Home Region:  Mainland (Southeast Asia)

Bronze Age Cambodia

D G SC WF EQ 2020  kh_cambodia_ia / KhMekIA

Preceding Entity:
No Polity found. Add one here.

Succeeding Entity:
No Polity found. Add one here.

Provide a descriptive paragraph detailing the key features of the polity, which will help understanding the codes below.

General Variables
Identity and Location
Temporal Bounds
Political and Cultural Relations
Language
Religion
Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Hierarchical Complexity
Professions
Bureaucracy Characteristics
Law
Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Transport Infrastructure
Special-purpose Sites
Information / Writing System
Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Information / Money
Information / Postal System
Information / Measurement System
Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Religion Tolerance Coding in Progress.
Human Sacrifice Coding in Progress.
Crisis Consequences Coding in Progress.
Power Transitions Coding in Progress.

NGA Settlements:

Year Range Bronze Age Cambodia (kh_cambodia_ia) was in:
 (500 BCE 224 CE)   Cambodian Basin
Home NGA: Cambodian Basin

General Variables
Identity and Location
Original Name:
Iron Age Cambodia

Temporal Bounds
Duration:
[500 BCE ➜ 224 CE]
 

Political and Cultural Relations
Language
Language Genus:
uncoded

Religion

Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Population of the Largest Settlement:
[100 to 200] people

"[O]ccupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce… artifacts are not very dense, suggesting that the number of inhabitants was not large, perhaps around 100 to 200." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 114) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Hierarchical Complexity
Settlement Hierarchy:
[1 to 3]

levels. Acording to Miksic and Goh, "there was a change from a two-tier to a three-tier settlement hierarchy in the south Mekong in the Preclassic and Protoclassic," but they do not specify what this was. 1. Villages "Archaeologists have found permanent village communities [in Cambodia]...there is little variation in size or evidence that a hierarchy of sites developed." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 114) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Professions
Bureaucracy Characteristics
Specialized Government Building:
unknown

Law
Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Market:
unknown

Irrigation System:
unknown

Food Storage Site:
unknown

Drinking Water Supply System:
unknown

Transport Infrastructure
Special-purpose Sites
Information / Writing System
Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Information / Money
Information / Postal System
Information / Measurement System

Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Fortifications
Wooden Palisade:
absent

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Stone Walls Non Mortared:
absent

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Stone Walls Mortared:
absent

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Modern Fortification:
absent

Moat:
present

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Fortified Camp:
unknown

Earth Rampart:
present

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Ditch:
absent

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Complex Fortification:
unknown

Long Wall:
unknown

Military use of Metals
Steel:
absent

Iron:
present

Evidence of bronze, gold, silver and iron. [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 106) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Copper:
present

Evidence of bronze, gold, silver and iron. [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 106) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Bronze:
present

Evidence of bronze, gold, silver and iron. [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 106) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Projectiles
Sling:
unknown

Self Bow:
present

No evidence for bows and arrows in Cambodia but others have been found in mainland SEA: "at Noen U-Loke [Thailand], for instance, Higham found remains of a young man whose spine had been severed by an arrowhead." [1] However projectile points found at the Phum Snay site could be arrow heads. [2]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 111) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.

[2]: (Domett et al. 2011: 452) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/RJH39GGM.


Javelin:
unknown

Atlatl:
absent

New World weapon.


Handheld weapons
War Club:
unknown

Sword:
present

"The excavation of Phum Snay also yielded evidence of military paraphernalia (swords, daggers, spearheads, projectile points, epaulettes) in the prehistoric graves" dating c. 500 BC - 200 AD. [1]

[1]: (Domett et al. 2011: 452) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/RJH39GGM.


Spear:
present

"The excavation of Phum Snay also yielded evidence of military paraphernalia (swords, daggers, spearheads, projectile points, epaulettes) in the prehistoric graves" dating c. 500 BC - 200 AD. [1]

[1]: (Domett et al. 2011: 452) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/RJH39GGM.


Polearm:
unknown

Dagger:
present

"The excavation of Phum Snay also yielded evidence of military paraphernalia (swords, daggers, spearheads, projectile points, epaulettes) in the prehistoric graves" dating c. 500 BC - 200 AD. [1]

[1]: (Domett et al. 2011: 452) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/RJH39GGM.


Battle Axe:
unknown

No evidence for axes in Cambodia but many have been found in mainland SEA: "In Vietnam these include a spearhead from Cuong Ha in Quang Binh Province, and a socketed axe from Go Ma Voi in Quang Nam Province. Locally made iron objects produced at the same period as Dongson bronzes include swords, axes, hoes, sickles, knives, and tweezers." (300 BC) [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 111) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Animals used in warfare
Horse:
unknown

Elephant:
absent

Not native to region.


Donkey:
unknown

Dog:
unknown

Camel:
unknown

Armor
Shield:
unknown

Limb Protection:
unknown

Helmet:
present

"At Phum Snay looters reported finding skulls with bronze helmets; however, our excavations and subsequent excavations have not encountered such evidence." [1]

[1]: (Domett et al. 2011: 452) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/RJH39GGM.


Breastplate:
unknown

Naval technology

Human Sacrifice Data
Human Sacrifice is the deliberate and ritualized killing of a person to please or placate supernatural entities (including gods, spirits, and ancestors) or gain other supernatural benefits.
Coding in Progress.
Coding in Progress.
Power Transitions
Coding in Progress.