# Prologue: An Introduction to the Angkorian World

Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam Stark, Damian Evans, Roland Fletcher

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Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam Stark, Damian Evans, Roland Fletcher. Prologue: An Introduction to the Angkorian World. The Angkorian World, pp.1-14, 2023, 9780815355953. hal-04109000

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THE
ANGKORIAN
WORLD

Edited by MITCH HENDRICKSON,
MIRIAM T. STARK and DAMIAN EVANS
THE ANGKORIAN WORLD

*The Angkorian World* explores the history of Southeast Asia's largest ancient state from the first to mid-second millennium CE. Chapters by leading scholars combine evidence from archaeology, texts, and the natural sciences to introduce the Angkorian state, describe its structure, and explain its persistence over more than six centuries.

Comprehensive and accessible, this book will be an indispensable resource for anyone studying premodern Asia. The volume's first of six sections provides historical and environmental contexts and discusses data sources and the nature of knowledge production. The next three sections examine the anthropogenic landscapes of Angkor (agrarian, urban, and hydraulic), the state institutions that shaped the Angkorian state, and the economic foundations on which Angkor operated. Part V explores Angkorian ideologies and realities, from religion and nation to identity. The volume's last part reviews political and aesthetic Angkorian legacies in an effort to explain why the idea of Angkor remains central to its Cambodian descendants. Maps, graphics, and photographs guide readers through the content of each chapter. Chapters in this volume synthesise more than a century of work at Angkor and in the regions it influenced.

*The Angkorian World* will satisfy students, researchers, academics, and the knowledgeable layperson who seeks to understand how this great Angkorian Empire arose and functioned in the premodern world.

Mitch Hendrickson is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. He worked as an archaeologist in northwest Mexico, the Canadian Plains, and High Arctic before shifting his focus to Cambodia in 2001. His initial research on the establishment and role of the Angkorian road system enabled him to develop two ongoing projects in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts on the technological transformation that enabled expansions of the Khmer Empire and understanding religious transition at the site of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay.

Miriam T. Stark is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, USA. Her 40-year career includes fieldwork in North America, the Near East, and Southeast Asia; she launched her first field project in Cambodia in 1996. Her Cambodian research, through multiple projects in collaboration with Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, focuses on protohistoric to Angkorian period urbanism, early state formation, and political economy.

Damian Evans is Senior Research Fellow at the École française d'Extrême-Orient in Paris and an Honorary Associate in the Department of History, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry at the University of Sydney. He is involved in a diverse array of projects across Southeast Asia encompassing archaeology, heritage, and the earth sciences, and he has initiated and overseen archaeological projects in Cambodia since the late 1990s. His work focuses on using earth observation technologies such as satellite imagery, radar and lidar to understand the relationship between humans and their environments from the deep past to the present day.
ROUTLEDGE WORLDS

The Routledge Worlds are magisterial surveys of key historical epochs, edited and written by world-renowned experts. Giving unprecedented breadth and depth of coverage, they are the works against which all future books on their subjects will be judged and are essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in the subject.

THE ANGKORIAN WORLD

*Edited by Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam T. Stark and Damian Evans*
THE ANGKORIAN WORLD

*Edited by Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam T. Stark*
*and Damian Evans*

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

Routledge

Taylor & Francis Group

LONDON AND NEW YORK
Cover image: Erika Piñeros

First published 2023

by Routledge

4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

*Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business*

© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam T. Stark and Damian Evans; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam T. Stark and Damian Evans to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

*Trademark notice:* Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

*British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data*

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

*Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data*

Names: Hendrickson, Mitch, editor, author. | Stark, Miriam T., editor, author. | Evans, Damian, editor, author.

Title: The Angkorian World / edited by Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam T. Stark and Damian Evans.

Description: New York : Routledge, 2023. | Series: Routledge Worlds | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022058733 (print) | LCCN 2022058734 (ebook) |

ISBN 9780815355953 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032439266 (paperback) | ISBN 9781351128940 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Angkor (Extinct city)—History. | Angkor (Extinct city)—Civilization. | Cambodia—Antiquities.

