Place
Memot
មេមត់
Memot (មេមត់) is a district of Tbong Khmum (ត្បូងឃ្មុំ) province, Cambodia.[1][2] It was part of Kampong Cham province before a royal decree dated December 31, 2013.[3] A museum in the district shows finds from the region's prehistoric circular earthworks, also known as Memotian sites.[4]
Administration
A royal decree dated December 31, 2013, made a new province of Tbong Khmum from the part of Kampong Cham east of the Mekong. Memot was one of its six districts, with Suong City.[3] The national gazetteer records the move under Royal Decree 1445 of that date.[1]
The gazetteer lists 14 communes in the district, with 182 villages between them. The communes are Chan Mul, Choam, Choam Kravien, Choam Ta Mau, Dar, Kampoan, Kokir, Memong, Memot, Rumchek, Rung, Tonlung, Tramung and Triek.[1]
People
City Population, drawing on the National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia, gives the district's census totals as 111,296 in 1998, 148,463 in 2008 and 152,082 in 2019. The 2019 count covers people living in households only.[2] That year it counted 74,564 men and 77,518 women.[2] Dar was the most populous commune in each of the three censuses, with 22,898 people in 2019.[2]
Archaeology
The Cambodia Daily described the circular earthworks of the region in 2010 as likely the remains of Iron Age villages of rice farmers, from between 1000 and 500 BC, each ringed by a raised bank of earth and a moat.[5] The Memot Center for Archaeology was set up to study the 37 earthworks in the area.[5]
The Memot Archaeological Museum (សារៈមន្ទី ស្រុកមេមត់) stands near the district hall, in Memot commune. It shows objects from excavations across the region, most of them from the earthwork sites.[4]
Rubber
In September 2010, bulldozing partly destroyed the Samrong earthwork in the district during the move of a village of rubber plantation workers, part of the privatization of the formerly state-owned Memot Rubber Plantation. The $7.5 million privatization was funded by a loan from the Asian Development Bank.[5] A bank spokesman said that no maps or local records had shown the site. After the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts confirmed it, the village was to be laid out so as not to disturb what remained.[5] A deputy district governor said that the area would house more than 500 poor families of plantation workers, as the government had decided, and that the earthwork was under a protection plan. Heng Sophady, an archaeologist at the Memot Center for Archaeology, said that the moat and perimeter wall had been leveled but the objects inside were intact.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Committee for Sub-National Democratic Development, Cambodia Gazetteer: Tboung Khmum Province / Memot District (undated)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 City Population, Thomas Brinkhoff, Memot (District, Cambodia): Population Statistics (undated)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Cambodia Daily, Phorn Bopha, Government Creates New CPP-Majority Province (January 10, 2014)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Hello Angkor, Memot Archaeological Center and Museum (updated January 1, 2026)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 The Cambodia Daily, Julia Wallace, Ancient Earthwork Now Under Protection Plan (November 3, 2010)