The article deals with the problem of spreading to the west of the Okeo Iron Age culture (1st-7th centuries AD) in the light of new archaeological material from the Pum Snai monument in northwestern Cambodia, which was excavated and studied by the author. The inventory of this necropolis shows a strong typological similarity to the material culture of Okeo in the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam and South-Eastern Cambodia, which can be traced not only in luxury items, but also on ordinary materials such as ceramics. This suggests the spread of the Okeo culture far into the interior of the continent, which is important for understanding the main processes of the formation of Khmer culture and statehood. At the same time, the incomparably greater richness and diversity of archaeological material in the Mekong Delta allows us to consider this particular area as the center of this culture.

Keywords: Okeo culture, Pum Snai, Iron Age, Khmer people.

The Iron Age culture of Okeo is one of the key not only for understanding the processes of historical development and the genesis of the state in South Vietnam, but also for studying international relations in Asia in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. At the same time, it is one of the least studied archaeological cultures of Vietnam, significantly inferior in this respect to the cultures of the north of the country.

The fact is that the Okeo culture became known only as a result of Louis Mahleret's excavations at the monument of the same name in the present-day Vietnamese province of Anziang in 1942 and 1944, although some of its monuments were discovered at the end of the XIX century (Bathe, prov. Anziang; Gotthap, prov. Doshthap et al.) and described by A. Parmentier and Corre [Lê Xuân Diêm et al., 1995, tr. 25, 82]. Nevertheless, it was the excavations at the Okeo monument that provided not only sufficient material to highlight the features of this culture, but also a number of sensational objects of foreign origin that showed its connection with the outside world. These are ancient seals and gems published by L. Mahleret, as well as Roman coins of the imperial period (Malleret, 1947-1950; Malleret, 1951-1952). However, at this time, the Second World War was underway, during which Vietnam was occupied by the Japanese. This was followed by the struggle against the returning French colonialists, the American occupation and the War of Liberation, during which archaeological research was almost stopped. Only in 1975 was South Vietnam liberated, and only in the late 1970s did archaeological research resume here.

To date, the monuments of the Okeo culture have been explored and excavated in a wide area of southern Vietnam, in the provinces of Anziang, Kien Giang, Minhai, Can Thu, Chavin, Tien Giang, Dong Thap, Longan, Ho Chi Minh City, focusing around the Mekong Delta. As of 1995, 89 monuments of this culture were already known, the most significant of which are Okeo, Bathe (prov. Anziang), Nentua (prov. Gyeonggiang), Luukyi (prov. Chavin),

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Gotthan (prov. Tien Giang) and others (Lê Xuân Diêm et al., 1995). Since that time, many new monuments have been discovered and excavated, including quite large ones, such as Gokaitung, Anfu, Gokaishung (prov. Anziang), Anfong (prov. Benche) and others, expanding the range of this culture in Vietnam (Phan Thanh Toàn, 2011; Hà Van Can, 2010).

Based on the findings in Vietnam, the Okeo culture can be dated to the first—seventh centuries AD based on a large amount of radiocarbon dating data. The earliest absolute date is obtained from Bakkhe, 1880 ± 50, and the latest, 1150 ± 55, from Dokkhe prov. Minhai [Lê Xuân Diêm et al., 1995, tr. 442-443].

Nevertheless, the geography of the Okeo culture extends to Cambodia, where archaeological research is far behind even in comparison with the south of Vietnam. The last pockets of civil war in Cambodia subsided only in 1998, leaving behind a large number of mines, especially in the north-western part of the country, devastation, lack of roads, a turbulent situation and a large number of weapons on hand for many years. Therefore, archaeological excavations here resumed only in the early 2000s, primarily in the south-eastern regions. The situation has improved significantly in recent years, thanks to the efforts of the Cambodian Government.

Recently, monuments of the Okeo culture were discovered in Prohia, Bit Mia (prov. Prey Veng), village 10.8 (prov. Kampong Cham) from the Cambodian side of the Mekong Delta (Heng Sophady, 2005). At the very border with Vietnam, the ancient settlement of Angkor Borei was excavated (prov. Takeo) [Stark, 2003]. In 2008-2009, A. Reinecke excavated the necropolis of Prohia, which provided rich material on the Okeo culture - a large number of gold, bronze, glass jewelry, etc. - and thus became one of the most significant monuments of this culture [Reinecke et al., 2009]. The discoveries of the Cambodian-German expedition by A. Reinecke not only provided important material on the Okeo culture, which also originated in Cambodia, but also allowed us to discuss again the question of how far into the interior of the continent the Okeo culture was spread.