Classification: LCC DS554.98.A5 A545 2023 (print) | LCC DS554.98.A5 (ebook) | DDC 959.6/01—dc23/eng/20221214

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022058733

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022058734

ISBN: 978-0-8153-5595-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-43926-6 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-351-12894-0 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781351128940

Typeset in Bembo

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# CONTENTS

<table><tr><td>List of Figures</td><td>ix</td></tr><tr><td>List of Tables</td><td>xiv</td></tr><tr><td>List of Contributors</td><td>xv</td></tr><tr><td>Acknowledgements</td><td>xix</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>0 Prologue: An Introduction to the Angkorian World</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam T. Stark, Damian Evans</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>with Roland Fletcher</td><td></td></tr></table>

## PART I

<table><tr><td>Contexts</td><td>15</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>1 An Environmental History of Angkor: Beginning and End</td><td>17</td></tr><tr><td>Dan Penny and Tégan Hall</td><td></td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>2 Texts and Objects: Exploiting the Literary Sources of Medieval Cambodia</td><td>25</td></tr><tr><td>Dominique Soutif and Julia Estève</td><td></td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>3 ‘Invisible Cambodians’: Knowledge Production in the History of Angkorian Archaeology</td><td>42</td></tr><tr><td>Heng Piphal, Seng Sonetra and Nhìm Sotheavin</td><td></td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>4 The Mekong Delta before the Angkorian World</td><td>64</td></tr><tr><td>Miriam T. Stark and Pierre-Yves Manguin</td><td></td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>5 The Early Capitals of Angkor</td><td>80</td></tr><tr><td>Jean-Baptiste Chevance and Christophe Pottier</td><td></td></tr></table>
Contents

6 Angkor's Multiple Southeast Asia Overland Connections
Kenneth R. Hall
97

7 Angkor and China: 9th–15th Centuries
Miriam T. Stark and Aedeen Cremin
112

PART II

Landscapes
133

8 Forests, Palms, and Paddy Fields: The Plant Ecology of Angkor
Tegan Hall and Dan Penny
135

9 Angkor and the Mekong River: Settlement, Resources, Mobility and Power
Heng Piphal
154

10 Trajectories of Urbanism in the Angkorian World
Damian Evans, Roland Fletcher, Sarah Klassen, Christophe Pottier and Pelle Wijker
173

11 Angkor's Temple Communities and the Logic of its Urban Landscape
Scott Hawken and Sarah Klassen
195

12 Angkor as a 'Cité Hydraulique'?
Terry Lustig, Jean-Baptiste Chevance and Wayne Johnson
216

PART III

State Institutions
235

13 Angkorian Law and Land
Tess Davis and Eileen Lustig
237

14 Warfare and Defensive Architecture in the Angkorian World
David Brotherson
254

15 Ásramas, Shrines, and Royal Power
Chea Socheat, Julia Estève, Dominique Soutif and Edward Swenson
272

16 Education and Medicine at Angkor
Chhem Rethy, Damian Evans, Chhom Kunthea, Phlong Pisith and Peter D. Sharrock
287
Contents

PART IV

Economies 307

17 Angkor's Economy: Implications of the Transfer of Wealth 309
Eileen Lustig, Aedeen Cremin and Terry Lustig

18 The Temple Economy of Angkor 327
Heng Piphal and Sachchidanand Sahai

19 Angkor's Agrarian Economy: A Socio-Ecological Mosaic 338
Scott Hawken and Cristina Cobo Castillo

20 From Quarries to Temples: Stone Procurement, Materiality, and Spirituality in the Angkorian World 360
Christian Fischer, Federico Carò and Martin Polkinghorne

21 Crafting with Fire: Stoneware and Iron Pyrotechnologies in the Angkorian World 385
Mitch Hendrickson, Ea Darith, Chhay Rachna, Yukitsugu Tabata, Phon Kaseka, Stéphanie Leroy, Yuni Sato and Armand Desbat

