The history of Cambodian prehistory through excavations at Laang Spean cave since the 1960s

Conference given by Hubert Forestier, professor at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) and organized by the Association d'Echanges et de Formation pour les Etudes Khmères (AEFEK) and Inalco's South-East Asia and Pacific department.

Fouilles de la grotte Laang Spean (Cambodge) — Fouilles de la grotte de Laang Spean ou « grotte des ponts » (Province de Battambang) © Mission préhistorique franco-cambodgienne‎

Organizer(s)

Southeast Asia and the Pacific

Type

Conference

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The Laang Spean cave or "bridge cave" (Battambang Province) is a major prehistoric site for Cambodia and Southeast Asian prehistory that was discovered and excavated between 1965 and 1970 by two French archaeologists Roland and Cécile Mourer (Musée d'Histoire naturelle & CNRS-Univ., Lyon).

After a 45-year hiatus, the Mission Préhistorique Franco Cambodgienne (MPFC) led by Hubert Forestier (MNHN) and Heng Sophady (URBA-MCFA), reopened excavations in 2009 thanks to support from the Cambodian Ministry of Culture/URBA in Phnom Penh, the MEAE, the SCAC of the French Embassy in Cambodia, the CNRS and the MNHN.

This exceptional cavity of over 1,000m2 of floor space nestled at the summit of the "Phnom Teak Trang" limestone massif, offers all the archaeo-stratigraphic assets of a major site to trace in diachrony (13 meters deep), the chrono-cultural stages of prehistoric settlement: traces of ancient settlement (71,000 BP), the last Paleolithic hunter-gatherers known as Hoabinhians (12,000 and 5,000 cal B.C) to the first Neolithic farmers of the Battambang plain (1,500 cal. BC).

The aim of this talk is to place the history of excavations at Laang Spean within the history of archaeological research in Cambodia; as well as to outline the main results recently obtained by the MPFC.

Speaker: Hubert Forestier, Professor at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), in the Homme et Environnement department, UMR 7194 - Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme Préhistorique (MNHN-CNRS-UPVD) and head of the Mission préhistorique au Cambodge.