| Abstract: |
Background Based on the interpretation of ancient inscriptions, on art history and on historic architecture, the seventh century is assumed to mark the beginning of the political dominance of the city of Isanapura. Researchers believe that the city and political centre encompassed the Sambor Prei Kuk temple complex in Kampong Thom Province. The city is thought to be the capital city of the Chenla polity during the reign of Isanavarman I. However, with the exception of preliminary accounts from Groslier's unfinished work, no archaeological evidence addressing urbanisation and settlement has been recovered to assess the validity of these speculations. Chenla was a prominent polity and Isanapura, located at Sambor Prei Kuk, was its most likely capital. Groslier's excavations in 1962 (Groslier 1962) shed light on a continuing occupation that spanned periods beyond what inscriptional evidence suggests. Chenla is consistently assumed to fit conveniently within the seventh to ninth centuries. As with Groslier's work, unpublished assessments indicate that it is likely that Sambor Prei Kuk had a significant and interactive population well before and after its definitive period. 1 Thus, 1 Chenla is a periodisation created by historians who have based it on Chinese accounts. However, Chinese and Vietnamese continued to refer to Cambodia as Chenla until the 20th century, demonstrating the continuation of this polity until the modern period.
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