A new archaeological campaign on the site of Pœng Ta Roet (Cambodia)

View of the site
Photo by Jean-Baptiste Chevance

This year, Dominique Soutif (EFEO), Jean-Baptiste Chevance (archaeologist, ADF) and Chloé Chollet (PhD candidate, EPHE-PSL) are carrying out excavations on the site of Pœng Ta Roet, located on the eastern slope of Phnom Kulen, Cambodia. The mission is partly funded by the ERC DHARMA project (ERC n° 809994).

Conducted from March 14 to April 8 2022, the purpose of these excavations is to further document the eremitic occupation of the site, which is already indicated by an inscription (K. 172) and rock sculptures depicting, among others, the god Sadāśiva. They will shed more light on the specificities of this kind of occupation, for which our knowledge is still somewhat limited at the scale of the ancient Khmer territory. As such, the mission fit into both Chloé Chollet’s PhD thesis project and the study of the various āśrama (“hermitages”) of the Angkorian Empire, conducted by Chea Socheat (EFEO, APSARA), Julia Estève (ITK/ISIC), Dominique Soutif (EFEO) and Edward Swenson (University of Toronto).