Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T08:30:08.631Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Historic routes to Angkor: development of the Khmer road system (ninth to thirteenth centuries AD) in mainland Southeast Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Mitch Hendrickson
Mitch Hendrickson*
Affiliation:
*Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Road systems in the service of empires have long inspired archaeologists and ancient historians alike. Using etymology, textual analysis and archaeology the author deconstructs the road system of the Khmer, empire builders of early historic Cambodia. Far from being the creation of one king, the road system evolved organically to serve expeditions, pilgrimages and embedded exchange routes over several centuries. The paper encourages us to regard road networks as a significant topic, worthy of comparative study on a global scale.

Keywords

CambodiaKhmerroadsroutescommunications
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 324 , June 2010 , pp. 480 - 496
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

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

Barth, A. & Bergaigne, A.. 1885-1893. Inscriptions sanscrites du Cambodge. Paris: Imprimerie nationale.Google Scholar
Bellina, B. & Glover, I.. 2004. The archaeology of early contact with India and the Mediterranean world, from the fourth century BC to the fourth century AD, in Glover, I., & Bellwood, P., (ed.) Southeast Asia. From prehistory to history: 21–40. London: Routledge Curzon.Google Scholar
Boisselier, J. 1952. Ben Mala et la chronologie des monuments du style d'Angkor Vat. Bulletin de l'Ecole Fran¸aise d'Extrême-Orient 46: 187–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boisselier, J. 1966. Asie du Sud-Est I: le Cambodge. Paris: Picard.Google Scholar
Bruguier, B. 2000. Les ponts en pierre du Cambodge ancien: aménagement ou controle du territoire? Bulletin de l'Ecole Fran¸aise d'Extrême-Orient 87:529–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chevallier, R. 1976. Roman roads. London: Batsford.Google Scholar
Cœdés, G. 1906. La stèle du Tà Prohm. Bulletin de l'Ecole Fran¸aise d'Extrêeme-Orient 6: 44–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cœdés, G. 1935-1966. Inscriptions du Cambodge: Volumes 1-8. Hanoi: Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient.Google Scholar
Cœdés, G. 1940. Les gîtes d'étapes de la fin du XIIe siècle. Bulletin de l'Ecole Franc¸aise d'Extrêeme-Orient 40: 347–349.Google Scholar
Cœdés, G. 1941. La stèle du Prah Khan d'Angkor. Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extreˆme-Orient 41: 255–302.Google Scholar
Cœdés, G. 1951. Inscriptions du Cambodge: Volume 3. Hanoi: Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient.Google Scholar
Cœdés, G. 1953. Inscriptions du Cambodge: Volume 5. Hanoi: Ecole Francçaise d'Extrême-Orient.Google Scholar
Cœdés, G. 1954. Inscriptions du Cambodge: Volume 6. Hanoi: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient.Google Scholar
Cœdés, G. 1968. The Indianized states of Southeast Asia. Honolulu (HI): University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Cœdés, G. & Dupont, P.. 1943-1946. Les stèles de Sdok Kak Thom, Phnom Sandak et Prah Vihar. Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient 43: 113–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunin, O. 2004. De Ta Prohm au Bayon: analyse comparative de l'histoire architecturale des principaux monuments du style du Bayon. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine.Google Scholar
D'Altroy, T. 1992. Provincial power in the Inka Empire. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Dagens, B. 2003. Les Khmers. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
De Mestier Du Bourg, H. 1970. La première moitié du XIe siècle au Cambodge: Suryavarman I, sa vie et queleques aspects des institutions à son époque. Journal Asiatique 258: 281–314.Google Scholar
Deloche, J. 1993. Transport and communications in India prior to steam locomotion: Volume I: land transport (French Studies in South Asian Culture and Society 7) (translated from the French by Walker, James). Delhi; Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dowdle, J.E. 1987. Road networks and exchange systems in the Aeduan Civitas 300 BC-AD 300, in Crumley, C.L. & Marquardt, W.H. (ed.) Regional dynamics: Burgundian landscapes in historical perspective: 265–294. San Diego (CA): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Dumarçay, J. 1992. Notes d'architecture khmère. Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient 79: 133–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fletcher, R., Pottier, C. & Johnson, W.. 2008. Masonry water management structures in Ansgkor: structure and significance, in Pautreau, J.-P., Coupey, A.-S., Zeitoun, V. & Rambault, E., (ed.) From Homo erectus to the living traditions: choice of papers from the 11th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists: 231–238. Bougon: European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists.Google Scholar
Forbes, R.J. 1964. Notes on the history of ancient roads and their construction. Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert.Google Scholar
Freeman, M. 1996. A guide to Khmer temples in Thailand and Laos. New York: Weatherhill.Google Scholar
Graf, D.F. 1997. The Via Militaris and the Limes Arabicus, in Groenman-van-Waateringe, W., Beek, B.L.V., Willems, W.J.H. & Wynia, S., (ed.) Roman frontier studies 1995: proceedings of the XVIth international congress of Roman frontier studies (Oxbow Monographs 91): 123–133. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Groslier, B.P. 1973. Les inscriptions du Bayon, in Dumarçay, J.Le Bayon: histoire architecturale du temple vol. 2: 81–306. Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient.Google Scholar