22 Food, Craft, and Ritual: Plants from the Angkorian World 401
Cristina Cobo Castillo

PART V

Ideologies and Realities 421

23 Gods and Temples: The Nature(s) of Angkorian Religion 423
Julia Estève

24 Bodies of Glory: The Statuary of Angkor 435
Paul A. Lavy and Martin Polkinghorne

25 'Of Cattle and Kings': Bovines in the Angkorian World 459
Mitch Hendrickson, Eileen Lustig and Siyonn Sophearith

26 An Angkor Nation? Identifying the Core of the Khmer Empire 479
Ian Lowman, Chhom Kunthea and Mitch Hendrickson

27 The Angkorian House 494
Alison K. Carter, Miriam T. Stark, Heng Piphal and Chhay Rachna
Contents

<table><tr><td>28</td><td>Vogue at Angkor: Dress, Décor, and Narrative Drama<br><i>Gillian Green</i></td><td>508</td></tr><tr><td>29</td><td>Gender, Status, and Hierarchy in the Age of Angkor<br><i>Trude Jacobsen Gidaszewski</i></td><td>525</td></tr></table>

PART VI

<table><tr><td><b>After Angkor</b></td><td><b>539</b></td></tr><tr><td>30 Perspectives on the ‘Collapse’ of Angkor and the Khmer Empire<br><i>Damian Evans, Martin Polkinghorne, Roland Fletcher, David Brotherson, Tegan Hall, Sarah Klassen and Pelle Wijker</i></td><td>541</td></tr><tr><td>31 Uthong and Angkor: Material Legacies in the Chao Phraya Basin, Thailand<br><i>Pipad Krajaejun</i></td><td>554</td></tr><tr><td>32 Mainland Southeast Asia After Angkor: On the Legacies of Jayavarman VII<br><i>Ashley Thompson</i></td><td>574</td></tr><tr><td>33 Early Modern Cambodia and Archaeology at Longvek<br><i>Martin Polkinghorne and Yuni Sato</i></td><td>592</td></tr><tr><td>34 Yama, the God Closest to the Khmers<br><i>Ang Choulean</i></td><td>614</td></tr><tr><td>35 Inarguably Angkor<br><i>Penny Edwards</i></td><td>629</td></tr><tr><td>Appendix A</td><td>645</td></tr><tr><td>Glossary</td><td>647</td></tr><tr><td>Index</td><td>653</td></tr></table>
FIGURES

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>0.1</td>
      <td>Timeline of the Angkorian World.</td>
      <td>7</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>0.2</td>
      <td>South and Southeast Asia, showing key sites.</td>
      <td>8</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>0.3</td>
      <td>Southeast Asia, showing key sites.</td>
      <td>9</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>0.4</td>
      <td>Heartland of the Khmer Empire, showing key sites and extent of the Angkorian road system.</td>
      <td>10</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>0.5</td>
      <td>Greater Angkor, showing major temple sites and the extent of infrastructure.</td>
      <td>11</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>0.6</td>
      <td>Capital region of Yaśodharapura, highlighting the urban layout in and around Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat.</td>
      <td>12</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>0.7</td>
      <td>Capital region of Hariharālaya (Roluos).</td>
      <td>13</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.1</td>
      <td>Silver vase with inscription (K. 1294).</td>
      <td>28</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.2</td>
      <td>Śivakumbha prepared for a dīkṣā (initiation) in Cuddalore, India.</td>
      <td>32</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.3</td>
      <td>Grinding stone with inscription (K. 1215).</td>
      <td>34</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.4</td>
      <td>Prasat towers σ, ρ, π, and τ in Preah Khan of Kompong Svay.</td>
      <td>36</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.5</td>
      <td>K. 1335, detail of the lower part of the southern door jamb.</td>
      <td>37</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.6</td>
      <td>Detail of vertical ‘bayonet-cut’ joints in the corbelled vault from prasat tower ρ in Preah Khan of Kompong Svay.</td>
      <td>38</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1</td>
      <td>Henri Marchal, a pioneer of the anastylosis method in Angkor, with his Khmer assistant, Chan, and workmen at Banteay Srei temple restoration in 1934.</td>
      <td>46</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.2</td>
      <td>Henri Marchal and an unnamed Khmer assistant at the restoration of Banteay Srei (Damdek) in 1952.</td>
      <td>53</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.1</td>
      <td>The Mekong Delta and the Angkorian World before Angkor.</td>
      <td>65</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.1</td>
      <td>Aerial view of Trapeang Phong.</td>
      <td>83</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.2</td>
      <td>Archaeological map of the Roluos region.</td>
      <td>84</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.3</td>
      <td>Rong Chen temple-mountain.</td>
      <td>86</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.4</td>
      <td>Banteay, the Royal Palace of Mahendraparvata.</td>
      <td>87</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.5</td>
      <td>Archaeological map of the Kulen plateau highlighting the urban layout of Mahendraparvata.</td>
      <td>88</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.6</td>
      <td>Newly identified buildings and enclosures within the West Baray.</td>
      <td>91</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.7</td>
      <td>Archaeological map of the West Baray area.</td>
      <td>92</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6.1</td>
      <td>Potential 12th century communication networks connecting to Angkor.</td>
      <td>102</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
Figures

