Power, Prasat and Periphery: Becoming Provincial Angkor

We are pleased to announce the next phase of our research in collaboration with Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, the NSF-funded project: Power, Prasat and Periphery: Becoming Provincial Angkor!

Ancient states varied in their degree of economic and political centralization and examining provincial hinterlands offers insights on the limits of state power and the nature of local autonomy. The Angkor civilization (based in NW Cambodia) was premodern Southeast Asia’s major regional power from the 9-15^th centuries CE. More than a century of art historical study, epigraphic research, and historic conservation has focused on Angkor’s capital, yet little is known about its provinces and the state mechanisms used in their governance. Our project aims to fill this gap by investigating the provincial center of Prasat Baset located 70km SW of the Angkorian capital, to explore impacts of Angkorian state expansion on local communities.

King Suryavarman I incorporated the Baset area into his empire by the 11th century CE through the construction of a sandstone temple (prasat), yet epigraphic evidence suggests complex and fluctuating relationships between this Battambang provincial zone and the capital through time. Our 2018-2019 pilot fieldwork at Baset indicates its occupation began several centuries before its temple dedication and the Battambang region remained important after Angkor’s 15^th century collapse. Our project explores a range of impacts that the Angkorian imperial intervention imposed on the Baset community and how these changed over time. We employ a territorial-hegemonic model to study the nature of state intervention in settlement, economic control, and environment. Examining these domains offers insights on Angkorian core-provincial dynamics and the nature of state control that Angkor exerted on its provinces.

NSF funding supports a three-year archaeological research project that includes three field seasons of fieldwork, including two seasons of excavation (May-July 2022, 2023), a pedestrian settlement survey (Oct-Nov 2022), and a final wrap-up excavation and lab season (May-July 2024). We also include capacity-building and student training into our research project, and community engagement will involve multiple activities that include the co-production of a comic book describing the project. Our investigations are designed to document residential patterning, diet, and environmental change. We work with archaebotanical, faunal, and ceramic specialists to study changing relations between the capital and its provincial center.

Link: UO archaeologist plans return to explore Cambodian temple