Home Region:  Mainland (Southeast Asia)

Bronze Age Cambodia

D G SC WF EQ 2020  kh_cambodia_ba / KhMekBA



Preceding:
No Polity found. Add one here.

Succeeding:
No Polity found. Add one here.

Provide a descriptive paragraph detailing the key features of the polity, which will help understanding the codes below.

General Variables
Identity and Location
Original Name:
Bronze Age Cambodia  
Temporal Bounds
Duration:
[1,200 BCE ➜ 501 BCE]  
Political and Cultural Relations
Suprapolity Relations:
uncoded [---]  
Language
Language Genus:
NO_VALUE_ON_WIKI  
Religion
Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Population of the Largest Settlement:
[100 to 200] people  
Polity Territory:
-  
Polity Population:
-  
Hierarchical Complexity
Settlement Hierarchy:
1  
Professions
Bureaucracy Characteristics
Specialized Government Building:
unknown  
Law
Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Market:
unknown  
Irrigation System:
unknown  
Food Storage Site:
unknown  
Drinking Water Supply System:
unknown  
Transport Infrastructure
Special-purpose Sites
Information / Writing System
Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Information / Money
Information / Postal System
Information / Measurement System
Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Fortifications
  Wooden Palisade:
inferred absent  
  Stone Walls Non Mortared:
inferred absent  
  Stone Walls Mortared:
inferred absent  
  Modern Fortification:
absent  
  Moat:
present  
  Fortified Camp:
unknown  
  Earth Rampart:
present  
  Ditch:
inferred absent  
  Complex Fortification:
unknown  
  Long Wall:
absent  
Military use of Metals
  Steel:
absent  
  Iron:
absent  
  Copper:
inferred present  
  Bronze:
inferred present  
Projectiles
  Sling:
unknown  
  Self Bow:
unknown  
  Javelin:
unknown  
  Composite Bow:
unknown  
  Atlatl:
absent  
Handheld weapons
  War Club:
unknown  
  Sword:
unknown  
  Spear:
present  
  Polearm:
unknown  
  Dagger:
absent  
  Battle Axe:
unknown  
Animals used in warfare
  Horse:
unknown  
  Elephant:
unknown  
  Donkey:
unknown  
  Dog:
unknown  
  Camel:
unknown  
Armor
  Shield:
unknown  
  Limb Protection:
unknown  
  Helmet:
unknown  
  Breastplate:
unknown  
Naval technology
Religion Tolerance Nothing coded yet.
Human Sacrifice Nothing coded yet.
Crisis Consequences Nothing coded yet.
Power Transitions Nothing coded yet.

NGA Settlements:

Year Range Bronze Age Cambodia (kh_cambodia_ba) was in:
 (1200 BCE 501 BCE)   Cambodian Basin
Home NGA: Cambodian Basin

General Variables
Identity and Location
Original Name:
Bronze Age Cambodia

Temporal Bounds
Duration:
[1,200 BCE ➜ 501 BCE]

Political and Cultural Relations
Suprapolity Relations:
uncoded [---]

Language
Language Genus:
NO_VALUE_ON_WIKI

Religion

Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Population of the Largest Settlement:
[100 to 200] people

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-southoccupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce… artifacts are not very dense, suggesting that the number of inhabitants was not large, perhaps around 100 to 200." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 114) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Polity Territory:
-

in squared kilometers



Hierarchical Complexity
Settlement Hierarchy:
1

levels. 1. Villages: Miksic and Goh (2016) tell us that "Archaeologists have found permanent village communities [in Cambodia]...there is little variation in size or evidence that a hierarchy of sites developed." [1] However, Stark (2006) suggests that "settlement hierarchies (or heterarchies?) formed during the first millennium b.c. in almost all regions where complex polities subsequently emerged," but does not go into further detail. [2]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 106) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.

[2]: (Stark 2006: 410) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/P84DW4ZB.


Professions
Bureaucracy Characteristics
Specialized Government Building:
unknown

Law
Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Market:
unknown

Not mentioned in sources.


Irrigation System:
unknown

Not mentioned in sources.


Food Storage Site:
unknown

Not mentioned in sources.


Drinking Water Supply System:
unknown

Not mentioned in sources.


Transport Infrastructure
Special-purpose Sites
Information / Writing System
Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Information / Money
Information / Postal System
Information / Measurement System

Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Fortifications
Wooden Palisade:
absent

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Stone Walls Non Mortared:
absent

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Stone Walls Mortared:
absent

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.



"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.



Earth Rampart:
present

"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


"The term “Memotian” culture is now used to refer to 40 circular ramparted and moated sites (banteay kou in Khmer) in a hilly area of east Cambodia and a corner of southwest Vietnam measuring 85 kilometers east-west and 35 kilometers north-south, occupied between the early third millennium to early first millennium bce; about 15 have been intensively studied. The oldest sites seem to cluster in the west of this area, from whence they spread gradually east. Their components include an outer rampart, interior depression or “moat”, and a gap in the rampart, probably an entrance/exit." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 113) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.




Military use of Metals


We do not have any good data yet for the early development of metallurgy in the insular realm. We can, however, observe that in both areas the first advances in this new technology came in the form of adornment rather than for tools and weapons." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 86) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


We do not have any good data yet for the early development of metallurgy in the insular realm. We can, however, observe that in both areas the first advances in this new technology came in the form of adornment rather than for tools and weapons." [1]

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 86) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Projectiles

"In 1879, M. Moura obtained bronze artifacts from villagers at Samrong Sen in Cambodia, including an axe, fishhooks, arrowheads, and bangles" from the Bronze Age. [1] These arrowheads may have been from a bow and arrow, however the dates and details were not confirmed.

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 106) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.



Composite Bow:
unknown

"In 1879, M. Moura obtained bronze artifacts from villagers at Samrong Sen in Cambodia, including an axe, fishhooks, arrowheads, and bangles" from the Bronze Age. [1] These arrowheads may have been from a bow and arrow, however the dates and details were not confirmed.

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 106) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


New World weapon.


Handheld weapons


Higham (2002) records that sites in the Lower Mekong Valley (south Vietnam) dating from approx 1900 BC - 1110 BC, archaeologists have found items including parts of a crossbow, a spear, and later on arrowheads, spearheads, harpoons. [1] Additionally many have been found in other parts of SEA according to Miksic and Goh (2016):"Mortuary items at Noen U-Loke reflected the high status of leading individuals in their communities, who were interred in rice-filled graves, wore gold and silver jewelry with fine bronzes, glass and stone beads, iron spears, knives, and even a spade." [2]

[1]: (Higham 2002: 155) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/6KJ58462.

[2]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 106) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.



No evidence for daggers in SEA found in the sources so far. "Most of these Seima-Turbino bronze forms are never found in Southeast Asia. The shaft-hole axes, flat knives with waisted tangs and daggers are all absent." [1]

[1]: (Higham et al 2011: 234) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/GG5B9VZA.


Battle Axe:
unknown

"1879, M. Moura obtained bronze artifacts from villagers at Samrong Sen in Cambodia, including an axe, fishhooks, arrowheads, and bangles" from the Bronze Age. [1] These arrowheads may have been from a bow and arrow, however the dates and details were not confirmed. However, may not have been a battle axe.

[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2016: 106) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2EZ3CBBS.


Naval technology

Human Sacrifice Data
Human Sacrifice is the deliberate and ritualized killing of a person to please or placate supernatural entities (including gods, spirits, and ancestors) or gain other supernatural benefits.
- Nothing coded yet.
- Nothing coded yet.
Power Transitions
- Nothing coded yet.