From the Iron Age to Angkor: new light

on the origins of a state

Charles Higham∗

Excavations at four Iron Age moated sites

0 km 500
in the Mun Valley in Thailand have
identified seminal innovations, defined as
emergent properties, that illuminate the
origins of the kingdom of Angkor. Combined
with recent research at Angkor itself, they
present a compelling case for re-examining
Upper Mun
River Valley fundamental cultural changes that took place
over a period of little more than four centuries,
Bangkok
from AD 400–800. They compare with
Angkor
similarly rapid developments in Mesoamerica
and Mesopotamia; fundamental parallels are
Phnom Penh
evident in the role of charismatic agents for
N change, an ideology conferring god-like status
on leaders, a new and highly productive
economic base, an expanded interaction sphere
for the exchange of prestige goods, and endemic
warfare.
Keywords: Angkor, Iron Age, kingship, social change, rice, plough, reservoirs, state origins

Introduction
The moated sites of north-eastern Thailand were first brought to international attention by
Peter Williams-Hunt in an article published in Antiquity in 1950 (Williams-Hunt 1950).
Having taken a comprehensive series of aerial photographs just after the Second World
War, he prepared a map showing a dense concentration of settlements then assumed to be
prehistoric, but was unable to propose their date and context for lack of any information.
Sensibly, he wrote that: “[t]he total number of archaeological remains is enormous. In some
areas there is scarcely a square mile in which there are not at least three or four sites of varying
size and date. Detailed analysis from the air will take many months and there is the work
of a lifetime on the ground” (Williams-Hunt 1950: 32). In his concluding remarks, he also
stressed that: “[f ]urther comment would be futile. The excavator’s spade alone will provide
the final answer” (Williams-Hunt 1950: 35). Half a lifetime after his words were published,
Amphan Kijngam and I summarised our fieldwork on some of these sites again in Antiquity,
*
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
(Email: charles.higham@otago.ac.nz)

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and my re-reading of that paper reveals how vital it is to have sufficient data within a
reliable chronological framework. We concluded that: “[l]ike William-Hunt’s consideration
three decades ago, this is but a way station on the road to a proper understanding of Thai
prehistory. We are loath to offer firm conclusions until further fieldwork has strengthened

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our data base” (Higham & Kijngam 1982: 108).
I feel that after a further 30 years of spadework, much of it within moated settlements,
another review is timely. Since 1998, I have co-directed with Thai colleagues excavations at
four moated sites in a study area located in the upper reaches of the Mun River (Figure 1).
Our results dovetail with and are best reviewed in conjunction with two advances in
related disciplines that provide new social and geospatial contexts within which to assess the
implications of the new excavated data. The first is Michael Vickery’s reinterpretation of the
so-called Chenla period inscriptions (Vickery 1998). Chenla is a name derived from Chinese
historical records often used to describe an essentially protohistoric period dated between
AD 550 and 800 that followed seamlessly from late prehistory. The need to incorporate
his detailed analyses of the social changes that took place during those vital centuries in
any review of the transition to the state of Angkor is a reminder to avoid Yoffee’s stricture
that “[t]he Mesopotamian historian’s myopia is, of course, matched by the prehistorian’s
tendency to fold his or her tent and steal away at the dawn of history” (Yoffee 2005: 199).
The second is the startling new information provided by remote sensing in general, and
the lidar surveys at Angkor in particular, that have revealed the magnitude of the early
urban complex of Mahendraparvata on the Kulen Plateau, which was probably inspired by
Jayavarman II, the founding king of the first Angkorian dynasty in about AD 800 (Evans
et al. 2013).
Fresh insights into the origins of social inequality also encourage a new synthesis of
the articulation between late prehistory and the origins of the early states. Thus Yoffee
(2012), with reference to Mesopotamia, has stressed the need to identify emergent properties
in the former that can, after a long gestation, rapidly give birth to city states. These
include increasing populations, long-distance trade in exotic materials and the formation
of interaction spheres which stimulated new avenues for the appropriation of valuables and
the gaining of prestige. To these, we can add the importance of agency, the role played
by resolved and charismatic leaders in promulgating social change through, for example,
innovations in warfare, the attraction of supporters, agricultural intensification, significant
changes in ideology and control over the deployment of surpluses (Flannery & Marcus
2012).

