THE MON-KHMERS BECOME THE DOMINANT POLITICAL LEADERS:
The Mon-Khmers eventually became the dominant political leaders in the lands which later became Funan and Chenla. There is very little knowledge of Cambodian prehistory. It is believed that small farming settlements existed next to rivers and lakes. Rearing domestic animals and hunting with bows and arrows took place.
The stone culture was taken over by a metal culture, possibly as early as the fourth century BC. A bronze urn found in the region, similar to those produced by the Dong Son culture in Tonkin (today's northern Vietnam), was evidence of this. Excavations at the town of Oc-eo on the southern coast of modern Vietnam proved that the Neolithic culture, characterized by the use of stone tools, existed side-by-side with the more sophisticated metal culture.
