A 2500 year old archaeological site was unexpectedly destroyed in Cambodia last week. An archaeologist who rushed to the scene was shocked to discover heavy equipment still leveling the land, apparently to create temporary housing for a nearby company. Story by Kent Davis
Local archaeologist Heng Sophady was shocked to see a priceless Cambodian prehistoric site destroyed, apparently for temporary housing.
Memot, Cambodia — The rural Memot area in southeastern Cambodia has proven itself as one of the richest sources of information about the country’s pre-historic development. Ancestors of the primitive people who once lived there later became part of the Khmer Empire. The Khmer, one of the world’s most advanced artistic civilizations, grew to rule most of Southeast Asia only 1500 years after the Memot villages formed.
On Tuesday, September 2, a colleague in the Memot area placed an urgent call to archaeologist Heng Sophady to report the destruction of an ancient village site. Mr Heng rushed to the site, located in Samrong Village and called the Samrong Circular Earthwork.
Example of a circular earthwork in Memot, similar to the Samrong site destroyed.
While historical research in Memot goes back more than 50 years, this site had only been discovered in an aerial photo in 1997 by Waseda University professor Yasushi Kojo.
Memot, Cambodia
Work in the Memot area began in 1959 with French archaeologist Louis Malleret, who described a series of 17 circular earthworks. These mounds represented the sites of early villages.
The first local excavation was begun in 1962 by Bernard Philippe Groslier who coined the name “Mimotien” for the previously unknown civilization. Now 36 massive prehistoric villages have been discovered in Cambodia. Radiocarbon dating and fragments of glass beads found at one site indicate an original settlement date close to 1000 BC.
Irreplaceable History Destroyed for Temporary Housing?
Cambodian Archaeologist Heng Sophady.
As Mr Heng reports, “After, receiving this frightening information, I immediately informed top people in the Ministry of Culture, I phoned the Heritage police and the head of Culture and Fine Arts for Memot District, asking them for intervention to stop the activity. Unfortunately, the damage happened so fast that there was no time for authorities to react.
“Today, I went to Memot very early in the morning… to check what happened there. I arrived at the site around 1PM. I was completely shocked when I saw the site completely destroyed.
“All rubber trees were cut down, the ground was smooth including the wall of the earthwork, the moat filled full by the soil from the earthen wall. I can’t do anything at that time, besides looking and taking pictures of the bulldozer and excavator moving and excavating the earthen wall of the site.
“The site is completely destroyed. [There is] no earthwork anymore in that place.”
The entire prehistoric site in Memot was leveled in a matter of hours.
When Mr Heng asked workers what was happening he was told that the Memot Rubber Plantation was cutting rubber trees and smoothing ground to build a new village for their workers.
The Memot Rubber company website shows a variety of enterprises in addition to the rubber operations including a biogas project, a “Five Star resort” project identified as “Four Points By Sheraton Angkor” and the “TTY Resort” on Koh Kôn Island near Sihanoukville.
It is unclear at this time who ordered the clearing to take place. Mr Heng confirmed that the Ministry of Culture was not informed about their development plans in the Samrong area. He has submitted a full report of the damage directly to the Minister in preparation for a meeting next week.
“This is really a big catastrophe for protection and conservation of archaeological sites in Cambodia ” said Mr Heng, who pleaded for help from others interested in preserving Cambodia’s precious heritage assets.
“Otherwise,” Mr Heng grimly concluded “many other sites will be destroyed in the future.”
ABOUT the MEMOT CENTRE for ARCHAEOLOGY
The Memot Centre for Archaeology
The Memot Centre of Archaeology (including the Memot Museum) is situated in Kampong Cham province in the Memot district’s red soil area, which is rich in historic and prehistoric sites. It is a non-profit research unit of the Department of Archaeology and Prehistory of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.
Originally founded in 1999 by HE Chuch Phoeurn (Ministry of Fine Arts, Cambodia) and Dr. Gerd Albrecht (DAAD – The German Academic Exchange Service) with cooperation from the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the University of Tübingen and the German Embassy in Phnom Penh.
This worthwhile center faced severe financial problems when support from these institutions ended and it now receives funding from Friends of Khmer Culture (FOKCI).
Archaeologists and students work together on an excavation.
Since its inception, the Memot Centre for Archaeology has aimed to educate independent Cambodian scholars in the field of archaeology and prehistory, with an emphasis on both research and basic education for local and non-local public. Trained in the techniques of excavation, making site plans, and procedures of analysis and treatment, the young scholars of the Memot Center contribute to an understanding of the Cambodian heritage.
The Memot Centre for Archaeology website.
