Proceso de Mejoramiento

6.7 6.7

6.7 Communication networks Communication networks Communication networks Communication networks

6.7.1 Cluster network

The unbroken areas of colour in the Kernel representations in Figure 19 indicate zones where inscription sites are in close proximity, namely where the 25 km radius zones of influence overlap. This suggests there were long-standing communication links between them, forming a communication zone which covered a broad area of the Khmer heartland in both the Pre-Angkorian and Pre-Angkorian periods. This is apparent even in the reigns of individual Pre-Angkorian rulers (Appendix 11). A suggested network based on this communication zone is depicted in Figure 20. The dominant communication corridor ran from Angkor to the south of Cambodia, continuing beyond the south-east roads through Prah Nan, crossing the Tonle Sap River and the Mekong River, and continuing to the south through the Pre-Angkorian heartland on both sides of the Mekong. Other routes are indicated along the Mekong River from Sambor, linking to regional centres in the south. Use of water or land would have depended on the seasonal flow of the river. The Angkorian east road has been traced to Vat Phu and the north-west road to Phimai, and these appear to be termini. However, it is possible that the north-west road ending at Sdok Kak Thom continued further, ultimately connecting Angkor to the Lopburi region in central Thailand. The furthest stretches of the west road and the north-west road are

119Some sites may not be attributable to Khmer influence, though they would indicate areas of long duration of occupation.

less visible than the sections closer to Angkor and this may be because there was more military and trade movement nearer to the capital. Alternatively, the ends of these two roads may represent the border between cultivable and savannah lands (Hendrickson 2007: 181;

244). The rich rice-producing area around Vat Baset (Battambang) was accessible via the Tonle Sap Lake during the wet season, but less often in the dry, when communication would, as today, have been by a road circumventing the lake.

Figure 19 Cluster groups and prominent sites (Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian periods)

Figure 20 Suggested land communication corridors.

It is also possible that an extension of one of the formalised south-east roads continued beyond Prasat Andaet to the south (Groslier 1973: 117; see also Section 3.3.1). Groslier (1998[1986]: 262) argues that Jayavarman VII built Vat Nokor and Ta Prohm of Bati (in the Vat Bati cluster), both west of the Mekong, to establish a borderland and military bases against the Cham, with whom the Khmer were engaged in numerous conflicts in the south (Hendrickson 2007: 250). Communications between sites of predominantly Pre-Angkorian areas and sites in

the north have yet to be studied (Hendrickson 2007: 191) and it has yet to be demonstrated that the south-east roads continued to Vat Nokor, as originally suggested by Albrecht (1905:

10 cited in Hendrickson 2007: 189). However, any extension of formal roads to the south may have been of lower importance than other roads closer to the capital in the Angkorian period.

Figure 21 shows the same corridors together with water routes. Navigability varied according to the season, particularly during floods and very low flows. The most important route was from Angkor to the sea along the Tonle Sap, Tonle River and the Mekong River. From the junction of the Tonle River with the Mekong, another vital water route would have gone upstream to Sambor and possibly beyond to the Khone Falls. Beyond the Khone Falls, the Mekong is navigable, past Vat Phu, to Vientiane and further north.

Water transport is often faster and more cost effective than roads, especially for bulk goods.

Trade goods, arriving overland or by sea from the delta area may have reached Angkor via the Mekong River system and the Tonle Sap (Section 3.3.1). Although much sea traffic between India and China by-passed the Cambodian coast, and post-Funan ports have not yet been found in the Mekong delta region (Pierre-Yves Manguin 2008, pers. comm.), it seems likely that some trade would have been conducted along this route.

Goods could be transported from the Tonle Sap Lake to Preah Vihear via the Sen River, then over the Dangrek Range to the Khorat Plateau, although the Angkor-Phimai road was a more direct route to Angkor. North of the Dangrek Range, the Mun River system was navigable in parts (Hendrickson 2007: 244) and could have facilitated communication between Lopburi and the upper Mekong system. Lopburi, which was controlled by the Khmer in the first half of the 11^th and in the 12^th century, was important for access to commercial centres on the Isthmus of Kra and international trade routes (Hall 1985: 173-176). Population centres on major rivers and roads must have been an essential feature of trade networks for provisioning, exchanging goods, storage and duty collection, although we have no evidence of these activities in the Khmer texts.

Only two inscriptions refer to river transport (K. 940/ 7^th c. and K. 364/ 12^th c.) although four others mention boats. While settlement in the 11^th century was often associated with river systems (Hall 1985: 173; Groslier 1998[1974]: 114), the many Angkorian sites near rivers originating in the pre-Angkorian period indicate that settlement began earlier. For example, the long-duration Vat Baset cluster in the Battambang area was in easy access to the Tonle Sap Lake and Angkor by water.

Figure 21 Khmer land and water communication routes