Ancient Site Threatened with Looting | Heritage Watch - Preserving thePast, Enriching the Future

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KI Media has reported that Toul Trapeang Ang (Royal Pond Hill) is a thousand year old ancient man-made hill located in Romeas Haek district in Svay Rieng province was recently looted by local police and military police.

It was reported that at 7 PM on the 16th of January, 2009, four officials from Romeas Haek district, including the chief of Sambath Meanchey district and local police chief with four military police officers, went to Toul Trapeang Ang to search for valuables but they were prevented by the villagers from doing so.

On Saturday 17th January, 2009 the same officials went to see the village chief and the hill’s curator by telling them that they had permission from the higher authority to dig and take the artefacts to the national museum. The villagers became suspicious when no documents could be produced and the fact that they wished to excavate at night.

Permission to dig was refused but the officials replied that the site was state property, and that they had the authority to dig the hill because they got the agreement of the commune chief, the local police chief and the local military police officers.

At around 9 PM, the group started digging the hill, with armed military police standing guard. About 100 local villagers stay watching them through the night until 1 AM. The resulting hole was 2m x 3 m and a lot of ancient pottery, bricks and urns containing ancient human remains were scattered inside and outside of the pit.

According to villagers, this hill was a burial site and is more than a thousand years old. The site is believed to have contained sacred objects and ancient valuables such as idols, urns containing remains of ancient heroes etc.

The digging around the site has been postponed for the time being due to objection from the villagers.

Mr. Prum Phary, deputy director of the Provincial Heritage Office, said that, due to complaints from the villagers, he was asked by the director of Provincial Cultural and Fine Arts Centre to go to the area to see for himself. He has intervened and has asked that the digging be stopped immediately. Furthermore, he has instructed the villagers to protect this hill and must report to the authority immediately should any group try to dig this hill again. At this time, the Provincial Cultural and Fine Arts Centre is asking the authority to punish those culprits who were involved in the digging of this ancient hill.

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