6. THE ANGKOR BOREI PROJECT
Miriam Stark, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu.

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The University of Hawaii/East-West Center/Royal University of Fine Arts Cambodia Project has concentrated teaching and research efforts at Angkor Borei since 1995. Research at Angkor Borei was begun by the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project (LOMAP) in 1996, and we completed a second field season in 1999. The following section describes some of LOMAP's archaeological findings from work at Angkor Borei.

THE 1996 FIELD SEASON
Three objectives guided the 1996 fieldwork. We sought to document the site's shape and the range of its archaeological features, to evaluate the integrity of subsurface materials and description of the site's stratigraphy; and to collect samples for dating portions of the archaeological site. The field crew completed a preliminary site map that they had begun in 1995, which suggests that the ancient site of Angkor Borei is at least 300 hectares in area and may have been associated with many features found beyond the city's wall (particularly to the south of the city). This site map has been a useful tool for locating features in different areas of the large ancient city.

We also tested two areas of the site using 1 m x 2 m excavation units to obtain radiocarbon samples to build a ceramic sequence. Results of our radiocarbon dating suggest that Angkor Borei was settled ca. 400 B.C., or 500-600 years earlier than the Chinese documentary accounts of the area. Perhaps populations moved into the delta several centuries before the region became sufficiently important in the international trade world to be noticed by the Chinese. Finally, crew members uncovered portions of one of the fifteen or more collapsed brick structures that had been mapped inside the city's walls. The structure we investigated had been mined in recent years for bricks, and was incomplete. However, we could identify the general parameters of this brick construction, and villagers have recovered stone sculptures and inscribed stelae from other brick features on the site with this general shape.