In the Foundry of the Kings of Angkor

Angkor… The evocative power of this name carves out of the rainforest majestic mountain temples carved with a thousand gods, a thousand warriors, a thousand dancers: Angkor Wat, Bayon, Bafuon and more. However, these pyramidal structures, wonders of Cambodia’s past and tourist magnets, cover a gaping void. Where is the Khmer capital, where hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants lived, where is its royal palace?

In the enclosure of the latter, only a small temple and pools remain, surrounded by numerous fragments of tile and pottery scattered on the ground, the only remains of the life that once roamed there. Like the city, the palace of the kings is a ghost, as it is made of wood and has not withstood the passage of centuries, monsoons and termites. Its only inhabitants are the recently introduced gibbons, which we hear calling to each other in the canopy, and which, fortunately, we can see swinging from branch to branch, swaying like a tree, always teetering on the brink and yet never falling.

Here we are just north of the city wall. The deafening stridulation of cicadas hidden in these spiky trees, which, like me, explode straight into a bunch of leaves, 30 or 40 meters above, when the sky finally appears. The constant chirping of birds, spider webs stretched across the tubes and here and there blocks of sandstone or reddish laterite. It is in this small area, at the back of the terrace of the leper king, since 2016, a group of archaeologists led by Brice Vincent – a lecturer at the French School of the Far East (EFEO) and in charge of the study center. The mentioned EFEO in the neighboring city of Siem Reap – pierces windows into the past. And more precisely in the forgotten craft area, in the foundry, where St^e century, bronze statues were cast in the names of the kings of Angkor. The only known foundry of this period in Cambodia.

Two modest squares to find

Named Langau, a word meaning “copper” in ancient Khmer—the metal is the main component of bronze—this multi-year project is supported by EFEO and the Authority for Area Protection and Regional Development. of Angkor (Apsara) Cambodia. For this campaign in 2024, two squares of 4 meters on either side are drawn on the ground and the survey begins with a small skirt protected by a plastic sheet stretched by ropes hanging from trees. In temperatures that will reach 38°C in the afternoon, about twenty people – mostly villagers digging – are busy in two squares, each bucket of evacuated earth is hurriedly transferred to a sieve. We must not miss the slightest shard of pottery valuable for dating or the tiniest bit of metal escaping from the foundry.