March 2007 – New Iron Age Cemetery discovered, immediately looted
OTHER REFERENCES
Gerd Albrecht et al. (2000). “Circular Earthwork Krek 52/62 Recent Research on the Prehistory of Cambodia“. Asian Perspectives 39 (1-2) [Reference to MUSE “access restricted” article]
Thuy, Chanthourn. “Preliminary Study of the Memotian Culture“. Siksacakr – Issue No5. Center for Khmer Studies. Retrieved 2009-02-04. [PDF Download]
Dega, Michael F., “Circular Settlements Within Eastern Cambodia“. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Assoc. Bulletin 18, 1999. [PDF Download 300k]
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15 Responses
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Thanks for posting about this Kent. I know Sophady and have worked with the Memot Centre. I’m very upset to hear this happened.
Thanks for sharing this news. This is such a great loss for Cambodia. The local authority and the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts should have done something clearly to preserve and protect those historical sites.
It is very sad news for the whole humanity. We need to know about the pass and we need explore from every inch of remaining evident of human activity in the pass. But because of money, or crazy investment, some businessmen do not care about history. A few years ago, I heard that one ancient temple was destroy to claim land.
What do the cultural purists have to say now? Obviously this is not an isolated instance because we can document other cases in which so-called source countries abrogate their responsibilities as custodians of our shared cultural past. These destructive acts by custodians in name but not in deed argue in favor of allowing market forces to take over. Those serious about art–dealers, collectors, museums, and galleries–should collect without any national or international interference because they are the true custodians and preservers of culture.
Thank you for commenting, Preap. Please see the follow up article. it seems that this destruction was truly accidental, rather than an act of greed by a land developer. Cambodia is filled with history and identifying and marking the sites is expensive, time consuming and an ongoing process.
I was surprised to read that Arthur Conan Doyle’s home in UK, where he wrote famous episodes of Sherlock Holmes, is destined for destruction. Obviously no nation can afford to keep every relic of its past. Cambodian heritage, however, seems especially important because cultural tourism is an important aspect of the economy as well as being important to national pride and identity.
You bring up excellent points that should be addressed in separate article. Other readers should note that Dr. Bianchi holds a Ph.D. in Egyptian, Greek and Roman Art and has mounted international loan exhibitions of ancient and modern art worldwide.
The ideal situation is for archaeological sites to be found undisturbed, excavated by professionals and then to have their findings made available to the public and academic communities. At the opposite end of the spectrum, even here in the tiny village of Memot, you have impoverished villagers secretly digging up ancient sites in search of salable artifacts. The “trinkets” are sold for the cost of a day’s rice supply while the context and integrity of the archaeological sites are destroyed forever. Although it is happening less, Cambodia has experienced wholesale looting of temple sites by professionals (not counting the 90 years of French colonial domination!) and is trying to fight this trend with programs like the Red List.
But you bring up another aspect, which is how commercial forces can sometimes bring benefits to the situation by preserving and respecting antiquities. One example that comes to mind in Cambodian art involves the book, Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art.
This beautiful book’s controversy arose because it featured some artifacts from “private collections”, albeit artifacts that had been removed from the country decades before when this was legal. Here is where we arrive at the moral quandaries: if antiquities are sold into private collections they sometimes disappear as effectively as if they were never discovered. Furthermore, unrestricted trafficking in antiquities increases the demand to acquire them merely for financial or artistic value, encouraging digging that destroys the context and historical data that would be derived from a controlled dig.
This can result in senseless destruction like my story “Death of an Angel” from 2008.
But in the case of this book, private owners were happy to share images of their carefully kept pieces. My own research is based on images alone. I don’t need to own devata from Angkor Wat to study them. I truly feel that this heritage belongs to the Khmer people and to humanity. To conclude, you raise great points and I invite you to expand on them further in this venue.
An article about an art collector in last weekend’s Bangkok Post relates to Dr. Bianchi’s comments. Douglas Latchford has been collecting Khmer art for 54 years…he is the biggest contributor to the National Museum of Cambodia. Follow this link to view or download the PDF http://devata.org/PDF/2010-09-Khmer-art-Douglas-Latchford.pdf
It is the best news, It should be kept and it should be kept for young Khmer people to know and to learn their ancestors.
You see! is this historic site value less than the Memot Rubber Plantation’s worker village?
I almost cry while reading this article, i thought all these people do not deserve to be born as Khmer.
Kent! This is Laura Mam! This is so important, I recently was sent this article by a friend. I am posting a blog on my organization Global Heritage Fund community post board. Hope its ok if I use the pictures. This information needs to be known far and wide. I feel angry and frustrated by the absolute disregard for heritage in addition to the uncontrolled development. Thanks for posting this.
Those who forget their own root (where they came from) shall be doomed by their own device. Preserving our archaeological and cultural resources is a way that we remember and also honor our glorious heritage.
Continuing the Discussion