下記の通り、12月の東南アジア考古学会例会をご案内いたします。今回は奈良文化財研究所との共催でオーストラリアより2名の研究者をお招き し、最新のアンコール研究成果をご発表いただきます。
また今回は関西での開催となります。年末のお忙しい時期とは存じますが、みなさまどうぞご参加下さい。
日時 2013年12月１4日 15時～
場所 奈良文化財研究所仮設庁舎南棟1階会議室（平城宮跡内、平城宮跡資料館南側）
発表１
発表者氏名 Damian Evans
所属 Director, University of Sydney Robert Christie Research Centre, Siem Reap, Cambodia
発表タイトル Towards a Landscape Archaeology of Cambodia’s ‘Middle Period’, 15^th to 19^th Centuries AD: New Approaches Using Lidar and Palaeoenvironmental Techniques
アブストラクト
Recent archaeological work in Cambodia has begun to offer crucial insights into the broader currents of history across Southeast Asia, including the long-term persistence of inland, agrarian centres well beyond the so-called ‘collapse’ of the empires they were once closely identified with. And yet, even as our understanding of the classical Angkor period has grown rapidly in recent years, there have been very few studies into the history of human-environment interactions outside of Angkor’s urban core. Meanwhile, almost no work whatsoever has been undertaken in relation to Cambodia’s ‘middle period’ (15th to 19th centuries AD), the very period when increasing globalisation supposedly precipitated radical transformations in the historical geography of the region. Throughout this period, the lack of monumental architecture, great cities, hydraulic works, textual records, works of art, and other forms of material seems to present a striking contrast to the vitality and productivity of the Angkor period that preceded it. Although Chandler and others have referred to this period as the ‘Dark Ages’ of Cambodia, there are compelling reasons to believe that this apparent ‘darkness’ is simply a historical and archaeological lacuna that reflects a shift to less durable forms of material culture, rather than a lack of dynamism or prosperity in Khmer civilisation. Equally, it may simply reflect the overarching dominance of studies of the classical Angkor period in Cambodian archaeology and historiography.
By taking advantage of diverse research methods in the domains of archaeology, remote sensing, GIS, ceramic analysis, and palaeoenvironmental research, a joint team of Japanese, Australian and Cambodian researchers proposes to address this empirical deficit.
Utilizing a suite of complementary geoscientific techniques, we hope to chart the trajectory of decline of urban populations at inland provincial urban centres across northwest Cambodia, including in the Angkor region. Furthermore, we plan to definitively locate, identify and map the major middle period cities in Cambodia using lidar remote sensing and GIS; conduct the very first palaeoenvironmental studies of those urban areas to elucidate aspects of chronology, environment and residential life; conduct extensive and systematic surface surveys to document ceramics and other time-diagnostic material remains; and use spatio-temporal modelling to analyse the changing patterns of human-environment interactions within those settlement contexts. This presentation will detail similar research activities that have been completed so far in the Greater Angkor region, and suggest a strategy for applying those same methods to the archaeology of the Middle Period.
発表２
発表者氏名 Martin Polkinghorne
所属 Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow
発表タイトル Bronze production at the Royal Palace Workshop of Angkor
アブストラクト
Angkorian sculpture is universally recognised for its simplicity of orm, harmony of composition, attention to detail and mastery of technical execution. Every public art collection of note includes Khmer bronze sculpture, as well as a wide range of objects made of the same material. Until recently, the composition of these bronze or copper alloy artefacts and the methods of manufacture were unknown. For the first time in Southeast Asia a multi-disciplinary project has identified a ‘studio’ where both statues and objects were crafted and united this discovery with characterisation studies of manufacturing debris and finished products.
Preliminary results from archaeological excavations north of the Royal Palace in Angkor Thom, reveal much about the processes of production and distribution of Angkorian bronze metallurgy. The close proximity to the Royal Palace complex suggests that the atelier was of great importance to the kings of Angkor who devoted considerable resources and religious investment in bronze images of the Gods, as well as in ritual paraphernalia and temple decoration. Complementary technical investigations of the excavated material, such as molds, crucibles and
bronze slag can consider the chai^ne ope'ratoire of the lost-wax casting process privileged by Angkorian bronze craftsmen.
