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Isotopic insights into the jar-and-coffin mortuary ritual of the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2020

Louise Shewan ,
Richard Armstrong ,
Dougald O’Reilly ,
Siân Halcrow ,
Nancy Beavan  and
Tep Sokha
Louise Shewan*
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia
Richard Armstrong
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Australia
Dougald O’Reilly
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, Australia
Siân Halcrow
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, New Zealand
Nancy Beavan
Affiliation:
Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited, Porirua, New Zealand
Tep Sokha
Affiliation:
Ceramic Conservation Laboratory, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
*
*Author for correspondence: ✉ [email protected]
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Abstract

The use of coffins and jars as funerary receptacles was common across Southeast Asia. During the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries AD, cremation was the dominant mortuary tradition on the Angkorian plains, but in the Cardamom Mountains to the south, contemporaneous groups practised a unique burial tradition involving the deposition of un-cremated bone in exposed ceramic vessels and log coffins. The authors present the first geochemical analysis of individuals from this highland culture, specifically the site of Phnom Pel. The childhood diets of those interred in jars and coffins may have been sourced from different areas within the Cardamom Mountains, suggesting that the individuals came from discrete groups.

Keywords

Southeast AsiaCardamom Mountainsmortuary traditionsmobilitystrontium isotopes
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 94 , Issue 378 , December 2020 , pp. 1575 - 1591
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd

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