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>6.2</td>
      <td>Pre-1500 Champa coastline ports-of-trade and hypothesised Western overland connections contesting the Malay Peninsula.</td>
      <td>105</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.1</td>
      <td>Cambodia and China in premodern Southeast Asia.</td>
      <td>116</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.2</td>
      <td>Cavalry officer leading Cham men into battle.</td>
      <td>122</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.3</td>
      <td>Musicians in a military procession.</td>
      <td>123</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.4</td>
      <td>Recent examples of draped images in Angkor Wat.</td>
      <td>125</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8.1</td>
      <td>Land use maps in Southeast Asia and the Greater Angkor region.</td>
      <td>136</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8.2</td>
      <td>Select Angkor monuments and sediment coring sites from which palaeoecological records were obtained.</td>
      <td>141</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8.3</td>
      <td>Summary of palynological records for the four sites across Angkor.</td>
      <td>144</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8.4</td>
      <td>Ecological group data plotted as z-scores and compared across the four sites.</td>
      <td>147</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9.1</td>
      <td>Location of inscriptions used in this chapter.</td>
      <td>155</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9.2</td>
      <td>The Lower Mekong River region.</td>
      <td>156</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9.3</td>
      <td>Angkorian centres along the Mekong and state-sponsored temples.</td>
      <td>157</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.1</td>
      <td>Archaeological map of the intramural area of Angkor Thom.</td>
      <td>177</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.2</td>
      <td>Archaeological map of the Greater Angkor region.</td>
      <td>178</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.3</td>
      <td>Map of Óc Eo.</td>
      <td>180</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.4</td>
      <td>Archaeological map of Sambor Prei Kuk.</td>
      <td>181</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5</td>
      <td>Lidar renderings of gridded urban areas of the Angkor Period.</td>
      <td>184</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.1</td>
      <td>Comparison of local community temples versus state and other temples within the civic ceremonial centre and suburban centres of Greater Angkor.</td>
      <td>196</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.2</td>
      <td>Reconstruction of a mediaeval settlement and village shrine in the south of Angkor.</td>
      <td>202</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.3</td>
      <td>Range of variations in local temple sites and their associated community settlements.</td>
      <td>204</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.4</td>
      <td>Density of local community temples per square kilometre in Greater Angkor.</td>
      <td>206</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.5</td>
      <td>Shift in community temple construction within Greater Angkor between the 8th and 13th centuries.</td>
      <td>209</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12.1</td>
      <td>Angkor's complex hydraulic network.</td>
      <td>217</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12.2</td>
      <td>Water flowing out from a reservoir during rainfall, when irrigation not needed.</td>
      <td>219</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12.3</td>
      <td>Water infrastructure associated with Mahendraparvata.</td>
      <td>220</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12.4</td>
      <td>Inferred layout of stoplog sluice gates along the outlet from Thnal Thom reservoir at Mahendraparvata.</td>
      <td>221</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12.5</td>
      <td>West Baray and surrounding water infrastructures and possible proto-baray.</td>
      <td>221</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12.6</td>
      <td>Zig-zag outlet of the Rahal (baray) at Koh Ker.</td>
      <td>222</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12.7</td>
      <td>Main reservoir at Koh Ker showing existing and former rivers.</td>
      <td>223</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12.8</td>
      <td>West Mebon inside West Baray.</td>
      <td>227</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>12.9</td>
      <td>Two rock carvings of Vișņu in Anantaśayin mode, Kbal Spean River, Phnom Kulen.</td>
      <td>228</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>13.1</td>
      <td>The statue of Duryodhana now returned to Cambodia, June 3, 2014.</td>
      <td>238</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>14.1</td>
      <td>Narrative scenes of warfare from bas-reliefs on Angkor Period temples.</td>
      <td>255</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>14.2</td>
      <td>Defensive features of the Angkor Thom gopura.</td>
      <td>264</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>14.3</td>
      <td>Lidar elevation model of central Angkor with highlights of landscape features and embankment extensions in the 12th century.</td>
      <td>266</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>14.4</td>
      <td>Horizontal and vertical holes in upper masonry blocks of the external enclosure wall of Angkor Wat.</td>
      <td>267</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>14.5</td>
      <td>'Gateway gap' masonry fill in the external enclosure wall of Angkor Wat.</td>
      <td>268</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
Figures

