Cave Site in Battambang Uncovers Life Thousands of Years Ago

Battambang- The cave currently known as La Ang Spean, situated in Kilo 38 village, Ratanakmondol district, Battambang, has revealed human activities that dated back to at least 69,000 BC by hunter-gatherers.

Since its discovery by a French couple, Cecile Mourer and Roland Mourer in 1965, along with students from the Royal University of Fine Arts, they have found prehistoric human activities in La Ang Spean from as long ago as 4,240 BC.

They have left behind a variety of artifacts such as rhinoceros bones, thick stone bangles, wild boar pendants, as well as treasures that were used to cover an important person, which dated back to 3,500 years ago.

Mr. Heng Sophady, Deputy Director of the Heritage Department of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, expressed his concern of urgency on the rapidly increasing of development in industrial sectors as factories will be built in the surrounding area and the cave is exposed to looting of valuable objects.

La Ang Spean contained 3 distinct eras of human occupation. At the deepest layer of 5 meters below the ground, archaeologists discovered faint remnants of primitive stone tools that dates back to 69,000 years ago.

The middle layer, contained over a hundred of “Hoabinhian” tools that were first unearthed by the Mourers to which the artifacts dates back to 9,000 and 3,000 BC. Mr. Sophady believes the Hoabinhian people may have lived in the cave. The last layer that is closest to the surface, Mr. Sophady and the French-Cambodian team found the burial sites of four men and one woman dating from 1,700 to 1,300 BC.

Excavations are still being carried out to unearth more history of the people who have lived in prehistoric Cambodia and will continue to provide more answers how people have lived during their respective eras.

The Cave site was found in 1965.

Cave Site in Battambang Uncovers Life Thousands of Years Ago