ABSTRACT
Although Cambodia has long attracted the interest of archaeologists, it is only recently that research has begun in earnest on sites that predate Angkor. Prior to the late twentieth century, the majority of scholarly endeavor had been focused on the temples of Southeast Asia’s greatest empire. Since the cessation of hostilities in Cambodia in the 1990s, research has recommenced, both on the Angkorian period but also in the periods prior to the foundation of the empire in c.802 ce. This period is of considerable interest for understanding the rise of the state in Southeast Asia and the discovery of cemeteries at many sites presents tantalizing insights into the social and political development of early Cambodia. The majority of excavated prehistoric sites in Cambodia belong to the Iron Age (c.500 bce-500 ce). This is a period in which Southeast Asia was engaged in a wide sphere of trans-regional interaction and exchange evidenced by the presence of exotic items of material culture including agate, carnelian and glass beads, many of which may have been sourced from South Asia. These items, along with the appearance of iron technology, largely differentiate the period from the preceding Bronze Age.
