Document Type
Honors Project
Recommended Citation
Hill, Karen, "Ruins and Remedies: Hospital Site Archaeology in Medieval Southeast Asia" (2026). Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects. 35.
https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/classics_honors/35
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Comments
Spaces of healing are designed to fulfill the physical and spiritual needs of vulnerable individuals. For this reason, the material culture that remains from these spaces is extraordinarily effective in communicating about the lives and the deaths of ordinary individuals from the past. This project examines the archaeology of spaces of healing in one such civilization. King Jayavarman VII reigned over a vast swath of southeast Asia, the Khmer Empire, from 1181 to 1218. This honors project is an archaeological survey of the 102 hospital sites constructed across the Khmer Empire during his reign. Through analysis of the material culture of hospital sites, ranging from architecture and statuary to epigraphy, while taking into consideration the dynamic historical context they are situated in, the lives of the ordinary people of the Khmer Empire are revealed.