The prehistoric Iron Age: 420 BC–AD 600

The chronological backbone to this review therefore has six phases. The first four cover
the prehistoric Iron Age, followed by the period of Chenla and, finally, the first dynasty
of Angkor (Figure 2). Of the four moated sites opened by excavation, Ban Non Wat has
the longest sequence, divided into two Neolithic, six Bronze Age and three Iron Age (IA)
phases. Noen U-Loke has all four Iron Age phases, while Non Muang Kao was occupied
during IA3–4 and Non Ban Jak only during the final phase of the Iron Age. IA1 contexts
at Ban Non Wat (420–100 BC) were dominated by an inhumation cemetery that extended

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Figure 1. The distribution of moated Iron Age sites in the Mun Valley: 1) Noen U-Loke; 2) Non Ban Jak; 3) Non Muang Kao; 4) Phimai; 5) Ban Non Wat; 6) Non Dua.
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Figure 2. Chronology of the Iron Age, protohistoric and Angkorian periods.

east from a series of Late Bronze Age graves. The sample is large: 57 male, 34 female, 18
adults where the sex could not be identified and 33 infant burials. Many mortuary offerings,
including the form of the pottery vessels, continued virtually unchanged. The differences
were seen in the first iron offerings, together with very rare items of glass, carnelian and
agate jewellery (Higham 2011). The transition from the Late Bronze Age cemetery into the
Early Iron Age has been radiocarbon dated on the basis of bivalve shells placed with the
dead. The Bayesian analysis places this transition in about 420 BC (Higham & Higham
2009). These exotic ornaments reflect the fact that from at least the fourth century BC,
and possibly earlier, coastal tracts of Southeast Asia were directly involved in a maritime
exchange network that linked China with India and westward to the Mediterranean world.
Indian craftspeople are thought to have settled in coastal port towns like Khao Sam Kaeo,
and begun manufacturing hard stone and glass beads to meet the requirements of local elites
(Bellina-Pryce & Silapanth 2006). Some of their output was exchanged into inland sites
such as those in the Upper Mun Valley. It was, therefore, during the Iron Age that Southeast
Asia participated in a new and extensive interaction sphere. The demand for new and exotic
goods is seen in the mortuary record and was, presumably, accompanied by increased local
production by participating communities.
The earliest iron artefacts included large socketed spears; bimetallic spears with a bronze
socket and iron blade; tool kits of knives, awls and hoes; and bangles. There was a rise
in the quantity of bronze ornaments found with IA1, and for the first time some of the
bangles and anklets were cast by the lost-wax method. Feasting took place, to judge from the
many fish remains found in mortuary vessels, and the bones of cattle, pig and water buffalo.
Occupation contexts included butchering floors containing stone anvils, iron knives and

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fractured animal bones. There are two groups of graves at IA1 Ban Non Wat, one with the
dead orientated with the head to the north, the other to the south. Neither group, nor any
individuals, stood out on the basis of prestigious mortuary offerings (Higham 2012). Only
six IA1 burials were found at Noen U-Loke. Again, we find evidence for heavy iron spears,
iron ornaments and hoes, but there was no exotic stone or glass jewellery. However, bronze
and iron torcs, tiger- and pig-canine pendants and shell ear ornaments distinguish a group
which included one leper (Tayles & Buckley 2004; Higham et al. 2007).
Iron Age 2 (100 BC–AD 200) is represented by two clusters of inhumation burials at
Noen U-Loke. There are several developments. The dead were now interred in graves filled
with rice. The first glass, carnelian and agate jewellery was found at this site, and young pigs
were interred with the dead. No iron objects were found, and pottery vessels were very rare.
It was with IA3 at Noen U-Loke (AD 200–400) that we encounter what Yoffee (2005, 2012)
would probably call ‘emergent properties’. There were four distinct clusters of burials, each
containing the graves of men, women, infants and children interred in rice-filled graves.
Three clusters contained one or two particularly wealthy individuals, and some infants
were also richly endowed with mortuary offerings. After removing the eggshell-thin ceramic
vessels from the skeleton of one man, we found that he wore an unparalleled quantity of
bronze ornaments: 3 belts, 150 bangles, 67 finger rings and 4 toe rings. Silver coils covered
in gold were worn in his ear lobes, and an iron knife lay by his left hand. Agate and glass
jewellery was also worn (Higham et al. 2007: 214–15). A woman in another cluster wore
a necklace of agate and gold beads, a silver earring and toe ring, 64 bronze finger rings,
9 toe rings and 38 bangles (Higham et al. 2007: 177). Cluster C included a man with 4
bronze belts, 124 finger rings, 33 toe rings and 20 bangles (Higham et al. 2007: 198). Even
an infant less than a year old wore 12 bronze bangles, 5 rings and 7 anklets. However, the
fourth cluster was markedly poorer, and the dead were accompanied by a disproportionate
number of spindle whorls.
One man in cluster C was accompanied by a socketed iron artefact which we have
published as being a spade (Connelly 2007: 435). It has wings and, viewed from the side, it
is asymmetric. An identical specimen was found in a kiln dating to IA4 at the site of Non Ban
Jak in November 2012. One of the wings on this specimen was broken, and it might have
been placed in the kiln to heat it before forging a repair. The asymmetric form, including
the socket, make both unlikely to have been used as spades, and we now interpret these
rare artefacts as ploughshares (Figure 3). This application of iron to agricultural implements
continued into IA4 (AD 400–600), where at Noen U-Loke, the dead, while markedly
poorer than during the preceding phase, were now accompanied by sickles. One young man
belonging to this final phase of the Iron Age had been killed when an arrowhead severed his
spine.
Our knowledge of this later Iron Age is not solely dependent on the cemeteries.
Excavations across the moats and banks that ring each site have dated their construction
to IA3–4. These are, by any measure, substantial engineering works. The five concentric
moats at Noen U-Loke extend over a distance of 200m. Just one of the two moats at Non
Ban Jak is 50m wide, and the banks, labelled ramparts by Williams-Hunt (1950), are still
impressively high. Each site was located by a river or stream that was diverted into the moats.
An examination of aerial photos has not only traced the course of the former river patterns