Groslier, B.P. 1986. For a geographic history of Cambodia. Seksa Khmer 8-9: 31–37.Google Scholar
Groslier, G. 1935. Troisièmes recherches sur les Cambodgiens: I – étude sur le temps passée à la construction des monuments khmers (Banteay Chmar). Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient 35: 159–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendrickson, M. 2007. Arteries of empire: an operational study of transport and communication in Angkorian Southeast Asia (9th to 15th centuries CE). Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Higham, C. 1989. The archaeology of mainland Southeast Asia: from 10,000 BC to the fall of Angkor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hyslop, J. 1984. The Inka road system. Sydney: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jacques, C. 1968. Etudes d';épigraphie cambodgienne: I – La stèle du Phnom Srès. Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d’Extrême Orient 54: 605–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacques, C. 2007. The historical development of Khmer culture from the death of Suryavarman II to the 16th century, in Clarke, J., (ed.) Bayon: new perspectives: 28–49. Bangkok: River Books.Google Scholar
Jacques, C. & Lafond, P.. 2004. L'empire Khmer: cités et sanctuaires Vème–XIIIème siècle. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Living Angkor Road Project. 2008. Living Angkor Road Project phase II report. Nakon Nayok: Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy. Available at: http://larp.crma.ac.th/larp/report/fullreport/RDG50O0003.pdf, accessed 16 February 2010.Google Scholar
Lunet De Lajonquière, E. 1902. Inventaire descriptif des monuments du Cambodge. Paris: Ernest Leroux.Google Scholar
Lustig, E. 2009. Power and pragmatism in the political economy of Angkor. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Sydney. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5356, accessed 16 February 2010.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. 1992. Dynamic cycles of Mesoamerican states: political fluctuations in Mesoamerica. National Geographic Research and Exploration 8: 392–411.Google Scholar
Margary, I.D. 1967. Roman roads in Britain. London: John Baker.Google Scholar
Maspero, G. 1928. Le royaume de Champa. Paris: G. Van Oest.Google Scholar
Morrison, K.D. 2001. Coercion, resistance and hierarchy: local processes and imperial strategies in the Vijayanagara Empire, in Alcock, S.E., D'Altroy, T.N., Morrison, K.D. & Sinopoli, C.M. (ed.) Empires: perspectives from archaeology and history: 252–278. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Needham, J., Wang, L. & Lu, G.-D.. 1971. Science and civilisation in China. Volume 4: physics and physical technology. Part III: civil engineering and nautics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parmentier, H. 1948. L'Art architectural Hindou dans l'Inde et en Extême-Orient. Paris:G. Van Oest.Google Scholar
Penny, D.C., Pottier, C., Fletcher, R., Barbetti, M., Fink, D. & Hua, Q.. 2006. Vegetation and land-use at Angkor, Cambodia: a dated pollen sequence from the Bakong temple moat. Antiquity 80: 599–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreiber, K.J. 1991. The association between roads and polities: evidence for Wari roads in Peru, in Trombold, C.D. (ed.) Ancient road networks and settlement hierarchies in the New World: 243–252. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schweyer, A.-V. 2007. The confrontation of the Khmers and Chams in the Bayon Period, in Clarke, J. (ed.) Bayon: new perspectives: 50–71. Bangkok: River Books.Google Scholar
Sharrock, P. 2009. Garudua, Vajrapani and religious change in Jayavarman VII's Angkor. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40: 111–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinopoli, C.M. 1994. The archaeology of empires. Annual Review of Anthropology 23: 159–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M.L. 2005. Networks, territories and the cartography of ancient states. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95: 832–849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, M.T. 2004. Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian Cambodia, in Glover, I. & Bellwood, P. (ed.) Southeast Asia: from prehistory to history: 89–119. London: RoutledgeCurzon.Google Scholar
Trouvé, G. 1933. Reference to work by Trouvé in Chronique de l'année 1932. Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient 33: 411–548.Google Scholar
Vickery, M. 1985. The reign of Suryavarman I and royal factionalism at Angkor. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 16: 226–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vickery, M. 1998. Society, economics and politics in Pre-Angkor Cambodia: the 7th to 8th centuries. Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for Unesco, Toyo Bunko.Google Scholar
Vickery, M. 2002. History of Cambodia: summary of lectures given at the Faculty of Archaeology, Royal University of Fine Arts, 2001-2002. Phnom Penh: Pre-Angkor Studies Society.Google Scholar
Vickery, M. 2009. A short history of Champa, in Hardy, A., Cucarzi, M. & Zolese, P., (ed.) Champa and the archaeology of My So'n (Vietnam): 45–60. Singapore: NUS Press.Google Scholar
Zhou, D. 1902 [1295-1296]. Mémoires sur les coutumes de Cambodge, traduits et annotés par P. Pelliot. Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient 2: 123–177.Google Scholar