New Perspectives on the Demise of Angkor

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.

Socio-ecological systems are a useful framework for understanding cultural processes in the past. Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire, dominated much of the Southeast Asian mainland from the ninth to fourteenth centuries. Greater Angkor’s development and expansion was based on an elaborate water management network, and this paper demonstrates how this infrastructure was a necessary element for Greater Angkor’s large-scale urbanism. However, in the face of multiple stressors including unprecedented climate variability, particular modifications to the system would make it less versatile and inherently vulnerable. While these disruptions would render Greater Angkor unsustainable as an urban system, other socioeconomic components of Khmer culture proved more resilient.

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): 32212