This problem is important not only from the point of view of studying the international trade routes that passed through Okeo, extending beyond the Indochina Peninsula and reaching Rome in the west, but also from the point of view of the development of Khmer culture and the formation of statehood among the ancient Khmer people, the main people of Cambodia.

The author of this article has been conducting research on the archeology of Cambodia since 2003, having examined a number of monuments mainly in the north-western part of the country. The main difficulty of research in Cambodia is the stability of human habitats, when ancient monuments are mostly located under modern settlements (Laptev, 2006). For me, there is no doubt that for thousands of years the same Khmer people have lived in this territory, unlike most other peoples of the Indochina Peninsula who came here later. Surprisingly, Neolithic tools are found on the territory of modern villages that have the same circumferential shape that Henri Mansuy [Mansuy, 1902] and later L. Mahleret, B.-F. Grolier et al. [Malleret, 1960; Groslier, 1966; Haidle, 2005] noted in ancient settlements. As the Khmer anthropologist Michel Trane wrote, the modern Khmer people are exactly the same people as the ancient ones, only they have undergone Indianization [Trane, 1996, p. 35-37], and their genetic relationship with the Austronesians of the island part of Southeast Asia strongly distinguishes them from other peoples of the Austroasiatic family-Vietnamese and Thais, who came to Indochina later [Trane, 1996, pp. 6-9].

Thus, the key question for the history of Cambodia about the genesis of Khmer statehood is closely intertwined with the problem of the western border of the Okeo culture: whether the current Khmer lands1 were included in this culture, and accordingly whether it was the basis for the origin of the state and the economic, political, social and cultural development of this people, and where its center was located.

1 The Khmer people consider the Mekong Delta to be an ancient habitat and call it "Kampuchea Krom".

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However, there is almost no information about the interior of Cambodia during the Iron Age, with the exception of only a few explored monuments-Prey Khmeng (prov. Siem Reap) and Pum Krasang Thmei (prov. Bantei Menchei, or Banteaimeantjei) [Reinecke et al., 2009] - and only one intensively and almost completely excavated, which will be discussed below.

This is the only exception to the necropolis of Pum Snai, located on the territory of the village of the same name in the commune of Rohal in the district of Pria Net Pria prov. Bantei Menchei. The monument was discovered in 2000 by local residents during the construction of a road and was looted and illegally excavated. The monument provided extensive material on the Iron Age of Cambodia, which was previously only attested by isolated finds (Trane, 1995; Khun Samen, 2002, pp. 66-70). Although much (if not most) of the material found at that time disappeared abroad, a large amount of the material was preserved thanks to the efforts of Dr. M. Trane, then Deputy Minister of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia (Trane, 2006; Trane, 2008). Another piece of material was later purchased by the Reverend Pria Maha Vimaladhamma Pin-Sem Sirisuvanno, abbot of Wat Raja Bo in the village of Wat Bo in Salakamrak Province. Siem Reap.

In 2006, the author conducted a survey of the monument and identified areas that were not affected by the robbery, and in 2007, under the leadership of Cambodian archaeologist Chuch Pyn as deputy project manager, large - scale excavations were carried out at five identified sites, which was, however, minimal compared to the area of illegal excavations. In 2007, a total of 35 human graves and the remains of a stone structure from a later period than the necropolis were discovered. The inventory of burials is quite diverse: ceramics, iron tools and weapons, bronze and gold, gilded, stone and glass ornaments (bracelets, beads, grivnas, etc.), which typologically coincide with the material from illegal excavations in the collections of M. Trane and Wat Bo and in almost all cases belong to the Iron Age. Based on a comparison with material from other sites in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, the monument can be dated to the I-VI centuries, mainly the III-VI centuries, i.e. it belongs to the same time as the Okeo culture (Lapteff, 2007; Lapteff, 2009).

Analysis of the inventory from Poom Snai (including the collections of M. Trane and Wat Bo) shows a close similarity with the material from the Mekong Delta. In ceramics, gray with an average wall thickness prevails, less often, mainly in late periods, - painted thin-walled yellow clay. The vast majority of vessels, except for the so-called kendi (water jugs with a round or amphora-shaped body, spout, without a handle and with a lid) of the late type, are made without the use of a potter's wheel. Ceramics are mostly simple in shape, dominated by round-bottomed vessels: pots with a bent corolla or without a corolla with a medium-wide neck or narrow-necked without a corolla; open bowls without a corolla. Less common are flat-bottomed vessels: jugs with a bent tray and a whisk, "candy". There are a number of vessels on a low leg-stand - these are open bowls without a whisk, less often with a tapering whisk. It should be noted that almost all the same types are present in Pum Sna as in the Mekong Valley [Nguyen Duyong, Nguyen Phung Anh, 1995, tr. 54-58, 70-71; Lê Xuân Diêm et al., 1995, tr. 377-416; Reinecke et al., 2009, p. 44]. These are candy with a characteristic handle shape and a massive corolla, large thin-walled pots without a corolla or with a bent corolla, vessels on a leg, round-bottomed pots with a crushed stone ornament of the lower part, all but one type - long cylindrical round-bottomed vessels (Fig. 1).