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>14.6</td>
      <td>Hypothetical reconstruction of defensive structure built along the external enclosure walls of Angkor Wat.</td>
      <td>268</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>15.1</td>
      <td>Location of known Yaśodharāśramas, Vīrāśramas, resthouses, and hospitals of Jayavarman VII.</td>
      <td>274</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>15.2</td>
      <td>Examples of a typical hospital chapel and fire shrine resthouse.</td>
      <td>275</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>15.3</td>
      <td>Lidar image of Prasat Komnap South.</td>
      <td>276</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>15.4</td>
      <td>Examples of stela shelters.</td>
      <td>277</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>15.5</td>
      <td>Reconstruction of the 'Long Building'.</td>
      <td>278</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>15.6</td>
      <td>Plan of Prasat Neak Buos illustrating the location of the potential Yaśodharāśrama and Vīrāśrama.</td>
      <td>280</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>15.7</td>
      <td>Plan of Prasat Khna illustrating the location of the potential Yaśodharāśrama and Vīrāśrama.</td>
      <td>284</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>16.1</td>
      <td>Distribution of Jayavarman VII hospital chapels.</td>
      <td>298</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>16.2</td>
      <td>Organisation of Jayavarman VII hospital chapels.</td>
      <td>299</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>17.1</td>
      <td>Distribution of inscriptions and rice land in Cambodia.</td>
      <td>311</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>17.2</td>
      <td>Purchase of land by increasingly high-ranking officials.</td>
      <td>312</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>19.1</td>
      <td>Agrarian patches identified within Greater Angkor.</td>
      <td>346</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>19.2</td>
      <td>The Pre Rup matrix.</td>
      <td>347</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>19.3</td>
      <td>The Phnom Bok matrix.</td>
      <td>349</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>19.4</td>
      <td>Lidar relief maps of Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm.</td>
      <td>352</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>19.5</td>
      <td>Lidar map of Angkor Thom.</td>
      <td>353</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>19.6</td>
      <td>Archaeobotanical remains from some of Angkor's major temples.</td>
      <td>355</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.1</td>
      <td>Range of materials used in Khmer temple construction.</td>
      <td>361</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.2</td>
      <td>Distribution of sandstone formations and location of major archaeological sites and ancient quarries.</td>
      <td>363</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.3</td>
      <td>Examples of Terrain Rouge sandstone usage in the Angkor Period.</td>
      <td>365</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.4</td>
      <td>Examples of 'Grès Supérieurs' series sandstone usage in the Angkor Period.</td>
      <td>366</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.5</td>
      <td>Examples of Terrain Rouge (a, b, c, e, g, h, i) and Triassic (d, e, f) sandstone usage at Hariharālaya.</td>
      <td>368</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.6</td>
      <td>Texture and petrography of the Triassic sandstone.</td>
      <td>369</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.7</td>
      <td>Incomplete sculptures from stone workshops in Greater Angkor.</td>
      <td>371</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.8</td>
      <td>Evidence of quarries.</td>
      <td>373</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.9</td>
      <td>Various types of sandstone used in a decorative wall at Banteay Chhmar.</td>
      <td>374</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.10</td>
      <td>Triassic sandstone quarries.</td>
      <td>375</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.11</td>
      <td>Triassic sandstone with a characteristic mottled texture.</td>
      <td>377</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>21.1</td>
      <td>Angkorian stonewares types and vessel forms.</td>
      <td>386</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>21.2</td>
      <td>Iron objects produced during the Angkor Period.</td>
      <td>387</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>21.3</td>
      <td>Pryotechnological production sites in Cambodia and northeast Thailand, stoneware (crosses) and iron (circles).</td>
      <td>388</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>21.4</td>
      <td>Kiln morphologies in the Angkor Period.</td>
      <td>390</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>21.5</td>
      <td>Characteristics of Angkorian iron smelting sites.</td>
      <td>391</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>22.1</td>
      <td>Examples of archaeobotanical remains recovered from five Angkor Period sites.</td>
      <td>404</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>22.2</td>
      <td>Summary of the archaeobotanical results from five Angkor Period sites.</td>
      <td>406</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>22.3</td>
      <td>Proportions of economic crops found in Ta Prohm over time.</td>
      <td>407</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>22.4</td>
      <td>Proportion of indica and japonica rice.</td>
      <td>416</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>22.5</td>
      <td>Number of economic taxa identified in each of the sites.</td>
      <td>417</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>24.1</td>
      <td>Relief sculptures depicting deity-images in worship.</td>
      <td>437</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
Figures