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Figure 3. Iron ploughshares from Non Ban Jak (left) and Noen U-Loke. The cross section (bottom right) shows an asymmetric
profile more likely to have been needed with a ploughshare than with a spade.

that linked the moated sites, but also linear features congruent with and emerging from the
moats and banks. While examination of these on the ground is for the future, they look
like water capture and distribution facilities. This topic has been exhaustively examined in
Iron Age settlements north-west of Angkor where Hawken (2011) has mapped extensive
prehistoric field boundaries overlain by the regular rice-field banks of the later Chenla and
Angkorian periods.
The area enclosed by the moats in the study area varies from 4.6 to 29.5ha, but there are
much larger sites in the Mun Valley catchment. Non Dua in Roi Et Province covers 109ha,
with a population in the thousands. This site commands an extensive deposit of salt which
was exploited during the Iron Age and the Upper Mun sites are also associated with the
small mounds that accumulated as a result of the local technique of extracting salt.
With excavations away from the cemetery areas of these sites, we have a growing impression
of their constituent parts. At Noen U-Loke, the eastern edge of the settlement had been used
for forging iron. The recovery of moulds for casting bronzes makes it clear that there were
local ateliers for the specialised production of ornaments. Spindle whorls and the impressions
of fabric on iron and bronze artefacts indicate a weaving industry. Salt was manufactured
(Rivett & Higham 2007). At Ban Non Wat, Nigel Chang (pers. comm.) has identified the
presence of a pound to confine cattle and water buffalo, clearly seen in the impressions
of numerous hoof prints. Superimposed clay plastered floors and wall foundations were
encountered in the small excavated area at Non Muang Kao (O’Reilly 1997). A much larger
excavation at Non Ban Jak revealed a sequence of IA4 houses. The lowest had been destroyed
in a conflagration. The clay floors were partially baked by the heat, such that hearths survived
with pottery vessels still in place, along with dense concentrations of carbonised rice grains

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Figure 4. Iron Age house foundations at Non Ban Jak which suffered a conflagration, leading to the survival of carbonised
rice grains. Hearth area A lies within the building, B is located outside. Looking to the east. The scale is 2 metres.

(Figure 4). Being better preserved, later structures revealed solidly constructed, broad clay
walls and floors, the former incorporating postholes for wall timbers infilled with wattle
and daub. One room had ritual connotations, with lidded vessels placed in each corner, and
three burials within (Figure 5). Indeed, there appears to have been a custom of interring
an infant under the floor of a newly constructed house. The Iron Age was also a period of
increasing aridity in an area already prone to drought during the vagaries of the monsoon
(King et al. 2013). The foundation of new and large settlements at Non Muang Kao and
Non Ban Jak during the later Iron Age suggests that the population was growing at this
juncture.
The last 30 years of research in the Upper Mun Valley have transformed our understanding
of these Iron Age sites. The tightly dated Iron Age cultural sequence reveals a concordance
of changes with profound social implications. These begin with the mortuary record.
New and exotic valuables were obtained through exchange, and were interred with elite
individuals. Food was incorporated into burial rites: rice, fish, cattle, pig and water buffalo,
it is argued, reflect sumptuary feasting. As Hayden (2009) has emphasised, feasting provides
the opportunity to exhibit status and gain alliances. Salt was extracted on an industrial
scale and presumably made available for exchange transactions. Labour was galvanised to
construct massive water storage and control measures. Specialist smiths made ploughshares,
hoes and sickles as well as spears and arrowheads. The relative quantities of gastropod
shellfish species at Noen U-Loke reveal a sharp change in the later Iron Age. Pila ampullacea,
which is today a coloniser of fixed rice fields, replaced Filopaludina, a species adapted to

