Name of Cambodia

Etymology
Main article: Name of Cambodia
Cambodia is the traditional English name, taken from the French Cambodge, while Kâmpŭchea , formerly the name of the country in English, is the direct transliteration, more faithful to the Khmer pronunciation. The Khmer Kampuchea is derived from the ancient Khmer kingdom of Kambuja (Kambujadeśa (Land of Kambuja). Kambuja or Kamboja is the ancient Sanskrit name of the Kambojas, an early tribe of north India, named after their founder Kambu Svayambhuva,[8] believed to be a variant of Cambyses. See Etymology of Kamboja.
"Khmer Land" in Khmer writing, a local expression which refers to Cambodia
Preahreachanachâk Kampuchea means "Kingdom of Cambodia". Etymologically, its components are: Preah- ("sacred"); -reach- ("king, royal, realm", from Sanskrit); -ana- (from Pāli āṇā, "authority, command, power", itself from Sanskrit ājñā, same meaning) -châk (from Sanskrit chakra, meaning "wheel", a symbol of power and rule).
The name used on formal occasions, such as political speeches and news programs, is Prâteh Kampuchea (Khmer), literally "the Country of Cambodia". Prateh is a formal word meaning "country." The colloquial name most used by Khmer people, is Srok Khmae (Khmer), literally "the Khmer Land". Srok is a Mon-Khmer word roughly equal to prâteh, but less formal. Khmer is spelled with a final "r" in the Khmer alphabet, but the word-final "r" phoneme disappeared from most dialects of Khmer in the 19th century and is not pronounced in the contemporary speech of the standard dialect.
Since original independence, the official name of Cambodia has changed several times, following the troubled history of the country. The following names have been used in English and French since 1954.
• Kingdom of Cambodia/Royaume du Cambodge under the rule of the monarchy from 1953 through 1970;
• Khmer Republic/République Khmère under the Lon Nol led government from 1970 to 1975;
• Democratic Kampuchea/Kampuchea démocratique under the rule of the communist Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979;
• People's Republic of Kampuchea/République populaire du Kampuchea under the rule of the Vietnamese-sponsored government from 1979 to 1989;
• State of Cambodia/État du Cambodge (a neutral name, while deciding whether to return to monarchy) after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and under the rule of the United Nations transitional authority from 1989 to 1993;
• Kingdom of Cambodia/Royaume du Cambodge reused after the restoration of the monarchy in 1993.

History
Main article: History of Cambodia
A Khmer army going to war against the Cham, from a relief on the Bayon
Prehistory
The sparse evidence for a Pleistocene human occupation of present day Cambodia are quartz and quartzite pebble tools found in terraces along Mekong River, in Stung Treng and Kratié provinces, and in Kampot Province, but their dating is not reliable.
Some slight archaeological evidence shows communities of hunter-gatherers inhabited Cambodia during Holocene: the most ancient Cambodian archeological site is considered to be the cave of Laang Spean, in Battambang Province, which belongs to the so-called Hoabinhian period. Excavations in its lower layers produced a series of radiocarbon dates as of 6000 BC.
Upper layers in the same site gave evidence of transition to Neolithic, containing the earliest dated earthenware ceramics in Cambodia
Archeological records for the period between Holocene and Iron Age remain equally limited. Other prehistoric sites of somewhat uncertain date are Samrong Sen (not far from ancient capital of Oudong), where first investigations started just in 1877,and Phum Snay, in the northern province of Banteay Meanchey.Prehistoric artifacts are often found during mining activities in Ratanakiri.
The most outstanding prehistoric evidence in Cambodia however are probably "circular earthworks", discovered in the red soils near Memot and in adjacent region of Vietnam as of the end of the 1950s. Their function and age are still debated, but some of them possibly date from 2nd millennium BC at least.
A pivotal event in Cambodian prehistory was the slow penetration of the first rice farmers from North, which begun in the late 3rd millennium BC. They probably spoke ancestral Mon-Khmer.
Iron was worked by about 500 BC. The most part of evidence come from Khorat Plateau, Thai country nowadays. In Cambodia some Iron Age settlement were found beneath Angkorian temples, like Baksei Chamkrong, others were circular earthworks, like Lovea, a few kilometers north-west of Angkor. Burials, much richer, testify improvement of food availability and trade (even on long distances: in the 4th century BC trade relations with India were already opened) and the existence of a social structure and labor organization.
Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian polities
Southeast Asia circa 1100 AD. Khmer Empire lands in blue
During the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries, the Indianised states of Funan and Chenla coalesced in what is now present-day Cambodia and southwestern Vietnam. These states are assumed by most scholars to have been Khmer.For more than 2,000 years, Cambodia absorbed influences from India and China passing them on to other Southeast Asian civilisations that are now Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. The Khmer Empire flourished in the area from the 9th to the 13th century.Around the 13th century, Theravada Buddhism was introduced to the area through monks from Sri Lanka. From then on Theravada Buddhism grew and eventually became the most popular religion. The Khmer Empire declined yet remained powerful in the region until the 15th century. The empire's centre of power was Angkor, where a series of capitals was constructed during the empire's zenith. Angkor could have supported a population of up to one million people.Angkor, the world's largest pre-industrial civilization and Angkor Wat, the most famous and best-preserved religious temple at the site, are reminders of Cambodia's past as a major regional power.