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>24.2</td>
      <td>Brahmanical (Hindu) deities.</td>
      <td>441</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>24.3</td>
      <td>Personalisation of images during the reign of Jayavarman VII.</td>
      <td>444</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>24.4</td>
      <td>Sculptural innovation, archaism, and transformation.</td>
      <td>446</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>24.5</td>
      <td>Types of Buddha images from the late Angkor and Middle Periods.</td>
      <td>449</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>24.6</td>
      <td>Angkorian statuary venerated in the present.</td>
      <td>450</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>25.1</td>
      <td>Sandstone Nandin statues.</td>
      <td>461</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>25.2</td>
      <td>Depiction of cows in Angkorian bas-relief.</td>
      <td>464</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>25.3</td>
      <td>Buffalo images from the Pre-Angkor and Angkor Period.</td>
      <td>465</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>25.4</td>
      <td>Milk churning imagery.</td>
      <td>468</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>25.5</td>
      <td>Scene depicting Brahmins milking a cow and drinking milk from Ta Prohm.</td>
      <td>469</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>25.6</td>
      <td>Trapeang in the Angkorian World.</td>
      <td>471</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>25.7</td>
      <td>Comparison of modern cattle densities, Angkorian trapeang and temples.</td>
      <td>472</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>26.1</td>
      <td>Distribution of Angkor Period temples and inscriptions including the maximum limit of control as defined by B.-P. Groslier.</td>
      <td>481</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>26.2</td>
      <td>Proposed extent of the Angkorian heartland.</td>
      <td>483</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>26.3</td>
      <td>Communication corridors of the major Angkorian kings.</td>
      <td>484</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>26.4</td>
      <td>State-level infrastructures used by Khmer kings to assert influence within the Angkorian heartland.</td>
      <td>485</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>27.1</td>
      <td>Everyday life in Cambodia, past and present.</td>
      <td>497</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>27.2</td>
      <td>Possible fence posts identified in an excavated wall profile at Angkor Wat.</td>
      <td>498</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>27.3</td>
      <td>Overhead view of excavation trenches at Angkor Wat showing flat-lying sandstone pieces.</td>
      <td>499</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>27.4</td>
      <td>Possible hearth from excavations within the Angkor Wat enclosure.</td>
      <td>500</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>27.5</td>
      <td>Trash pit from excavations within the Ta Prohm enclosure.</td>
      <td>501</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>27.6</td>
      <td>Chinese water dropper in the shape of a chicken found in an excavation at Angkor Wat.</td>
      <td>502</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>28.1</td>
      <td>Examples of Angkorian individuals wearing sampot.</td>
      <td>509</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>28.2</td>
      <td>Śiva wearing a pleated sampot worn high at the waist, Baphuon style, 11th–12th century.</td>
      <td>510</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>28.3</td>
      <td>Devatas wearing double-layer sampot ensembles, Angkor Wat, 12th century.</td>
      <td>511</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>28.4</td>
      <td>Examples of short sampot chong kben.</td>
      <td>512</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>28.5</td>
      <td>Variations in window blind decorations.</td>
      <td>516</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>28.6</td>
      <td>Tapestry medallion with paired phoenix, Angkor Wat, 12th century.</td>
      <td>518</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>28.7</td>
      <td>Specific motifs found in narrative tapestries.</td>
      <td>519</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>28.8</td>
      <td>Clay model of Maitreya from Sum Tsek temple, Alchi, Ladakh, mid-10th to 11th century.</td>
      <td>521</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>29.1</td>
      <td>Key sites discussed in the text.</td>
      <td>526</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>29.2</td>
      <td>Relationships between Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian elite, 7th–11th centuries.</td>
      <td>529</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>29.3</td>
      <td>Mahidharapura-Angkor marriage relationships.</td>
      <td>530</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>31.1</td>
      <td>Sequence of Uthong Art style based on classification by Griswold and Buriphan (1952).</td>
      <td>558</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>31.2</td>
      <td>Examples of Buddha statues with traits of Style B and C.</td>
      <td>561</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>31.3</td>
      <td>Comparison of Style B Uthong and post-Bayon Buddhas.</td>
      <td>563</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>31.4</td>
      <td>Post-Bayon Buddha frieze inside Prasat Ta Tuot, Angkor.</td>
      <td>564</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>31.5</td>
      <td>Distribution of Uthong Style A, B, and C Buddha statues on the central plain of Thailand.</td>
      <td>566</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>31.6</td>
      <td>Four bronze miniature stūpas typical of the Pre-Ayutthaya and Ayutthaya Periods.</td>
      <td>568</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
Figures

