The culture ministry announced that it will be working with staff from two US universities again this year on a set of excavations at Baset temple in Battambang province’s northeast, as part of an initiative that seeks to gain insight into pre-industrial era settlements in the Kingdom.

Done in collaboration with the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and University of Oregon, work kicked off on June 1 and will continue till July 24, in Baset village, Tapon commune, Sangke district, the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement.

The excavations are part of a research initiative, P’teah Cambodia, in which “p’teah” translates from Khmer as “home” or “house”. The project focuses on archaeological and scientific research to determine the timelines and conditions of human settlements before and after the Angkorian period.

This year, the project is co-directed by University of Hawai’i at Manoa professor Miriam Stark and her University of Oregon counterpart Alison Carter, in collaboration with culture ministry officials, and archaeology students and scholars from countries including the US and Thailand.