Dating of Angkor Civilisation, Cambodia
 

 Angkor was the capital of a vast medieval empire that incorporated most of mainland Southeast Asia at its zenith in the 12/13th Centuries AD. Despite its size, power and ostentatious wealth, 19th Century European visitors found most of the Angkor region utterly abandoned.
 

The team used AMS 14C to date key periods in the history of the urban complex at Angkor, and establish chronologies for palynological records used to study land-use change at Angkor. The latter information is also useful for a better understanding of Angkor demise and abandonment in terms of timing and causes.Unfortunately, the historiography of Angkor's final centuries is extremely speculative due to the lack of contemporary inscriptions and monumental construction.
  

Project Support

AINSE Grants 01/049, 03/091P, 05/134 & 11/003. ARC DP0987878. National Geographic Grant 8599-09.
 

Project team members:

Mike Barbetti (Faculty of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, Naresuan University, Thailand ), Damian Evans (Department of Archaeology, Univ. Sydney), David Fink (ANSTO), Roland Fletcher (Department of Archaeology, Univ. Sydney), Mitch Hendrickson ( Department of Anthropology, Univ. Illinois at Chicago, USA), Quan Hua (ANSTO), Dan Penny (School of Geosciences, Univ. Sydney), Christopher Pottier (Ecole Française d’Extrême Orient, Siem Reap, Cambodia).
 

Publications related to this project

Hendrickson, M., Q. Hua, and T.O. Pryce (2013), Using in-slag charcoals as an indicator of ‘terminal’ iron production within the Angkorian period (9th to 15th c. CE) centre of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay, Cambodia, Radiocarbon, in press.
 

Hendrickson, M., S. Leroy, T.O. Pryce, K. Phon, and Q. Hua (2012), Industries of Angkor Project: Preah Khan of Kompong Svay, December 2010 Field Campaign Report, submitted to Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
 

Penny, D., Q. Hua, C. Pottier, R. Fletcher, and M. Barbetti (2007), The use of AMS 14C dating to explore issues of occupation and demise at the medieval city of Angkor, Cambodia, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 259, 388-394.
 

Penny, D., C. Pottier, R.J. Fletcher, M. Barbetti, D. Fink, and Q. Hua (2006), Vegetation and land-use at Angkor, Cambodia: a dated pollen sequence from the Bakong temple moat, Antiquity, 80, 599-614.
 

Zoppi, U., M. Barbetti, R. Fletcher, Q. Hua, R. K. Chem, C. Pottier, and M. Watanasak (2004), The contribution of 14C AMS dating to the Greater Angkor archaeological project, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 223-224, 681-685.
 

Abstracts related to this project

Hua, Q., and M. Hendrickson, Dating the end of iron production within the medieval city of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay, Cambodia, The 7th International Symposium on Radiocarbon and Archaeology, 8-12 Apr 2013, Ghent, Belgium.
 

Hendrickson, M., and Q. Hua, Dating the End of Industry: Using in-slag charcoals as an indicator of terminal iron production within the medieval city of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay, Cambodia, The 21st International Radiocarbon Conference, 9-13 Jul 2012, Paris, France.
 

Evans, D., Q. Hua, D. Penny, D. Fink, C. Pottier, R. Fletcher, and C. Mifsud (2007), Radiocarbon Dating of Rice Husk Material from Temple Bricks at Angkor, Cambodia, the 17th INQUA Congress, 28 Jul 3 Aug 2007, Cairns, Australia, Quaternary International, 167-168, 110.
 

Penny, D. (2007), Microfossil records of environmental change, land use and societal collapse at Angkor, Cambodia, the 17th INQUA Congress, 28 Jul 3 Aug 2007, Cairns, Australia, Quaternary International, 167-168, 321.
 

Hua, Q., D. Penny, R. Fletcher, M. Barbetti, and C. Pottier, The use of small-sample AMS 14C dating to resolve issues of occupation and demise at the medieval city of Angkor, Cambodia, The 10th International Conference on AMS, 5-10 Sep 2005, Berkeley, USA.
 

Zoppi, U., M. Barbetti, R.K. Chhem, R. Fletcher, Q. Hua, C. Pottier, and M. Watanasak, The contribution of 14C AMS dating to the greater Angkor archaeological project, The 9th International Conference on AMS, 9-13 Sep 2002, Nagoya, Japan.