehensive study by the Industries of Angkor Project (INDAP) to document the extent of industrial activity in this region and test this important relationship. Using a combination of intensive field survey, surface collection, and archaeometallurgical analysis, we evaluate the temporal and spatial patterning of iron production and the heterogeneity of smelting systems. The identification of at least three different smelting traditions has a significant impact on the current view that twentieth-century Kuay smelting practices extend deep into Cambodia’s history, and their relationship with Angkor in particular. More broadly, the survey demonstrates the importance of Phnom Dek as a major production zone on par with more well-known examples in Roman Europe and Africa

INDUSTRIES OF ANGKOR PROJECT: PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF IRON PRODUCTION AT BOENG KROAM, PREAH KHAN OF KOMPONG SVAY

The Industries of Angkor Project (INDAP) is the first intensive investigation into the history and role of iron production at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay (Preah Khan), the largest regional enclosure complex built by the Angkorian Khmer (9th to 15th c. CE) in Cambodia. We present the initial multidisciplinary research of the primary iron smelting sites located on Boeng Kroam, a large reservoir located north of Preah Khan’s central temple complex. Ground-penetrating radar surveys and excavation at Location 1, a slag concentration on top of the reservoir bank, revealed that it is a deposit of metallurgical waste from a nearby furnace. Multiple radiocarbon dates from Location 1 indicate that the smelting activities took place in the early 15th century during the time of Angkor’s ultimate collapse as the political centre of the Khmer world. This indicates a re-use of spaces by iron workers after the primary occupation of Preah Khan between the 11th and 13th centuries

The Industry of Empire: Investigating the spatial and technological organization of Angkorian iron production around Phnom Dek, Cambodia

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Smelting in the Shadow of the Iron Mountain: Preliminary Field Investigation of the Industrial Landscape around Phnom Dek, Cambodia (Ninth to Twentieth Centuries a.d.)

International audienceThe high-grade mineral ores of the Phnom Dek region in central Cambodia have long been suspected of playing a major role in the rise of Angkor, the largest medieval polity in mainland Southeast Asia. This article presents the first comprehensive study by the Industries of Angkor Project (INDAP) to document the extent of industrial activity in this region and test this important relationship. Using a combination of intensive field survey, surface collection, and archaeometallurgical analysis, we evaluate the temporal and spatial patterning of iron production and the heterogeneity of smelting systems. The identification of at least three different smelting traditions has a significant impact on the current view that twentieth-century Kuay smelting practices extend deep into Cambodia’s history, and their relationship with Angkor in particular. More broadly, the survey demonstrates the importance of Phnom Dek as a major production zone on par with more well-known examples in Roman Europe and Africa

Iron Smelting, Community and Ritual during the Time of Angkor: New Insights from the Tonle Bak Site, Cambodia

International audienceIron was a major contributor to the success and expansion(s) of the Angkorian Khmer Empire (11th to 13th centuries CE). The Industries of Angkor Project has focused on this process through a combination of regional survey, intensive site excavation and multidisciplinary analysis. Tonle Bak, is situated just south of the Phnom Dek, or Iron Mountain metallurgy sites. Recent work at the Tonle Bak site uncovered the first evidence of Angkorian era furnace structures, smelting organization and formation processes of the large slag concentrations found across the Phnom Dek industrial landscape. More importantly, discovery of a diverse ceramic assemblage, economic plants, and the remains of a wooden religious structure indicate that Tonle Bak was home to a sedentary community who actively smelted iron and interacted with the broader Angkorian economic network. The nature of the assemblage raises further questions about the isolation of primary smelting sites in general, and which group(s) may have been responsible for manufacturing iron during this important period in Cambodia’s past

A brief history of Angkor’s iron: Reconstructing multi-scalar chronologies in the Phnom Dek metallurgical landscape, Cambodia

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