Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T06:20:55.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From the Iron Age to Angkor: new light on the origins of a state

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2014

Charles Higham
Charles Higham*
Affiliation:
*Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Excavations at four Iron Age moated sites in the Mun Valley in Thailand have identified seminal innovations, defined as emergent properties, that illuminate the origins of the kingdom of Angkor. Combined with recent research at Angkor itself, they present a compelling case for re-examining fundamental cultural changes that took place over a period of little more than four centuries, from AD 400–800. They compare with similarly rapid developments in Mesoamerica and Mesopotamia; fundamental parallels are evident in the role of charismatic agents for change, an ideology conferring god-like status on leaders, a new and highly productive economic base, an expanded interaction sphere for the exchange of prestige goods, and endemic warfare.

Keywords

AngkorIron Agekingshipsocial changericeploughreservoirsstate origins
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 341 , September 2014 , pp. 822 - 835
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bellina-Pryce, B. & Silapanth, P.. 2006. Weaving cultural identities on trans-Asiatic networks: Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula—an early socio-political landscape. Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient 93: 257—94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, G.D.H. (ed.). 1913. The social contract and discourses by Jean Jacques Rousseau. London: J.M. Dent.Google Scholar
Connelly, R. 2007. The iron and bimetallic artefacts, in Higham, C.F.W., Kijngam, A. & Talbot, S. (ed.) The origins of the civilization of Angkor. Volume 2. The excavation ofNoen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao: 431—46. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department.Google Scholar
Evans, D.H., Fletcher, R.J., Pottier, C., Chevance, J.-B., Soutif, D., Suytan, Boun, Sokrithy, I., Darith, E., Tin, T., Samnang, K., Cromarty, C., Greef, S. De, Hanus, K., Baty, P., Kuszinger, R., Shimoda, I. & Boornazian, G.. 2013. Uncovering archaeological landscapes at Angkor using lidar. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesofthe USA 110: 12595—600.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flannery, K. 1999. Process and agency in early state formation. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 9(1): 3—21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0959774300015183CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, K. & Marcus, J.. 2012. The creation of inequality. How our prehistoric ancestors set the stage for monarchy, slavery and empire. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674064973CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goody, J. 1976. Production and reproduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hawken, S. 2011. Metropolis of ricefields: a topographic classification of a dispersed urban complex. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 2009. Funeral feasts: why are they so important. Cambridge Archaeology Journal 19(1): 29—52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S095977430900002XGoogle Scholar
Higham, C.F.W. 2011. The Iron Age of the Mun Valley, Thailand. The Antiquaries Journal 91: 1—44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003581511000114CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C.F.W. 2012. The Iron Age: synthesis, in Higham, C.F.W. & Kijngam, A. (ed.) The origins of the civilization of Angkor. Volume 6. The excavation of Ban Non Wat. Part 4: the Iron Age, summary and conclusions: 331—70. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department.Google Scholar
Higham, C.F.W. & Higham, T.F.G.. 2009. Anew chronological framework for prehistoric Southeast Asia, based on a Bayesian model from Ban Non Wat. Antiquity 83: 125—44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C.F.W. & Kijngam, A., 1982. Irregular earthworks in N.E. Thailand: new insight. Antiquity 66: 102—10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C.F.W., Kijngam, A. & Talbot, S. (ed.). 2007. The origins of the civilization of Angkor. Volume 2. The excavation of Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department.Google Scholar
Jacques, C. 1989. The Khmers in Thailand: what the inscriptions inform us. SPAFA Digest X: 16—24.Google Scholar
King, Cl., Bentley, R.A., Tayles, N., Strand Vidarsdottir, U., Nowell, G. & Macpherson, C.G.. 2013. Moving peoples, changing diets: isotopic differences highlight migration and subsistence changes in the Upper Mun River Valley, Thailand. Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 1681—88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.11.013CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duanlin, Ma 1883. Ethnographie des peuples etrangers a la Chine II: Méridionaux. Translated by Le Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys. Genève: H. Georg.Google Scholar
Mccaw, M. 2007. The faunal remains: results and conclusion, in Higham, C.F.W., Kijngam, A. & Talbot, S. (ed.) The origins of the civilization of Angkor. Volume 2. The excavation of Noen U-Loke and Non MuangKao: 513—20. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department.Google Scholar
O'Reilly, D.J.W. 1997. The discovery of clay-lined floors at an Iron Age site in Thailand—preliminary observations from Non Muang Kao, Nakhon Ratchasima Province. Journal of the Siam Society 85: 133—50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/asi.2006.0024Google Scholar
O'Reilly, D., Driesch, A. Von Den & Voeun, V.. 2006. Archaeology and archaeozoology of Phum Snay: an Iron Age cemetery in northwest Cambodia. Asian Perspectives 45: 188–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parmentier, H. 1927. L'Art Khmér primitif (Publications de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient XXI—XXII). Paris & Bruxelles: G. Vanoest.Google Scholar
Rivett, P. & Higham, C.F.W.. 2007. The archaeology of salt production in Higham, C.F.W., Kijngam, A. & Talbot, S.(ed.) The origins of the civilization of Angkor. Volume 2. The excavation of Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao: 589—93. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department.Google Scholar
Shimoda, I. 2010. Study on the ancient Khmer city Isanapura. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Waseda University, Tokyo (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Smith, R.B. 1979. South East Asia in the seventh and eighth centuries, in Smith, R.B. & Watson, W. (ed.) Early South East Asia: 443—56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Talbot, S. & Janthed, C.. 2001. Northeast Thailand before Angkor: evidence from excavation at the Prasat Hin Phimai. Asian Perspectives 40: 179—94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/asi.2001.0027CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tayles, N.G. & Buckley, H.R.. 2004. Leprosy and tuberculosis in Iron Age Southeast Asia? American Journal of Physical Anthropology 125: 239—56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.10378CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vickery, M. 1998. Society, economics and politics in pre-Angkor Cambodia. Tokyo: Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for UNESCO.Google Scholar
Williams-Hunt, P. 1950. Irregular earthworks in Eastern Siam: an air survey. Antiquity 24: 30–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wohlfarth, B., Klubseang, W., Inthongkaew, S., Fritz, S.C., Blaauw, M., Reimer, P.J., Chabangbon, A., Lowemark, L. & Chawchai, S.. 2012. Holocene environmental changes in northeast Thailand as reconstructed from a tropical wetland. Global and Planetary Change 92—93: 148–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2012.05.008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolters, O.W. 1974. North-western Cambodia in the seventh century. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 37(2): 355—84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00136298CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoffee, N. 2005. Myths of the archaic state. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CB09780511489662CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoffee, N. 2012. Deep pasts: interconnections and comparative history in the ancient world, in Dorthrop, D. (ed.) A companion to world history: 156—70. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118305492CrossRefGoogle Scholar