The same can be said about ornaments. Like the monuments of the delta, Pum Snai is characterized by a combination of thin-walled unornamented ceramics and thick-walled ones with rope or comb ornaments. Vessels made of yellow clay, as a rule, are painted - they have a thin red stripe on the corolla and in the center of the body. There are also candy bars painted red with ochre. During excavations in Pum Snai, a vessel was also found, painted yellow with stripes of ornament applied in red paint.

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Figure 1. Main types of ceramics from Pum Snai (compiled from [Lapteff, 2009], without scale)

Fig. 2. Main types of bronze equipment from Puma Snai: 1-2-bracelets; 3-ring with the image of a buffalo; 4-bell; 5-bell with the image of a buffalo (photo by S. V. Laptev, without scale)

It consists of alternating horizontal lines and bands of an ornament of suns with divergent rays, the analogies of which are unknown in the delta. Thus, for the vast majority of forms and ornaments, Pum Saya ceramics can be attributed to the Okeo type.

Most of the bronze products in Pum Snai, as well as in Prohia, are made up of various types of bracelets, both closed and with a connector. As a rule, they are unadorned, sometimes covered with spiral ornaments. There are also bracelets with bells, both attached from the outside to the bracelet, and placed in its hollow inner part. Occasionally there are bronze rings (sometimes decorated with the head of a water buffalo), small bells, bells with a noose on top. At various times, several bells and bells with the head of a water buffalo, fragments of a bronze bowl were found in Pum Snai (Fig. 2). Bracelets with horns symbolizing a water buffalo, and rings with the image of its head were found in Prokhia (Reinecke et al., 2009, p. 91-92), which indicates that that the Mekong estuary was characterized by a cult

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Fig. 3. Gold earrings made of Snai Mountain Lions (photo by S. V. Laptev)

this animal (Laptev, 2008). The cult of the water buffalo and the ceremony of its ritual sacrifice are still preserved among the Mon-Khmer peoples (Trane, 2006).

Few iron tools were found in the Sand, and their preservation is very poor, which is explained by the properties of iron as an easily corroding material. From the items that have retained their shape, you can distinguish several short swords, fragments of other tools. Their safety does not allow us to speak about the presence or absence of parallels with the delta. Gold and gold-plated earrings were found in Pum Sna (including during excavations at Excavation E), the type of which is characteristic of the Okeo culture in the delta [Lê Xuân Diêm, Vu Kim Loc, 1996, tr. 34-37] (Fig. 3).

Fig. 4. Beads made of glass and natural stone from Pum Snai (photo by S. V. Laptev)

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5. Fragment of glass slag found at excavation D in Pum Snai (photo by S. V. Laptev)

Glass, carnelian, and agate beads make up a significant group of Poom Snai's inventory. Most of them are round or cylindrical chopped (yellow, orange, red, green, blue or transparent crystal), there are also carnelian beads with a characteristic rhombic shape, glass beads in the form of tubes, black with light stripes (Fig. 4). From the same necropolis come plates of dark glass, decorated with lighter stripes, rectangular in shape with two recesses on the sides. A through hole was made inside the plates, and they were obviously part of necklaces (Lê Xuân Diêm and Vu Kim Loc, 1996, tr. 18-21; Reinecke et al., p. 117; Lapteff, 2006). Except for the last type, all of them are so characteristic of the Okeo culture that we cannot distinguish local types. At the same time, it should be noted that even among other jewelry items, beads were the most frequent object of exchange and did not necessarily have to be made in a given territory. A number of them belong to the so-called Indo-Pacific type (the expression of P. Francis, who first distinguished this type) [Fransis, 1990], which is widespread in wide areas from India to Japan. At Excavation D in Pum Snai, we found a piece of glass slag (Figure 5), showing that some of the glass ornaments, if not completely made, were at least melted down and remade on site. The author has no information about similar finds at other monuments of the Bronze and Iron Ages in Southeast Asia, perhaps the discovery of glass slag here was made for the first time.