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Figure 5. Ritual chamber in a Late Iron Age house from Non Ban Jak, seen in the right foreground. It has three burials
within and lidded pottery vessels in the three surviving corners. It is separated from other buildings by a town lane. Looking
to the east.

streams with running water (McCaw 2007: 520). It was also at this juncture that Wohlfarth
et al. (2012) have identified increasing aridity due to a weakening of the monsoon.
In Southeast Asia, rice is the engine that drives the state. Its cultivation is greatly expanded
through the employment of animal traction to plough within fixed fields. This parcelling
of land opens the door to the preferential ownership of this most valuable of assets in
sustaining the community. The value of land holdings could also be increased if they lay in
the path of irrigation canals fed by the moats/reservoirs around the settlements. As Rousseau
wrote, “[t]he true founder of civil society was the first man who, having enclosed a piece
of land, thought of saying ‘this is mine’, and came across people simple enough to believe
him” (Cole 1913: 207). The social as well as economic significance of ploughing in place of
hoe agriculture has been explored in depth by Goody (1976). With reference to the Near
East and Europe, he noted that “a man’s potential area of cultivation during one season
could be increased from about 6 acres to a theoretical possibility of some 60 acres” (Goody
1976: 25). This, he argues, had a profound impact on interpersonal relations, leading to the
distinction between lord and serf, landlord and tenant. The essence of the rice agriculture
in the Mun Valley is that rainfall is retained where it falls on bunded fields, and allowed to
percolate slowly through the fields so that blue-green algae can sustain the growing plants.
The traditional use of a single buffalo to haul a plough in the Mun Valley has brought under
cultivation extensive tracts of land that vary in value relative to the ease with which water can
be introduced into the fields during periods of the wet season when rainfall falters. Animal

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traction is used first to turn soil softened by early rains, and then to break up the clods with
a harrow to produce a creamy soil into which rice can be transplanted from seed beds.
Whatever other purposes might have been served by the moats, the presence of deep
water up to 200m wide would have aided defence at a time when the concentration of sites
and the proliferation of iron weaponry indicate the rise of conflict. Again, if there was an
emerging trend to private ownership, then those with preferred access to the water in the
moats/reservoirs would have been able to corner the supply of fish. It is concluded that these
emergent properties reflect a rise in the status and power of social elites during the later
Iron Age. Most fortunately, in north-east Thailand and Cambodia, it is possible to follow
the sequel through the settlements and associated texts dated from the sixth to the eighth
centuries.

Protohistory: the micro city states of Chenla

Many Iron Age settlements akin to those in the Upper Mun Valley are also found south
of the Dang Raek range. Prei Khmeng, Baksei Chamkrong and Lovea, which is ringed by
a double moat, lie within the extent of Greater Angkor. Phum Snay, 60km to the west,
has yielded burials with ceramic vessels, iron weaponry and exotic ornaments that would
have been familiar to Iron Age communities in the Mun Valley (O’Reilly et al. 2006). The
point is that the cultural changes identified in the Thai moated sites were not isolated. The
protohistoric sequel, the Chenla period 550–800 AD, is illuminated by three sources of
information: archaeological, epigraphic and documentary.
The archaeological sites of protohistoric Chenla present a complete contrast to the Iron
Age moated settlements, most of which were by now abandoned. Parmentier (1927) has
published a detailed description of sites, many of which have since suffered looting or marked
deterioration. They are dominated by brick temples, in which a shrine chamber was entered
through a portal embellished with a stone lintel decorated with religious Hindu themes.
These have a wide distribution that extends north of the Dang Raek escarpment into the
Mun Valley (Figure 6). The largest and best-documented centre was known as Isanapura, the
city of Isanavarman. It is dominated by three walled precincts containing brick temples and
sunken pools. The inscriptions record a dynasty of kings, including Isanavarman himself,
who ruled there during the early seventh century. The site also includes a large rectangular
reservoir, and rice field boundaries lie beyond the limits of this centre (Shimoda 2010). A
description of the court of this period has survived in a compilation by the Chinese historian
Ma Duanlin (1883), who mentioned a palace, guards, a large populace and regular royal
audiences.
The archaeological hardware of these vital centuries is provided by the surviving temples,
reservoirs and rice fields, but the social software has to be teased out of the surviving
inscriptions. Carved onto stone stelae, these were inscribed in Sanskrit and old Khmer
languages. Nearly all relate to the foundation and administration of a temple. They regularly
refer to a ruler or the title and name of a local grandee associated with the temple foundation
and its maintenance. The Khmer text includes information on rice fields, their boundaries,
donations of surplus products to the temple, and the number and duties of individuals
assigned to its support.

