Fauna From Funan: Investigating the Changing Ritual Roles of Animals at Angkor Borei, Cambodia (500 BCE-500 CE)

Tiyas Bhattacharyya

Animals play vital roles in religious traditions and ritual practices around the world. These roles include associations with deities, offerings, and food taboos. Given how these relationships are intrinsically tied to religious ideologies, a question I will explore is: How are human-animal relationships transformed when communities undergo major religious changes? In this presentation, I will address this question by examining the ritual roles of animals from the Early Historic site of Angkor Borei, Cambodia by examining faunal remains excavated as part of the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project (LOMAP). Initial identification by previous scholars found both wild and domestic fauna along with all major local taxa (e.g., water buffalo, pigs, cattle, chickens, crocodiles, various species of deer, rice rats, fresh and brackish water fish species, elephants, etc.). Angkor Borei is an early urban centre that grew during a period of intensified interactions with South Asia. Early on, these interactions were focused primarily on trade; however, over time, South Asian ideologies were widely adopted. My research focuses on this transitional period. I will examine the use of cattle, associated with Hindu religious practices, and of water buffalo and pigs, associated with indigenous ritual practices, to assess the adoption of Indic religious practices and the persistence of indigenous belief systems.