What unites Pum Snai with the Okeo culture in the Mekong Delta is not only the inventory, but also, more importantly, the burial rite itself, which is also quite unusual - a combination of two completely different burial rites: horizontal and pit rites in Pum Snai or urn rites in the Mekong Delta, including Prohia, with a significant difference in burial equipment between them [Reinecke et al., 2009, p. 45-58]. In a pit burial site in Sna, bones are piled up in disarray, and the inventory consists of only a small amount of ceramics. Burials of this type are in the minority. In the Okeo culture in the Mekong Delta, they seem to correspond to burials in funerary urns, which were not found in Pum Snai. In horizontal burials, of which there are most, the skeleton is laid on the back with the head on.-

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howl, turned sideways. The skeleton is oriented with the head to the west (north-west), the inventory is quite diverse-ceramics, bronze, glass and stone beads. Ceramic vessels were placed on the stomachs and feet of the deceased. Sometimes a sword was placed in the hand, in most cases bronze bracelets were worn, and gold or gilded earrings were found. This type of burial is also characteristic of the Okeo culture in the delta. The similarity of the burial rite is an important factor that indicates not only cultural influences, but also a high degree of probability of ethnic kinship of the inhabitants in the Mekong Delta and west of Lake Baikal. Tonle Sap.

There is also a question about the center of the ancient Khmer culture and the directions of its distribution. Although the lake district. Tonle Sap is poorly explored, there have been no systematic excavations on monuments other than Pum Snai, and after many years of exploration in this area, scientists have concluded that the center of the Okeo culture and, most likely, the place of its origin were located at the mouth of the Mekong. Monuments at the mouth of the Mekong River are incomparably richer in both typology and inventory. If only necropolises are found in the hinterland (no structures or large accumulations of inventory have been preserved from the alleged settlements, although the location of some of them, such as Pum Lvea in Siem Reap province, can be assumed)2, then in the Mekong Delta, a large number of foundations of buildings made of baked brick or stone, which were former religious buildings, were found. A number of them, such as those in Luukyi (Chavin Province, Vietnam), have a rather complex structure, a stable orientation from east to west, in some cases representing extensive temple complexes (their location on a hill may be evidence of the penetration of Hinduism, where the temple symbolizes Mount Meru, the dwelling place of the gods) [Lê Xuân Diêm et al., 1995].

Inventory in the Mekong Valley is much richer and more diverse, with a lot of elite items. While gold and gold-plated earrings are a rare exception in Pum Snai, gold is quite widespread in Prohia, as in South Vietnam (Reinecke, 2009; Lê Xuân Diêm et al., 1995). In Vietnam, there are also a large number of Hindu and Buddhist stone sculptures (statues of Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, Buddha, Lakshmi, Ganesha, etc.), lingams and yoni. Wooden sculpture has also been preserved, for example in Okeo and Thapmyoi (Dong Thap Province) [Lê Xuân Diêm et al., 1995, tr. 272-276]. The earliest examples of sculpture date back to the fifth century.

In Vietnam, they find a large number of other cult equipment. There is a lot of gold foil with images of deities, people, animals, flowers used as temple offerings, animal bones with holes (also, apparently, traces of offerings), glass lingams and yoni, etc. [Lê Xuân Diêm et al., 1995]; bronze drums were found in Prohia [Reinecke et al., 2009, p. 79-84], which were ritual symbols in the Dong Son culture that existed on the territory of Northern Vietnam-Southern China, and were widely distributed throughout Southeast Asia. Objects of foreign origin are also concentrated in the Mekong Delta: gems and seals with ancient themes or inscriptions in the Indian Brahmi script, Roman and Indian coins (Malleret, 1951-1952; Lê Xuân Diêm et al., 1995).

Apparently, the Okeo culture was oriented towards the sea and spread from the Mekong Delta to the hinterland of the Indochina Peninsula.

Thus, the burials and implements (including mass-produced materials such as ceramics and bronzes) that we found in the Pum Snai necropolis show great similarity to the monuments in the Mekong Delta. The images associated with the water buffalo indicate the closeness of their religious beliefs, which makes it possible to assume that they are not related to each other.-

2 Pum Snai was a vast necropolis that had existed for a long time, but no trace of a settlement was found nearby, despite repeated scouting. It is possible that it was located on the territory of the necropolis itself, but there is no data confirming this, there is only a theoretical assumption of the author.

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It is possible to distinguish the ethnic community of the inhabitants of Pum Snai and the Okeo culture in southern Vietnam, probably the ancient Khmer people. At the same time, the richness and diversity of monuments and their inventory makes it possible to consider the primorsky districts as the center and place of origin of this culture.

The excavation of the Pum Snai monument pushes the western boundary of the Okeo culture far inland, where the Khmer cultural community continued to exist, gradually undergoing Indian influence from the coastal areas.

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