What appears to be an ironworks site has been found in the village of Khav in Siem Reap, the first of its kind found in Cambodia by the Apsara Authority. The site seems to date between the 11th and 13th centuries.
Cambodia finds its 1st ancient ironworks site in history
Xinhua, 05 September 2009
Ironworks site a ‘goldmine’
Phnom Penh Post, 07 September 2009
The Apsara Authority of Cambodia has found and excavated for the first time in its history the ancient ironworks site at Khav village, Khav commune, Chi-kreng district of Siem Reap province where is the home of Angkor Wat temple, the local media reported on Saturday.
“We have excavated four sites and each site has size of five meters in length and two meters in width, and we also found iron mines, some potteries, pieces of cook, some bamboos, other ancient materials, and a tube for blowing the air into the ancient cook to melt the iron stone,” the khmer language newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea quoted Ea Darith, deputy director of temple conservation for external affairs of Angkor wat park as saying, who is also expert for leading the excavation group.
“Those sites were used for melting iron mines and it was belonged to aborigine “Kouy” and their relatives still exist in living in Cambodia now,” he said. “They melted those iron mines to produce as guns, swords, javelins, and other daily households including axes, knifes, and chisels for the king at that time,” he added.
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