Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T14:41:48.085Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Radiocarbon Dates from the Highland Jar and Coffin Burial Site of Phnom Khnang Peung, Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Nancy Beavan*
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Otago School of Medical Sciences, PO Box 913, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
Derek Hamilton
Affiliation:
SUERC Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, East Kilbride, Scotland
Tep Sokha
Affiliation:
Faculty of Archaeology, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Kerry Sayle
Affiliation:
SUERC Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, East Kilbride, Scotland
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

The Cardamom Mountain Jar and Coffin burial site of Phnom Khnang Peung is the most extensive example of the distinctive burial ritual first reported by Beavan et al. (2012a). The 40 intact Mae Nam Noi and late Angkorian-era ceramic jars used as burial vessels held a total of up to 152 individuals, representing the largest corpus of skeletal remains of any of the 10 known Jar and Coffin burial sites that have been discovered in the eastern ranges of the Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia. We report here on the radiocarbon dating of this site and notable burial phenomena, using a Bayesian approach to model the start and end date of activity as well as its overall span. The results of the dating and Bayesian analyses indicate that the Phnom Khnang Peung site's earliest burials began cal AD 1420–1440 (95% probability). Interestingly, the concentration of burial activity spans only 15–45 years (95% probability), despite the large number of inhumations at the site. The 14C chronology presented for the site places the Highland burial ritual coincident with a period of economic, political, and societal transformations in the lowland Angkorian polity, but the unique burial practice and trade relationships evidenced by the burial goods and maritime trade ware ceramics employed in the burial ritual suggest these Highland people were a culture apart from Angkorian cultural influences.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anusaranasasanakiarti, PK, Keyes, CF. 1980. Funerary rites and the Buddhist meaning of death: an interpretive text from northeast Thailand. Journal of the Siam Society 68:128.Google Scholar
Barraud, C, De Copet, D, Iteanu, A, Jamous, R. 1994. Of Relations and the Dead: Four Societies Viewed from the Angle of Their Exchanges. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Bayliss, A. 2009. Rolling out revolution: using radiocarbon dating in archaeology. Radiocarbon 51(1):123–47.Google Scholar
Beavan, N, Halcrow, S. McFadgen, B, Hamilton, D, Buckley, B, Tep, S, Shewan, L, Sokha, O, Fallon, S, Miksic, J, Armstrong, R, O'Reilly, D, Domett, K, Chhem, KR. 2012a. Radiocarbon dates from jar and coffin burials of the Cardamom Mountains reveal a unique mortuary ritual in Cambodia's Late- to Post-Angkor period (15th–17th centuries AD). Radiocarbon 54(1):122.Google Scholar
Beavan, N, Tep, S, Zoppi, U, McCarthy, B, Schilling, M, Cort, L, Lu, SF. 2012b. Field note: a radiocarbon date for the Koh S'dech shipwreck, Koh Kong Province, Kingdom of Cambodia. Freer Sackler Gallery, SEA Ceramics Library, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, DC. Available at http://seasianceramics.asia.si.edu/resources/essay.asp?id=218.Google Scholar
Bellwood, PJ. 2007. Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago. Canberra: ANU E-Press.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37(2):425–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1998. Probability and dating. Radiocarbon 40(1):461–74.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2001. Development of the radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 43(2A):355–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.Google Scholar
