Zakharov Anton

Ancient canals of the Mekong River Delta: a review

ЮГО-ВОСТОЧНАЯ АЗИЯ: АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ РАЗВИТИЯ, 2020, №2(47), 199-211

 
Annotation: The paper offers an overview of recent archaeological excavations of ancient canals in the Mekong River Delta. These canals have been known since the thirties when the French scholar Pierre Paris had made aerial photographic pictures of the Delta. In the late twentieth to early twenty first centuries, the canals of the Mekong Delta were investigated by the American, French, and Vietnamese archaeologists. The canals were built during the first centuries CE where the great port-polity of Funan flourished on the international trade routes which connected East, Southeast, East and West Asia, as well as the Mediterranean world. The canals of the Mekong Delta belong to the Oc Eo culture. These remnants of the past vary in planning and sometimes seem to testify the Indian or Indic influence on local culture.

Keywords: canals, the Mekong River Delta, Oc Eo culture, Funan, Indianization.