Perspectives from Cranial and Dental Affinity of the Human Remains from Iron Age Phum Snay, Cambodia Hirofumi MATSUMURA1*, Kate M
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCE Advance Publication Vol. advpub(0), 000–000, 2010 On the origin of pre-Angkorian peoples: perspectives from cranial and dental affinity of the human remains from Iron Age Phum Snay, Cambodia Hirofumi MATSUMURA1*, Kate M. DOMETT2, Dougald J.W. O’REILLY3 1Department of Anatomy, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo 060-8556, Japan 2School of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia 3Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Received 11 May 2010; accepted 30 July 2010 Abstract This article presents the results of an assessment of the morphological affinities of the skel- etal remains from a large mortuary assemblage, dated to Iron Age, in Phum Snay, a village in Banteay Meanchey Province, northwest Cambodia. The purpose of the research is to address the origin of these pre-Angkorian people. Multivariate comparisons using cranial and dental metrics, as well as dental nonmetric traits, demonstrate that the characteristic affinities intermediate between the early Holocene Hoabinhian groups akin to Australo-Melanesians and the present-day people in the mainland Southeast Asia. This finding suggests that the ancient people of Phum Snay preserved genetic traits of early in- digenous populations, whereas modern mainland Southeast Asians, including Cambodians, were more affected by gene flow from later migrants from East Asia into this region. Key words: Phum Snay, Cambodia, human remains, pre-Angkorian > Introduction long ( 1 m) swords, found only interred with males, may have had military applications. The human skeletal remains Phum Snay is a village located along National Route 6 from Phum Snay also show some striking differences to between Siem Reap (the center of the ancient great state of those in northeast Thailand, including a high rate of cranial Angkor) and the Thai border in Preah Neat Prey District, trauma and artificial tooth deformation (Domett and Buckley, Banteay Meanchey Province, northwest Cambodia (Figure 1).
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