| Abstract: |
Sambor Prei Kuk is the site of Īśānapura, the capital city of the Zhenla kingdom. This ancient city primarily consisted of two zones: a temple zone' and a moated city zone'. Temple complexes are mostly concentrated in the temple zone, an area well documented by the surveys led in the first part of the twentieth century. However, more recent surveys, mostly in the western moated city zone, have revealed the presence of many other remnants such as brick shrines, moats, ramparts, embanked causeways, ponds, dams and other features. This article reviews all the available data including some of the key features unearthed during the recent surveys. It presents inscriptions, statues, lintels, and traces of building modification, and-whenever appropriate-describes their spatial distribution. It also discusses their implications regarding our understanding of the site, particularly in terms of chronology of its occupation. While some of the new features support the dating already established by previous epigraphic studies for the occupation of the temple zone' (seventh and tenth centuries), others confirm that the occupation of the moated city also dates back to the seventh century. Furthermore, evidence of rebuilding identified on the newly excavated structures suggests that the city continued to be occupied throughout the Angkorian period and that it may have been then one of the regional centres of the Khmer Empire.
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