Northeast Thailand before Angkor: Evidencefrom an Archaeological Excavation at the Prasat Hin Phimai

Northeast Thailand (Isan) was incorporated into the polity of Angkor around the
end of the first millennium A.D. Well before this time, local communities in the
Phimai region had adopted important activities such as the use of inscriptions and
the construction of religious architecture in permanent materials. In 1998, the Origins
of Angkor Project undertook an archaeological excavation at the most important
Khmer temple in Thailand, the Prasat Hin Phimai. The excavation recovered
late prehistoric ceramics and remains of an early brick structure, probably religious
in nature, which had been re-used as part of the foundation of the sandstone Angkorian
temple. keywords: Angkor, Phimai, Mun River, Thailand, Isan, prehistoric,
architecture.