Research & Article

Thanon Phra Ruang is a discontinuous embankment and canal that runs from Kamphaeng Phet via old Sukhothai to Si Satchanalai. It has traditionally been treated as the road (Thanon) that its name implies, but we bring together here a range of field evidence from ground surveys and drilling of the northern section between Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai that shows that the structure is more sensibly interpreted as a canal with an adjacent embankment. The function(s) of the canalremain(s) to be fully clarified, but we suggest that these functions may have included water harvesting (with perhaps an ancillary irrigation function), drainage, transport and I or communication. The attractive hypothesis that Thanon Phra Ruang was an important means of transporting ceramics south from the production sites north of old Si Satchanalai is difficult to support from field evidence.