Brown, R. 1977. The Ceramics of South-East Asia: Their Dating and Identification. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, R. 2004. The Ming Gap and shipwreck ceramics in Southeast Asia [PhD dissertation]. Department of Art History, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Buck, CE, Cavanagh, WG, Litton, CD. 1996. Bayesian Approach to Interpreting Archaeological Data. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Buikstra, JE, Ubelaker, DH. 1994. Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Fayetteville: Arkansas Archaeological Survey.Google Scholar
Chia, S, Koon, P. 2003. Recent discovery of ancient log coffin in Semporna, Sabah. Sabah Society Journal 20:3543.Google Scholar
Cort, L, Lefferts, L. 2013. Jars in the central highlands of mainland Southeast Asia. In: Klokke, M, Degroot, V, editors. Materializing Southeast Asia's Past: Selected Papers from the 12th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists. Volume 2. Singapore: NUS Press. p 233–41.Google Scholar
Courbin, P. 1988. La fouille du bassin du Sras Srang. In: Dumarcay, J, editor. Documents graphiques de la Conservation d'Angkor, 1963–1973. École française d 'Extrême-Orient 18:2144.Google Scholar
Crocker, CD. 1962. Exploratory Survey of the Soils of Cambodia. Phnom Penh: Royal Cambodian Government Soil Commission and USAID.Google Scholar
Deniro, MJ. 1985. Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to palaeodietary reconstruction. Nature 317(6040):806–9.Google Scholar
Domett, KM. 2005. The Skeletal Remains from Krasaing Thmei, Banteay Meachey Province, Cambodia. Townsville: James Cook University.Google Scholar
Domett, KM, Newton, J, O'Reilly, DJW, Tayles, N, Shewan, L, Beavan, N. 2011. Cultural modification of the dentition in prehistoric Cambodia. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 23(3):274–86.Google Scholar
Ea, D. 2013. Angkorian stoneware ceramics along the east road from Angkor to Bakan at Torp Chey Village. Udaya 11:5998.Google Scholar
Fox, RB. 1970. The Tabon Caves. Monograph 1. Manila: National Museum.Google Scholar
Grave, P, Maccheroni, M. 2009. Characterizing Asian stoneware jar production at the transition to the early Modern period, 1550–1650. In: McCarthy, B, Salzman-Chase, E, Cort, LA, Douglas, JG, Jett, P, editors. Scientific Research on Historic Asian Ceramics. Proceedings of the Fourth Forbes Symposium at the Freer Gallery of Art. London: Archetype Publications. p 110.Google Scholar
Groslier, BP. 1981. Introduction to the ceramic wares of Angkor. In: Stock, D, editor. Khmer Ceramics 9th–14th Century. Singapore: Oriental Ceramics Society.Google Scholar
Halcrow, SE, Harris, NJ, Beavan, N, Buckley, HR. 2014. First bioarchaeological evidence of probably scurvy in Southeast Asia: multifactorial etiologies of vitamin C deficiency in a tropical environment. International Journal of Paleopathology 5:6371.Google Scholar
Harris, P. 2007. Zhou Daguan: A Record of Cambodia, the Land and Its People. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.Google Scholar
Harrisson, T. 1974. Early ‘jar burials’ in Borneo and elsewhere. Asian Perspectives 17(2):141–4.Google Scholar
Hendrickson, M. 2008. New evidence of brown glaze stoneware kilns along the east road from Angkor. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 28:52–6.Google Scholar
Higham, C. 2002. Early Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia. Bangkok: River Books.Google Scholar
Hogg, AG, Hua, Q, Blackwell, PG, Niu, M, Buck, CE, Guilderson, TP, Heaton, TJ, Palmer, JG, Reimer, PJ, Reimer, RW, Turney, CSM, Zimmerman, SRH. 2013. SHCal13 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1889–903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hua, Q, Barbetti, M, Zoppi, U, Fink, D, Watanasak, M, Jacobsen, GE. 2004. Radiocarbon in tropical tree rings during the Little Ice Age. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 223–224:489–94.Google Scholar
Keyes, CF. 1975. Tug of war for merit: cremation of a senior monk. Journal of the Siam Society 63:4462.Google Scholar
Kickert, R. 1960. A funeral in Yang-Terng, Changwat Ubon, northeast Thailand. Journal of the Siam Society 48:7383.Google Scholar
