Bronze Technology in Cambodia

Paul Jett gives a very interesting talk here about the history and technology of bronze casting in SE Asia and particularly in the Khmer Empire, using the bronzes in the Gods of Angkor exhibition as his main pieces of evidence.

Although the talk is one of the more technical in the series it is also one of the more illuminating, showing what was involved in making some of the beautiful artifacts we admire today, and has that good quality of making one look closer at the objects involved.

After describing the various theories there are about how and when bronze-casting came to SE Asia (almost certainly from China), he then uses radiographic plates to examine the construction of the statues, which followed two main techniques: lost-wax hollow casting, and solid casting.

This is the last of the talks I am showing from this series, there were apparently nine talks in all, and seven were published on youtube. If you want, you can follow up by looking through this playlist.

I have in fact watched all of them, and the better ones I included here. Others either sound great in their title and disappoint in their contents, or I found they were rather ineptly and uninterestingly presented, and therefore only for real enthusiasts (like myself).