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

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THE 1999 FIELD SEASON
LOMAP continued its investigations of Cambodia's early historic period in 1999 by conducting archaeological excavations at Angkor Borei. A small team of archaeology professors and students from the University of Hawaii (UH) and the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh (RUFA) worked together for six weeks from January to March.

Research focused on three important loci at the site:

1. the centrally situated mound upon which Wat Komnou sits today;

2. the ancient city wall; and

3. the ancient water features, which are primarily moats and reservoirs.

Dr. Miriam Stark, LOMAP's co-director from the University of Hawaii, coordinated excavations at the Wat Komnou mound and the ancient city wall. Dr. Paul Bishop, a geologist from the University of Glasgow, investigated the age and morphology of the city's ancient water features.

Excavations at Wat Komnou Mound
LOMAP crew members excavated a 2 x 3 meter pit on the southern slope of the mound on which Wat Komnou is located. This mound is located in the central area of the ancient city, making it a likely spot to have been an important residential area. Also, this mound represents the highest ground within the old walls. LOMAP archaeologists were able to dig at the Wat Komnou mound because villagers had accidentally uncovered human bones beneath the surface in this area in 1998 as they removed large amounts of dirt for landfill. With the permission of local landowners, officials and Cambodia's Ministry of Culture, archaeologists began excavating here in January and continued excavations until mid-March. By early April 1999, we blocked the area off with a brick wall and roofed over to prevent damage to the unit during the rainy season.

One of the most compelling aspects of the 1999 excavations lay in the exposure of human remains more than 3 meters below ground surface. Use of relative dating techniques provisionally suggests that these burials date to the 1st century AD or soon thereafter. Most of the skeletons were extended, although we also found some bundles of skeletons that might represent secondary burials. Grave goods accompanied most of the skeletons, and include intact ceramic pots and pig skulls, both of which were found on and around the skeletons.

The discovery of the Angkor Borei cemetery is important for many reasons. It provides a window into the early Funan period of Cambodia, a period about which very little is known. Also, it is the first cemetery of inhumations (not cremations) that has ever been excavated in Cambodia using modern archaeological techniques. Thus, this is the first opportunity to scientifically examine an ancient skeletal population from Cambodia.

Excavations of the City Wall
Another portion of the 1999 fieldwork involved excavations at the ancient city wall. Working closely with Dr. Paul Bishop (University of Glasgow), archaeologists documented and excavated a section of the wall that surrounds Angkor Borei. An earthen and brick masonry-capped wall (ca. 4 m in width at its base) surrounds the ancient settlement of Angkor Borei, and many intact sections remain. Work concentrated in the southeastern portion of the site for logistical reasons. Most of the wall in this area is intact, except for a section in the southeast corner of the site that was reportedly destroyed during the American bombing of Cambodia and a wall cut that a farmer made to drain his fields. Our test trench did not recover radiocarbon samples from this area, but the stratigraphy suggests that the wall was constructed in two episodes. The first episode involved building an earthen embankment around the settlement's perimeter, perhaps in conjunction with the excavation of the inner and outer moats that are still visible in certain areas of the site. The second episode, which may have occurred substantially later in time, involved the mounding of cultural debris on this earthen embankment to create a flat surface, and the construction of an approximately two-meter high masonry brick wall to cap the earthen embankment. The wall that is now visible, therefore, may reflect multiple construction episodes. We have submitted a brick sample from the wall to Dr. David Sanderson of the SURRC Luminescence Laboratory (Glasgow, Scotland) for thermoluminescence dating.

Investigation of Hydraulic Features at Angkor Borei
Work with Dr. Bishop also probed Angkor Borei's ancient water features. The third component of the 1999 field season involved studies of the ancient hydraulic features in and around Angkor Borei. Most prominent of these are the moats that flank the city wall, and the canal segments (still visible in aerial photographs) that may extend as far south as Vietnam. Dr. Paul Bishop augered areas of the moats and canals to obtain data for geomorphological study, and collected samples for paleoethnobotanical analysis. A final part of the geomorphological research involved coring a large reservoir in the site's southeastern corner to collect ancient sediments. Scientific analysis of these sediments will help us learn what the local vegetation looked like at various points in the settlement's history.

Faunal and ceramic materials from our excavations are currently being processed and analyzed at the University of Hawaii in conjunction with graduate projects, and we await shipment of the human remains for osteoarchaeological study. We are scheduled to return to Angkor Borei for a third field season from May-July 2000, and will continue to investigate environmental change and state formation in the Mekong delta.