Diachronic Spatial Organization in Greater Angkor, Seventh to Fifteenth Centuries CE

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The internal spatial organization of Greater Angkor changed profoundly between the seventh and the fifteenth centuries CE—yet in some ways also remained substantially self-similar. Separate settlements merged into one urban aggregation, and massive water storage and transport structures were added, along with a few very large ritual structures, many smaller shrines, and thousands of ponds and occupation mounds. The numerous features that form the social landscape of Greater Angkor created a complex internal pattern of residential clustering that changed significantly over time; however, the relationship between the clusters also appears to have remained quite consistent. Analyses of the temporal changes in the urban landscape, the relationship between populations resident in rice field area and those resident along the transportation routes, the configuration of the residential clusters, and the issue of the social relationships between them addresses the paradoxical issue of Angkor’s concurrent substantial transformations and distinct pattern of stable consistency. The paradox has some significance for an assessment of the degree to which the social dynamics of Greater Angkor could sustain the resilience of the urban complex.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36198.0