Angkor or After Angkor? – Stoneware Industry in Southern Cambodia

TABATA Yukitsugu1*, SHIMODA Mariko1, Simon Hoad2, Martin Polkinghorne2, PHON Kaseka3, ENG Sitha4, and LENG Vitou2

The prevailing view of premodern Cambodian stoneware production has long held that the industry emerged during the Angkor period and disappeared with the collapse of the Angkorian dynasty. This interpretation remained largely unquestioned for decades, reinforced by the fact that only earthenware production was documented in Cambodia during the French colonial period. Since the 2000s, however, archaeological research at post-Angkorian political centers in southern Cambodia, including Oudong and Longvek, has begun to challenge this narrative. In addition to large quantities of Chinese ceramics, these sites have yielded a substantial number of stoneware sherds in the Angkorian tradition, suggesting a more complex history of ceramic production after Angkor. More recently, stoneware kilns have been identified in Srey Santhor district, a region widely regarded as one of Cambodia’s major political centers after the fourteenth century. In February 2026, full-scale excavation commenced at one of these newly discovered kiln sites. Drawing on the results of this ongoing fieldwork, this paper examines the kiln’s structure, production assemblage, and chronology. It argues that the transition from the Angkorian to the post-Angkorian period should not be understood simply as the disappearance of the stoneware industry, but rather as a reorganization of production under changing political and economic conditions.