Laang Spean Cave
Laang Spean Rockshelter · Léang Spean
Late Pleistocene Hoabinhian (71–11 ka) → Early Holocene → Neolithic 3600 BCE·Hoabinhian (Southeast Asian hunter-gatherer) → Neolithic Austroasiatic·🇰🇭 Battambang Province, near Sampov Hill (Phnom Sampeou), 30 km from Battambang town, Cambodia
About
About Laang Spean Cave
Hoabinhian–Neolithic rockshelter (c.80000–5000 BP) on Sampov karst hill near Battambang, Cambodia — 1 ha shelter with stratified Hoabinhian lithics (cobble tools, sumatraliths, edge-ground axes), early Neolithic ceramics (3600 BCE), and the famous Laang Spean Hoabinhian burial cluster (15 flexed burials with ochre). Excavated 1966–69 by C. Mourant, 2009–15 by Forestier & Sophady (MNHN–RMAH), Laang Spean documents Hoabinhian → Neolithic transition (forager to rice) with 71 ka occupation span, separating pre-Austroasiatic foragers from Austroasiatic farmers; oldest Hoabinhian in Cambodia.
Why it mattersOldest Hoabinhian in Cambodia (71 ka) — 70,000-year continuity to Neolithic rice; type-site for Mekong Hoabinhian → Austroasiatic transition.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Was 71 ka tool Homo sapiens or Denisovan?
- 02Why persistence Hoabinhian 60 kyr?
Theories
- 01Hoabinhian as long-term lowland forager adaptation before lowland rice dispersal
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.71,000 BP (earliest Hoabinhian cobble tools)
- Period
- Late Pleistocene Hoabinhian (71–11 ka) → Early Holocene → Neolithic 3600 BCE
- Culture
- Hoabinhian (Southeast Asian hunter-gatherer) → Neolithic Austroasiatic
- Builders
- Hoabinhian foragers → early Neolithic farmers
- Purpose
- Long-term karst shelter and burial cave for hill foragers
- Abandoned
- c.2000 BCE Neolithic end (shift to lowland rice)
- Rediscovered
- 1965 R. Mourant; 2009–15 Forestier–Sophady re-excavation
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.71–11 ka
Hoabinhian cobble-tool horizon with sumatraliths
c.3600–2000 BCE
Neolithic ceramics and flexed ochre burials
1966–69, 2009–15
Mourant then Forestier–Sophady stratigraphic excavations and TL dating
On the ground
Structures & features
13.0500° N · 103.0830° E · 150 m · 2 mapped features
Hoabinhian tool layer
lithic scatterHoabinhian cobble tools and sumatraliths 71–11 ka stratified lens
13.0505° N · 103.0835° EOchre burial cluster
cemetery15 Neolithic flexed burials with ochre and ceramics
13.0495° N · 103.0825° E