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Figure 6. The distribution of sites mentioned in the text, and Chenla period inscriptions: 1) Ban Non Wat; 2) Non Muang
Kao; 3) Noen U-Loke; 4) Non Ban Jak; 5) Lovea; 6) Prei Khmeng; 7) Phum Snay; 8) Isanapura; 9) Mahendraparvata; 10)
Banteay Prei Nokor; 11) Phimai; 12) Phanom Rung; 13) Phanom Wan.

The inscriptions reflect a social organisation with a vrah kamraten an at its apex. This
Khmer title may be translated as ruler, or king, but it was also applied to gods, suggesting
that the king was at least semi divine. Personal names of rulers ended with the Sanskrit title
-varman. Hence the name Isanavarman means protégé of Siva or Siva’s shield. There was
no single state or ruler at this time, but rather a series of competing micro city states. Some
inscriptions record a local hegemon appointed over a dependent centre by a king. Others
name a local ruler but no such dependency.
Vickery (1998) has extracted from the available texts the divisions of the population below
these rulers. Pon was a title accorded a person of high status, who exercised authority over
temples and their sustaining populace. It is important to appreciate that the temple was not

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just an institution for the worship of an indigenous god or a Hindu deity, but it fulfilled the
role of a community ritual and economic centre, to which donations of land, workers and
domestic stock including cattle and buffalo were directed. The personnel included dancers,
singers and officiants, as well as weavers, spinners, leaf sewers, potters and field workers. The
surpluses of cloth, precious metals, ceramics and foodstuffs including rice were available for
the pon to deploy to maintain the non-productive section of the community, exchange with
other elite leaders, and accumulate for such social purposes as feasting. These texts describe
the pon as being in charge of water reservoirs, which are often cited when designating rice
field boundaries. Thus a web of social and economic characteristics identified in the Chenla
texts resonate with the late prehistoric Iron Age: elite individuals, weavers, potters and
smiths, as well as bounded rice fields and water control.
Conflict has also been identified in the Late Iron Age, and this too is documented in a text
that describes how King Jayavarman I (‘victorious shield’) went to war in the autumn, when
his enemy’s moats were dry. There is a series of inscriptions by a man named Citrasena,
later King Mahendravarman (‘shield of the great Indra’), recording his campaign up the
course of the Mun River, one which might well be linked with the abandonment of Late
Iron Age sites in that region and absorption of the population into new centres. Although
the concentration of inscriptions and temple sites lies south of the Dang Raek escarpment,
the interest shown by Citrasena in the rich rice lands of the Mun floodplain is given
archaeological credibility by the presence of brick temples, and a number of poorly dated
but relevant texts. At the later Angkorian centre of Phimai, Iron Age occupation has been
found under the main temple, but the construction of the latter entailed the destruction
of an earlier brick shrine. Phanom Wan, a second Angkorian temple complex in the Mun
Valley, overlies an Iron Age cemetery and the remains of a brick structure (Talbot & Janthed
2001). Jacques (1989) has reviewed inscriptions from Phimai and Wat Ban Song Puay which
name a king, a dynastic sequence, and two ‘kingdoms’, Sambuka and Sri Canasa.
These surviving texts are probably the tip of the iceberg, for many other instances of
conflict will not have been recorded. Thus, these three protohistoric centuries witnessed the
extremely rapid rise of ruling elites claiming divine titles, the establishment of hereditary
inequality on an intense scale, and warfare designed to take territory and place trusted
followers into new administrative centres. Interpretation of this period as one characterised
by warfare and the rise and fall of competing microstates is supported by the records of Tang
Dynasty tribute missions from Southeast Asia (Smith 1979). During the first half of the
seventh century, 20 microstates sent 41 missions. The next 50 years saw 28 missions from 14
microstates, and in the first half of the eighth century, the number of named polities fell to
5, and the number of missions rose to 29. One inference is that the number of independent
microstates fell through a process of conquest and consolidation. Some of these have been
identified as being located in north-west Cambodia by Wolters (1974).
If we incorporate agency into the transformation from competing city states to unification
matching, for example, that of Sargon of Agade, then King Jayavarman II is the prime
candidate. Very little is known of him, the most informative inscription from the site of
Sdok Kak Thom being set up on 8 February 1053. The consensus is that Jayavarman was a
charismatic leader whose initial royal centre was located at or near Banteay Prei Nokor on
the left bank of the Mekong River. With his followers, he moved upriver before heading

