Excavation at the Iron age burial site of Prohear, Prey Veng province

Archaeological and palaeo-environmental investigations of the Pre-Angkor period in the Mekong delta of Southeast Asia

Location

Iron age cemeteries with rich find complexes

The excavation site is located in the midst of Prohear village in Prey Veng province about 65 km due east of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and 40 km west of the border with Vietnam. About 65 km to the south is the excavation site of Go O Chua, where the German Archaeological Institute together with Vietnamese archaeologists has been carrying out an excavation since 2003.

History

	Excavation site at Prohear in 2008
	Gold jewellery from different burials

In Spring 2007, one of the richest prehistoric burial sites of South East Asia was found in Prohear village but almost completely looted by the villagers. In May 2007, an Archaeology student observed and reported this looting to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and to the archaeologists of the Memot Centre in Phnom Penh. Cambodian archaeologists visited the site but could not stop the looting. During the period up to the beginning of 2008, the villagers dug up the whole area of the burial site and sold all the archaeological artefacts to middlemen representing antique dealers. In less than a year, countless burials dating back 2000 years were systematically destroyed. Hundreds of gold objects and dozens of bronze drums were immediately channelled into the illegal antiquities trade.

The emergency aid promptly offered for a Cambodian-German excavation could not be realized because permission for the excavation was only granted in November 2007. Only the main road through the village was spared from looting because it is municipally owned and much frequented. This 4 metres-wide path was the goal of the first archaeological campaign from February to May 2008. Together with the Memot Centre, the Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures of the German Archaeological Institute conducted a salvage excavation of 24 burials lying under the main route through the village.

Objectives

In Southeast Cambodia, the number of investigated late Bronze - Iron age burial sites from the last millennium BC and the first millennium AD is still small and our insight into the cultural development of this period remains fragmentary. At the sites of Angkor Borei (Takeo province) and Krek 10.8 (Kampong Cham province) about 100 burials of the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD with many offerings have been discovered. Further, about 50 burials excavated at Go O Chua provide additional information from the late phase of the Pre-Angkor period (The prehistoric salt-making centre and burial site of Go O Chua in South Vietnam).

With its unusually rich offerings, the burial site of Prohear surpasses all expectations. The burial sites of this region show clear cultural similarities (e.g. high pedestalled bowls of the same shape and ornamentation), but also display strikingly distinctive local features. Thus, the wealth of gold offerings is without comparison at any other burial site in this region and the great number of bronze drums from the site - although mostly undocumented - is hitherto unique for the southern parts of mainland South East Asia, far away from the Dong Son cultural area. In contrast, the Angkor Borei site shows individual characteristics in the great amount of polished orange-ware ceramics of the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD.

In the next few years, fieldwork at Prohear will be chiefly concerned in saving as many burial complexes as possible on the one hand, while analyzing the discovered artefacts and documented features on the other, in context with similar richly-equipped burials in southern Vietnam; for example, with the newly-published site of Giong Lon near Vung Tau where the first golden eye masks in Vietnam have been found.

Current Work

	German Ambassador visited Prohear in May 2008
	Memot-Centre Phnom Penh

The excavation in April/May 2008 extended over three units with a total of 62.5 m². Twenty-four burials were uncovered. The excavation on the main village road should be continued in February 2009, in cooperation between the German Archaeological Institute and the Memot Centre.

Results

	Bronze drum in situ
	Bronze bracelet with a pair of "antlers".

Many of the 24 discovered burials were left intact by the looters in the upper layers, but below they had been undercut and destroyed by 2,5 metre-long lateral tunnels dug about 0.8 m under the surface of the path. Two burial periods are recognizable from the different offerings and depth of the inhumations. In the earlier layer, with better conditions for skeletal preservation, burials without gold offerings but with jewellery made from stone beads, mostly garnet, were found. One exceptional offering was found in a burial of this early period: 20 green glass earrings, that had clearly been threaded onto a string made from organic material, were found on both sides of the skull. Besides, some bronze bangles, iron tools or weapons and garnet beads were also found in this inhumation.

Typical for the younger period are bronze drums and gold jewellery. Despite so many partly looted and destroyed inhumations, 13 burials still contained gold ornaments, mostly finger rings or earrings, although one golden bracelet was found too.

Three of the twenty-four excavated burials were equipped with bronze drums or parts of them. Male burials could apparently be recognized by stone pestles placed between the thighs; female burials by spindle whorls. According to information from the villagers, about 5 percent off all burials had a rich complex of offerings. "Rich" in this context meant about 10 ceramic vessels of different shapes and sizes, one bronze drum, 5-15 gold ornaments and some iron or bronze offerings, as well as glass beads.

In both periods, the dead lay on their back with the head oriented to the south and with their hands lying to the side of the body or on the chest. Burials of the younger period had hardly any preserved bones, but their head orientation could be identified by means of the earrings and other finds distribution in the grave. The three excavation units gave only a small random impression of the cemetery as a whole. However, burials of more women than men were discovered and there were some inhumations of children too. At the bottom of a large ceramic jar, fragments of a pair of bronze bangles were found lying directly on top of a pig mandible. This feature was found in the lowest layer and allows us to assume an earlier interment period of jar burials for children.

By means of all the looting holes in the village, the dimensions of the cemetery are easy to estimate at about 130 x 150 m; thus nearly 20,000 m². The excavation area is situated at the centre of the burial site. Here, an average of one grave was found for every three square metres. This means that we have to assume that at Prohear some thousands of burials may have been looted, although we should take into account that burials in the peripheral areas of the cemetery were probably not as concentrated as in the centre. Despite the heavy destruction of the site, from these small excavated areas alone it is clear that this cemetery is one of the most exceptional find complexes of the Pre Angkor period in this region. Most of the excavated burials at Prohear belong to the second phase of inhumation and should probably be dated from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD. Radiocarbon dates are in process of analysis.

Cooperation

	Excavation team

Our Cambodian partners are archaeologists from the Memot Centre, Phnom Penh (Vin Laychour and Seng Sonetra). Heng Sophady from the Memot-Centre supports the metal restoration (Memot-Centre).

Scientific cooperation efforts exist with:
Prof. Dr. Norbert Benecke, Natural Scientific Department of the Head Office of the German Archaeological Institute (Zoology ).
Dr. Bernd Kromer (Radiometry Research Group, Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Heidelberg).

Contact

Dr. Andreas Reinecke

Südostasien
Telefon: +49-(0)1888-7712 -25
Telefax: +49-(0)1888-7712- 49
Email: reinecke@kaak.dainst.de

Further Contact Partners

Andreas Reinecke
Cambodia
Email: reineckeandreas@gmx.de

Sponsors

Thanks of the support of the German Embassy in Phnom Penh and the Federal Foreign Office's "Cultural Preservation Programme", the restoration of the finds from Prohear begun immediately.  

Bibliography

Andreas Reinecke / Vin Laychour / Seng Sonetra 2008: Der Alptraum von Prohear. In: Archäologie in Deutschland 6/2008, 12-17.