Kurjack, EB, Sheldon, CT. 1971. The urn burial caves of Southern Cotobato, Mindanao, Philippines. Silliman Journal 18:127–53.Google Scholar
L'Abbe, EN. 2005. A case of commingled remains from rural South Africa. Forensic Science International 151:201–6.Google Scholar
Longin, R. 1971. New method of collagen extraction for radiocarbon dating. Nature 230(5291):241–2.Google Scholar
Metcalf, P, Huntington, R. 1991. Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, J. 2008. Associated bone groups: one archaeologist's rubbish is another's ritual deposition. In: Davis, O, Waddington, K, Sharpies, N, editors. Changing Perspectives on the First Millenium BC. Oxford: Oxbow Books. p 8398.Google Scholar
Morris, J. 2011. Investigating Animal Burials: Ritual, Mundane and Beyond. British Archaeological Reports, British Series 535. Oxford: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naysmith, P, Cook, G, Freeman, S, Scott, EM, Anderson, R, Dunbar, E, Muir, G, Dougans, A, Wilcken, K, Schnabel, C, Russell, N, Ascough, P, Maden, C. 2010. 14C AMS at SUERC: improving QA data from the 5MV tandem AMS and 250kV SSAMS. Radiocarbon 52(2):263–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelliot, P. 1903. ‘Le Fou-nan.’ Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient 3(2):248303.Google Scholar
Peterson, BJ, Fry, B. 1987. Stable isotopes in ecosystem studies. Annual Review of Ecological Systems 18:293320.Google Scholar
Richards, MP, Fuller, BT, Sponheimer, M, Robinson, T, Ayliffe, L. 2003. Sulfur isotopes in paleodietary studies: a review and results from a controlled feeding experiment. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13:3745.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sachs, JP, Sachse, D, Smittenberg, RH, Zhang, Z, Battisti, DS, Golubic, S. 2009. Southward movement of the Pacific intertropical convergence zone AD 1400–1850. Nature Geoscience 2:519–25.Google Scholar
Sayavongkhamdy, T, Bellwood, P. 2000. Recent archaeological research in Laos. The Melaka Papers, Volume 3. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 19:101–10.Google Scholar
Schroeder, S. 2001. Secondary disposal of the dead: cross-cultural codes. World Cultures 12(1):7793.Google Scholar
Shattuck, C. 2009. An analysis of decomposition rates on outdoor surface variations in Central Texas. Theses and Dissertations-Anthropology. https://digital.library.txstate.edu/handle/10877/4068.Google Scholar
Stark, MT. 2001. Some preliminary results of the 1999–2000 archaeological field investigations at Angkor Borei, Takeo Province. Udaya 2:1931.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Kra, RS. 1986. Editorial comment. Radiocarbon 28:ii.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355–63.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ. 1986. A computer program for radiocarbon age calibration. Radiocarbon 28(2B):1022–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ. 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C calibration program. Radiocarbon 35(1):215–30.Google Scholar
Tayles, N. 1996. Tooth ablation in prehistoric Southeast Asia. Internationd Journal of Osteoarchaeology 6(4):333–45.Google Scholar
Tep, S. 2014. Discovery of ceramics from the Koh Sdach shipwreck, Koh Kong province, Cambodia. In: Proceedings of the 2014 Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage, 12–16 May 2014, Honolulu, Hawai'i. http://www.themua.org/collections/files/original/8e6a09403f2653f2ed38e3fabf672c93.pdf.Google Scholar
Terwiel, BJ. 1975. Monks and Magic: An Analysis of Religious Ceremonies in Central Thailand. London: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
Tranet, M. 2002. Les Proto-Khmer du Cambodge. Phnom Penh: Atelier d Ímpression Khmere. 115 p.Google Scholar
Vandeputte, K, Moens, L, Dams, R. 1996. Improved sealed-tube combustion of organic samples to CO2 for stable isotope analysis, radiocarbon dating and percent carbon determinations. Analytical Letters 29(15):2761–73.Google Scholar
Venebrux, E. 2007. Robert Hertz's seminal essay and mortuary rites in the Pacific region. Journal de la Société des Océanistes 124:510.Google Scholar