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for the vicinity of Angkor. He was engaged in several battles, and settled his loyal followers
on conquered land. In a mystical religious ceremony traditionally dated to AD 802, he was
consecrated the cakravartin, or supreme leader on earth, at a temple complex on the Kulen
upland north of Angkor. It is here that the results of the recent lidar surveys have made a

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critical contribution to archaeological research on this seminal development. By penetrating
the jungle on the Kulen, lidar surveys have identified the layout of a city that is quite
possibly Mahendraparvata, the first capital of Jayavarman (Evans et al. 2013). Temples were
henceforth constructed on an ever-increasing scale, and were dedicated to the king often
syncretised with the god Siva in the form of an erect stone phallus known as a linga. Some
rulers were aligned with Visnu, while Jayavarman VII portrayed himself as a bodhisattva.
Shrines were erected to honour deified ancestors. Although the succession to the highest
office was at least thrice accompanied by changes in dynasty and endemic warfare, the state
of Angkor endured for a further 750 years.

Conclusions
Evaluation of the rapid transition from the Late Iron Age into the kingdom of Angkor is
sharpened by incorporating comparative instances of state formation. This continues to be a
topic with no theoretical consensus. Thus Flannery and Marcus (2012) have focused on the
foundation and both the common and individual characteristics of first-generation states in
Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia and Egypt, liberally employing comparative information from
our cognate discipline, social anthropology. Their volume stresses the value of identifying
studies that “could be most readily used to interpret the archaeological evidence . . . that either
captured an important moment of social change or made explicit the logic of inequality”
(Flannery & Marcus 2012: xii). Their choice of early states for detailed examination was
determined by those providing “evidence of residences, public buildings, ritual features, or
burials that show some aspects of inequality” (Flannery & Marcus 2012: xiii). None of their
examples lies east of Mesopotamia.
These and related sequences have encouraged Flannery (1999: 15) to list instructions for
agents bent on founding a state: be a charismatic and ambitious male, secure loyal followers,
adapt your society’s ideology in your favour, innovate to provide an efficient subsistence
economy, identify and exploit new military methods to defeat and subdue rivals, and place
trusted kin or supporters to rule new territories. Documenting this list archaeologically
must be dovetailed into identifying emergent properties and tracing the rise of powerful
elites. With the later Iron Age, these have been identified through the banks that ringed
the sites to retain and control the flow of water. Smiths fashioned heavy iron ploughshares
and sickles. At Lovea in Cambodia, rice field boundaries radiated out from the moats. The
division and improvement of land and increased production occurred as elites at Noen
U-Loke were being interred in graves filled with rice, along with outstanding sets of exotic
ornaments. Smiths also forged iron arrowheads and heavy spears. Some settlements grew
to be much larger than others. Valued cattle and water buffalo were protected in corrals
within the moats, and substantial houses were constructed in the residential quarters of the

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moated towns. It is suggested that this was a period of formative social change involving the
emergence of powerful leaders rooted in hereditary inequality.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank my co-directors Amphan Kijngam and Rachanie Thosarat for their invaluable contribution to
the Origins of Angkor research project. Funding for the excavation of Noen U-Loke, Ban Non Wat and Non
Muang Kao was provided by the Marsden Fund and Earthwatch and its Research Corps. The current fieldwork
at Non Ban Jak is funded by the Australian Research Council (DP110101997) through a grant to Dr D. O’Reilly
and Dr L. Shewan. Documenting the age and sex of the human burials from the Upper Mun Valley excavations
has been undertaken by Associate Professor N. Tayles, Dr K. Domett and Dr S. Halcrow. I am most grateful for
the constructive comments from two referees.

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