<table><tr><td>32.1</td><td>12th–18th c. mainland Southeast Asian sites mentioned in the text.</td><td>575</td></tr><tr><td>32.2</td><td>Jayavarman VII period imagery.</td><td>582</td></tr><tr><td>32.3</td><td>Bronze tricephalous elephant statue from the Jayavarman VII period.</td><td>587</td></tr><tr><td>33.1</td><td>Overview map of major Early Modern sites in Cambodia.</td><td>594</td></tr><tr><td>33.2</td><td>Stūpa and sculptures from Wat Sithor.</td><td>597</td></tr><tr><td>33.3</td><td>Archaeological map of Longvek.</td><td>598</td></tr><tr><td>33.4</td><td>Distribution and relative quantities of trade ceramics and types from surface collections (n = 34,385 registered sherds).</td><td>602</td></tr><tr><td>33.5</td><td>Details of infrastructure and excavations at Longvek and the site of Tuol Bay Ka-ek.</td><td>603</td></tr><tr><td>33.6</td><td>Selection of imported ceramic types from Longvek surface collections.</td><td>604</td></tr><tr><td>33.7</td><td>High-value trade ceramics from central occupation mound, Trench 28.</td><td>605</td></tr><tr><td>33.8</td><td>Aerial view from Tonle Sap River looking south.</td><td>606</td></tr><tr><td>33.9</td><td>Selection of brown-glaze storage jars from Longvek ordered by country of manufacture.</td><td>607</td></tr><tr><td>34.1</td><td>Yama judging souls to hell on the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat.</td><td>616</td></tr><tr><td>34.2</td><td>Statue of Yama, Angkor Period.</td><td>617</td></tr><tr><td>34.3</td><td>Schematic layout of cremation area typical in rural Khmer villages.</td><td>620</td></tr><tr><td>34.4</td><td>Altar dedicated to Yama (far left) placed within the northeast corner of cremation area.</td><td>621</td></tr><tr><td>34.5</td><td>Schematic layout of area for rice cultivation ritual at Thlork village.</td><td>623</td></tr><tr><td>34.6</td><td>Five sand mounds and Yama altar erected for rice cultivation ritual, Thlork village.</td><td>624</td></tr><tr><td>34.7</td><td>Female medium performing dance to Yama before rice cultivation ritual.</td><td>625</td></tr><tr><td>34.8</td><td>Rice stacked between the Yama altar and shelter.</td><td>626</td></tr></table>
TABLES

