Diachronic Modeling of the Population within the Greater Angkor Settlement Complex

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Angkor is the world’s largest premodern settlement complex, but to date no comprehensive demographic study has been completed, and key aspects of its population and demographic history remain unknown. Here, we combine multiple lines of evidence, including comprehensive lidar maps, archaeological excavation data, and machine learning algorithms, to model population growth through time and produce the first granular, diachronic, paleodemographic model of the Angkor complex. We conclude that the Greater Angkor region was home to approximately 650,000–700,000 inhabitants at its apogee in the thirteenth century CE. Our study resolves more than a century of debate on this question, and fills a critically important lacuna in our understanding of urbanism and population growth in premodern tropical environments.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32425