The Apsara National Authority (ANA) has found a Sanskrit inscription carved on ancient stone.

The inscription was discovered on the underside of a stone on Wednesday, in front of the Tonle Snguot temple which workers were cleaning.

Archaeologist and Apsara Authority deputy-director Im Sok Rithy told The Post on Thursday that the ANA team took the inscription to the Department of Conservation for the Angkor Archaeological Park and Archaeology Defence for further investigation.

It is likely the stone does not belong to Tonle Snguot, an ancient hospital, but was taken from another temple in the Angkor area and placed to support a wall.

“Some of the inscription has disappeared. There is still a lot of inscription that we can decipher,” Sok Rithy said.

He said it is not considered vandalism because it was cut to build Tonle Snguot and taking stone from other temples was a practice at that time.

The Sanskrit inscription contains 55 lines, and is 100cm high, 40cm wide and 20cm thick, Rithy said.

“Compared with a similar inscription found at Phnom Dey temple in the northern section of Tonle Snguot temple, we can assume this inscription probably dates from the end of the 11th century to the early 12th century,” he said.

He said the meaning of the inscription is unclear and experts will have to translate from Sanskrit to understand and date it.

He said the inscription gives some important information about the history of Tonle Snguot temple and represents evidence of the settlement of the Angkorian people in this area during the reign of Jayavarman VII (1181 - 1218 AD).

The ANA has found about 1,400 inscriptions from various centuries. Many have been found in the Angkor National Park area in the past six months.