Inside the Foundry of the Kings of Angkor

Angkor. The evocative power of this name conjures up visions of majestic stepped temples, rising from the rainforest, each carved with a thousand gods, a thousand warriors, a thousand dancers: Angkor Wat, the Bayon, the Baphuon and many more. Yet these pyramid-shaped structures, wonders of Cambodia’s past and tourist attractions, hide a bottomless void. Where is the Khmer capital? Where did the hundreds of thousands of inhabitants live? Where is his royal palace?

All that remains of this palace is a small temple and some ponds; surrounded by a multitude of shards of tiles and ceramics scattered across the ground – the only remnants of the life that once teemed there. Like the city itself, the royal palace is a ghost: it is made of wood and has not withstood the passage of centuries, monsoons or termites. The only residents are a few recently reintroduced gibbons, which can be heard calling to each other in the canopy; And who, with any luck, can you see darting from branch to branch, fluttering gracefully from tree to tree, always on the verge of falling, and yet never do so?

The excavation site was just north of the perimeter wall. The deafening chirping of cicadas filled the air, with the insects hidden in the spindly trees reaching straight up to burst into a bouquet of leaves 30 or 40 meters high, when the sky finally came into view. There was also the constant chirping of elusive birds, spider webs stretching into tubular traps and, scattered here and there, blocks of sandstone and reddish laterite. Since 2016, a team of archaeologists led by Brice Vincent – ​​associate professor at the French School of Asian Studies (EFEO) and head of the EFEO study center in the neighboring city of Siem Reap – has been drilling windows into the past in this small area behind the terrace of the leper king. More specifically, to a forgotten craft area: the foundry where in the 11^e century, bronze statues were cast on behalf of the kings of Angkor. This is the only known foundry from this period in Cambodia.

Two modest squares to dig out

This multi-year project, called ‘Langau’, which in ancient Khmer meant ‘copper’ – the metal that is the main component of bronze – is supported by the EFEO and the Cambodian Authority for the Protection and Protection of Angkor and the Angkor Region. (APSARA). For this 2024 campaign, two four-metre squares were drawn on the ground and explored, initially with small trowels, under protective plastic tarpaulins, secured with ropes tied to trees. With temperatures expected to reach 38°C in the afternoon, about twenty people – mostly local villagers used to digging – were busy working in the two squares, immediately transporting each bucket of excavated soil to the screening areas . Not a single shard of ceramic, so precious to date, or a fragment of metal left over from the foundry, could be missed.

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