Team members Pov Suy (in trench), Phirom Vitou (front), Alison Carter (middle) and Pipad Krajaejun (back) examine a trench. SUPPLIED
“Basically, anything that anyone does around the house and at home, we’re trying to find material evidence of that,” she added.
The idea for her project stemmed from a 2013 excavation within the Angkor Wat enclosure that found ceramics, cooking vessels, Chinese tradewares and other features that suggested human habitation. It was an important find, said Carter, but one that was largely overshadowed by the published results of another project: an extensive aerial laser surveying – known as lidar – of Angkor and its surrounding temples that was released around the time of the 2013 dig.
Along with evidence of daily activities, Carter and her team are also looking for signs of postholes in their mound.
“It’s a tricky process. It’s hard to study Angkorian houses because the houses themselves were above ground, so we’re using a variety of different strategies to try to pick up as much information as we possibly can,” she said.
Those strategies include methods that have not been used so far in the study of Angkor, such as soil analysis. Through several methods, including analysis of both macro and micro materials, team members can deduce a number of things from the dirt: where there might have been entryways, which areas were used for food preparation and areas where there may have been a garden.
Dougald O’Reilly, a senior lecturer in archeology at the Australian National University, said that to date, most research of the Khmer empire had examined things mostly from a macro perspective.
“It is encouraging to see this type of work being undertaken to bring to light the subtle nuances of daily life at Angkor at the height of its power. It will bring a far more textured understanding of the past,” O’Reilly said.
Carter said that, due to a binding agreement with National Geographic, she was unable to disclose the specific details of what her team had discovered so far.
However, she did say that the team had discovered a lot of ceramics that seemed to be related to cooking.
“We’re finding evidence of how the mound was constructed and how people might have been living on it,” she said.
Team member Cristina Castillo, from University College London who is studying macrobotanical remains, said they hoped to continue the research in the residential areas to find out more about the local people’s diets and farming systems, which may have included horticultural activities adjacent to their residences.
“After all, rice was the staple, but they were eating a variety of crops, and fish and animals, as well,” she said.
Carter stressed that this excavation was just the beginning of what she hoped would be a renewed focus on the lives of regular Angkorians.
“Once we start getting a bigger data set of house mounds and households then we can really start seeing and saying a lot more about Angkorian society and what the daily lives of people were like,” she said.
“This is the power of archaeological research – to give a voice to these parts of the past.”
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/archaeologists-digging-search-common-people