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

Abstract

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 14 C 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.

Consumption and exchange in Early Modern Cambodia: NAA of brown-glaze stoneware from Longvek, 15th–17th centuries

“…Radiocarbon ages suggest terminal production dates in the 14th century [100], although some scholars have suggested the kilns of Choeung Ek near Phnom Penh continued to fire after the fragmentation of Angkor [58, 101, 102]. Beavan et al [21, 22] note the use of Angkorian Buriam or Torp Chey and Bang Rachan brown-glaze jars during the 15th century by upland communities of the Cardamom mountains. Similarly, Angkorian stoneware storage jars continue to be revered by upland communities and ethnic minorities in contemporary Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam [103, 104].…”

Incisor ablation among the late upper paleolithic people of Tam Hang (Northern Laos): Social identity, mortuary practice, and oral health

“… Sources: (1) Demeter, ; (2) Shackelford and Demeter, ; (3) Kuzmin and Keates, ; (4) Webb, ; (5) Olley et al, ; (6) Durband et al, ; (7) Hanihara and Ueda, ; (8) Kaifu et al, ; (9) Meier et al, ; (10) Hachi, ; (11) Hadjouis, ; (12) De Groote and Humphrey, (13) Humphrey et al ; (14) Barton et al, ; (15‐16) Bocquentin, ; (17) Frelat et al, ; (18) Domett et al, ; (19) Domett, ; (20) Pottier, ; (21) Wallwork, ; (22) Beavan et al, ; (23) Douglas, ; (24) Tayles,1996; (25) Sangvichien et al, ; (26) Sørensen and Hatting, ; (27) Higham et al, ; (28) Higham and Higham, ; (29) King et al, ; (30) Pietrusewsky and Douglas, ; (31) Nelsen et al, ; (32) Tayles et al, ; (33) Higham et al, ; (34) Oxenham, ; (35) Oxenham et al, ; (36) Oxenham and Domett, .…”

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

“…The absence of stratigraphic contexts for these exposed mortuary vessels, and the general paucity of associated occupation deposits, has, until recently, limited our understanding. New studies, however, are improving our knowledge of the geographic extent and duration of the jar/coffin mortuary ritual (Beavan et al 2012(Beavan et al , 2015, the cultural practices and health of the individuals interred in the burial containers (Halcrow et al 2014), and the mercantile activity of these communities, as evidenced from trade-sourced grave goods such as metal rings, glass beads and ceramics (Carter et al 2016;Grave et al 2019).…”

“…The site of Phnom Pel is located at 11°19.0 ′′ 43.0 ′ north, 103°31.0 ′′ 26.4 ′ east at 197m asl, in the Cardamom Mountains of southern Cambodia. It is one of ten known jar-and-coffin burial sites within the highland region, with exposed mortuary jars containing secondary, and often multiple, human interments, and one of the few sites that also features log coffins with single inhumations (Beavan et al 2012(Beavan et al , 2015 (Figure 1). The Cardamom Mountains mortuary tradition examined here differs from contemporaneous practices of lowland Khmer cultures, for whom burial rituals comprised predominantly inhumation, sub-aerial exposure and cremation from the Iron Age (c. 500 BC-AD 500) through to historical times (e.g.…”

“…While there is a growing body of research on the jar-and-coffin burial traditions (Beavan et al 2012(Beavan et al , 2015Halcrow et al 2014;Carter et al 2016), little else is known about these Cardamom highland groups. How, for example, did these communities interact with their lowland contemporaries during the transformative post-Angkorian period (from the late fourteenth/early fifteenth centuries AD to the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries AD (cf.…”