Commerce, the Capital, and Community: Trade ceramics, settlement patterns and continuity throughout the demise of Angkor
Access status:
USyd Access
Type
ThesisThesis type
Doctor of PhilosophyAuthor/s
Brotherson, David JohnAbstract
The decline of Angkor is a poorly understood phenomenon for which the conventional narrative, based solely on textual sources, is problematic. While the debate continues over the various environmental, political, cultural and economic factors, the date range for the end of Angkor ...
See moreThe decline of Angkor is a poorly understood phenomenon for which the conventional narrative, based solely on textual sources, is problematic. While the debate continues over the various environmental, political, cultural and economic factors, the date range for the end of Angkor and the associated population movements has yet to be comprehensively identified archaeologically. A conundrum is that a growing corpus of material evidence from ceramic scatters implies a significant post-Angkorian occupation. The issue is that while the distribution and relative scarcity of imported Chinese ceramics from Angkorian period (9th to 14-15th century) contexts (<5% of the total assemblage) suggests they were a luxury item at that time, the subsequent observations of French ethnographers attest to their abundance in late 19th-century Cambodia. At that time Chinese wares were in everyday use by the general populace as part of the domestic assemblage, suggesting a marked change in their role and significance. Therefore at some time between the 14th and the 19th century the meaning of the spatial signature of Chinese trade wares changed. Through excavation and archaeological survey, this research employs a multi-scalar approach to analyse the various phenomena which relate to the demise of Greater Angkor. Starting with individual domestic contexts, it then examines the massive infrastructure of the built environment and finishes with the occupation signature across the entire landscape in which the spatial distribution of datable ceramic assemblages is used to model changing settlement patterns in the late and post-Angkorian periods. From 2012 to 2015 the Greater Angkor Project conducted the first large-scale systematic survey of the habitation mounds throughout the settlement extending from the urban core to the periphery. Each site within the study area was surveyed for surface ceramics and diagnostic pieces were collected, analysed and catalogued. While the great majority of material is Khmer, trade wares from China, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam function as crucial temporal markers, especially for the post-14th century period when all known Khmer kilns had ceased production. This thesis presents the preliminary results of this study from the 12th to 19th centuries and explores the impact of changing use regimes on the interpretation of settlement patterns.
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See moreThe decline of Angkor is a poorly understood phenomenon for which the conventional narrative, based solely on textual sources, is problematic. While the debate continues over the various environmental, political, cultural and economic factors, the date range for the end of Angkor and the associated population movements has yet to be comprehensively identified archaeologically. A conundrum is that a growing corpus of material evidence from ceramic scatters implies a significant post-Angkorian occupation. The issue is that while the distribution and relative scarcity of imported Chinese ceramics from Angkorian period (9th to 14-15th century) contexts (<5% of the total assemblage) suggests they were a luxury item at that time, the subsequent observations of French ethnographers attest to their abundance in late 19th-century Cambodia. At that time Chinese wares were in everyday use by the general populace as part of the domestic assemblage, suggesting a marked change in their role and significance. Therefore at some time between the 14th and the 19th century the meaning of the spatial signature of Chinese trade wares changed. Through excavation and archaeological survey, this research employs a multi-scalar approach to analyse the various phenomena which relate to the demise of Greater Angkor. Starting with individual domestic contexts, it then examines the massive infrastructure of the built environment and finishes with the occupation signature across the entire landscape in which the spatial distribution of datable ceramic assemblages is used to model changing settlement patterns in the late and post-Angkorian periods. From 2012 to 2015 the Greater Angkor Project conducted the first large-scale systematic survey of the habitation mounds throughout the settlement extending from the urban core to the periphery. Each site within the study area was surveyed for surface ceramics and diagnostic pieces were collected, analysed and catalogued. While the great majority of material is Khmer, trade wares from China, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam function as crucial temporal markers, especially for the post-14th century period when all known Khmer kilns had ceased production. This thesis presents the preliminary results of this study from the 12th to 19th centuries and explores the impact of changing use regimes on the interpretation of settlement patterns.
See less
Date
2019-08-13Licence
The author retains copyright of this thesis. It may only be used for the purposes of research and study. It must not be used for any other purposes and may not be transmitted or shared with others without prior permission.Faculty/School
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Philosophical and Historical InquiryDepartment, Discipline or Centre
Department of ArchaeologyAwarding institution
The University of SydneyShare