| Abstract: |
The Southeast Asian polity of Angkor (802-1431 CE) was unprecedented in stability and scale, and left a rich artistic and architectural legacy in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Yet, its origins are little understood. While the upper Mun River valley of Northeast Thailand was a critical part of the empire of Angkor, its significance has often been overlooked, and little is known of the region in the centuries immediately before Angkor. Two archaeological excavations provide new evidence about Iron Age (c. 500 BCE-500 CE) and Early Historic (c. 500-800 CE) communities in this region. Mortuary analysis of over 120 Iron Age burials from the moated site of Noen U-Loke the largest such excavation to date suggests a community under significant social stress, resulting in a dramatic intensification in mortuary ritual shortly before site abandonment. An excavation at an important Angkorian temple, the Prasat Hin Phimai, recovered Iron Age ceramics and the remains of a brick structure that had been re-used as temple foundations but which would seem to date to the eighth century. This archaeological evidence is considered in light of the regions early historical records, particularly those concerning an important indigenous matrilineally inherited male position <i>pon</i>, the replacement of which was critical to the development of Angkor. The story of the development of Angkor is one of increasingly centralised power, as, over the course of generations, heterarchical strictures on greater hierarchy were gradually overcome. This process can be traced back to late prehistory.
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