A prehistoric burial mound at Phanat Nikhom that produced more than 152 interments and became, through a joint Thai and New Zealand excavation in the mid-1980s, one of the most-cited sites in Southeast Asian archaeology.
โคกพนมดี · Khok Phanom Di
| Official name | โคกพนมดี — Khok Phanom Di |
|---|---|
| Where | Not stated by the state sources read for this page, Phanat Nikhom, Chonburi |
| Royal temple class | Not established from an official register. |
| Monastic order | Not recorded in any register we could read. |
| Ancient monument | Carried in the national monument register; gazette announcement unread The Suvarnabhumi Studies Institute at Prince of Songkla University records ขึ้นทะเบียนโบราณสถาน in 1984 within its chronology of work at the site, alongside the survey and excavation dates. No gazette volume, part, page or day is given there, and no gazette instrument for this site was opened by this run, so the registration is recorded as unconfirmed rather than as read. The status here means the entry is carried in a research chronology, not that the registration is doubted. |
| Coordinates | 13.585000, 101.140000 Suvarnabhumi Studies Institute, Prince of Songkla University, archaeological site record 106, which gives 13.585 N, 101.140 E against an address of อำเภอพนัสนิคม จังหวัดชลบุรี. Checked against the district before printing, and checked in particular against the coordinate of Chonburi city and of Phanat Nikhom town, after the Buriram run found a provincial-capital default sitting in a state register coordinate field. It is neither. The subdistrict check this guide normally applies could not be run, because the source states no subdistrict |
Thai temple histories mix two different kinds of statement, and this guide keeps them apart. What a register, a gazette entry, an inscription or a dated royal act shows is one thing. What the chronicles and the temple itself hold is another, and it is worth telling as what it is.
The institute gives the site period as ระหว่าง 8,000 ถึง 2,000 ปีมาแล้ว — between 8,000 and 2,000 years ago. That is a wide band and reads as the database period bracket rather than as the dating of the burial sequence itself, which the international literature places very much later within it. This page prints the band the source gives and does not narrow it.
Khok Phanom Di is a low mound in the flat country of Phanat Nikhom district, inland from the Chonburi coast and a short distance from the moated town of Mueang Phra Rot. There is nothing to see of the kind the rest of this guide describes — no sanctuary, no chedi, no image. What makes it one of the most important places in the province is entirely below ground, and most of what was below ground is now in museums and in print.
The Fine Arts Department surveyed it first in 1973, through its Unit 5 office at Chachoengsao, and again in 1978. The first excavation followed in 1979, directed by Damrongkiat Noksakun. The department Thailand Archaeology Project dug there in 1982, and the site was registered as an ancient monument in 1984. Then, in 1984 and 1985, came the work that made its name: a joint excavation with the University of Otago in New Zealand, one of the earliest large international collaborations in Thai prehistory.
What that excavation found was a cemetery. More than 152 human burials were recovered through a deep sequence of cultural layers, which is an unusually large and unusually well-stratified sample for the region and is the reason the site is cited far outside Thailand. Around the burials came the ordinary furniture of a coastal settlement living off an estuary: potsherds, the anvil stones used in making them, harpoons, fishhooks cut from animal bone, polished stone adzes, and ornaments made from the vertebrae of fish.
One burial has escaped the literature into popular memory. A woman interred with an extraordinary quantity of shell beadwork has been known since as the Lady of Khok Phanom Di, and she is the reason a mound in a Chonburi rice field occasionally turns up in Thai magazines. The name is a modern one given by the people who dug her up. What the grave actually shows — wealth, craft specialisation, and a society in which some individuals were buried very differently from others — is the more interesting fact and the reason the excavation mattered.
A low earthen mound in flat agricultural country — the physical site is unspectacular, and visitors expecting a monument should know that in advance.
The excavated material rather than the site: potsherds, anvil stones, harpoons, bone fishhooks, polished stone adzes and fish-vertebra ornaments, recovered from the mound and held in museum collections rather than displayed on it.
The stratigraphy that made the site famous — a deep sequence of cultural layers carrying more than 152 burials, which is what the published excavation reports describe and what a visitor cannot see.
Its setting a few kilometres from Mueang Phra Rot, which is the real reason to combine the two: a prehistoric cemetery and a historic-period moated town within one district.
This is a working place of worship for millions of people rather than an attraction, and it is treated as one at the gate. Where a figure below is blank, no source we are prepared to cite states it.
| Hours | Not established from an official source. |
|---|---|
| Admission | Not established from an official source. |
| Dress | Not established from an official source. |
| Photography | No source we found states a rule, so we print none. |
| Getting there | Phanat Nikhom district, Chonburi, inland from the coast and near Mueang Phra Rot. |
Every temple reference repeats claims nobody has checked. These are the ones we went looking for and could not stand up, listed so you know exactly where this page stops.
A prehistoric burial mound in Phanat Nikhom district, Chonburi, excavated repeatedly between 1979 and 1985 and yielding more than 152 human burials through a deep sequence of cultural layers.
Because of the size and stratigraphic quality of the burial sample. A joint Fine Arts Department and University of Otago excavation in 1984 and 1985 produced one of the largest well-stratified prehistoric cemeteries in the region, and it has been cited in the archaeology of Southeast Asia ever since.
A woman buried with an exceptional quantity of shell beadwork, nicknamed by the excavators and by later Thai writing. The name is modern. What the burial actually demonstrates is craft specialisation and marked differences in wealth within the community.
This page cannot say. No official source consulted publishes opening hours, admission or any visitor arrangement for the site, and it is an excavated mound rather than a presented monument. Treat it as a place in the archaeological record rather than a destination.
Before you go, read the guide to Buddhism and temple etiquette in Thailand — dress, footwear, where photography is not welcome and how to behave around monks. The rest of Chonburi’s temples are covered here too.
Every temple here sits in a place worth reading about on its own terms. The nationwide temple guide covers the other provinces to the same documentary standard as this page, and says on each one what the record establishes and what it does not.
If you are thinking about more than a visit: work out which Thai visa route fits your situation, and see what is available to rent and buy in residences across Thailand.
Every fact on this page is drawn from the sources above. Where they disagree, this page says so rather than choosing silently. Registrations, fees, hours and access change; confirm anything you are relying on with the authority concerned. BAANLYY LLC is a Nevada company and a listing portal, does not represent any temple, and offers no legal or religious advice.