Fauna from Funan: An Examination of Human-Animal Relationships at Angkor Borei, Cambodia (500 BCE–500 CE)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This talk will discuss the preliminary results from a study focusing on the analysis of select faunal remains from the Early Historic/Pre-Angkorian site of Angkor Borei, Cambodia. Angkor Borei is one of Southeast Asia’s earliest urban centers, located in the Mekong Delta region of southern Cambodia. It was also a prominent trading center from the late first millennium BCE to the first millennium CE. I will present fauna from burial, residential, and industrial contexts that were excavated as part of the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project (LOMAP). Initial identification by previous scholars found both wild and domesticated fauna along with all major local taxa (e.g., water buffalo, pigs, cattle, chickens, crocodiles, various species of deer, rice rats, fresh and brackish water fish species, elephants, etc.). By examining the types and proportions of animals excavated and comparing the dataset from select contexts at Angkor Borei, I will discuss proposed shifts in human-animal-environment interactions, and how these may coincide with diachronic changes in sociopolitical organization, the subsistence economy, and religious practices.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39444.0