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>7.1</td>
      <td>Cross-chronology of Chinese dynasties and Cambodian time periods.</td>
      <td>114</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.2</td>
      <td>Desirable products of Cambodia and China, listed by Zhao Rugua and Zhou Daguan, with botanical names, comments, and variant translations added where appropriate.</td>
      <td>115</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8.1</td>
      <td>Details, including characteristic plant species, relevant to each of the three WWF-recognised ecoregions of the Greater Angkor region.</td>
      <td>137</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8.2</td>
      <td>Vegetation regions surveyed in Ashwell (1993) and the corresponding JICA (2002) land-use type (where possible, based on spatial and/or descriptive correlation).</td>
      <td>137</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8.3</td>
      <td>The array of pollen types identified in the palaeoecological records analysed and the ecological groups to which they were assigned.</td>
      <td>142</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.1</td>
      <td>Epigraphic territorial terms and their definitions.</td>
      <td>202</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>13.1</td>
      <td>Social status and associated fines from K. 323 (889 CE, sts. 78–82).</td>
      <td>248</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>14.1</td>
      <td>Epigraphic sources for warfare in the Angkor Period.</td>
      <td>256</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>14.2</td>
      <td>Dimensions of temple enclosure walls in the Pre-Angkor and Angkor Periods.</td>
      <td>261</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>19.1</td>
      <td>Distribution of recovered plants across the three study sites.</td>
      <td>354</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20.1</td>
      <td>Main characteristics of the different sandstone lithotypes used during the Angkor Period.</td>
      <td>364</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>22.1</td>
      <td>Summary statistics of the five sites.</td>
      <td>403</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>22.2</td>
      <td>Presence and absence of economic crops in the five study sites.</td>
      <td>408</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>22.3</td>
      <td>Charred rice plant parts found in the five sites.</td>
      <td>415</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>24.1</td>
      <td>Epigraphic references for the emplacement of pratimā (likenesses) of Hindu deities and Buddha statues.</td>
      <td>440</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>25.1</td>
      <td>Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian inscription data on bovines.</td>
      <td>466</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>25.2</td>
      <td>Cow products in the Khmer inscriptions.</td>
      <td>467</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>31.1</td>
      <td>Thermoluminescence dating results from this study.</td>
      <td>560</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>31.2</td>
      <td>Uthong sites identified in each river basin and city in Thailand based on 2018–2019 surveys.</td>
      <td>565</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>33.1</td>
      <td>Types of ceramics recovered from surface collection and excavation at Longvek.</td>
      <td>601</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
CONTRIBUTORS

**Ang Choulean** is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the Royal University of Fine Arts (CAM).

**David Brotherson** is an honorary associate, Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney (AUS).

**Federico Carò** is Research Scientist in the Department of Scientific Research of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (USA).

**Alison K. Carter** is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oregon (USA).

**Cristina Cobo Castillo** is Honorary Researcher at UCL Institute of Archaeology (UK).

**Chea Socheat** is an archeologist of the Authority for the Protection and Safeguarding of Angkor and the Region of Angkor and a research associate of the École française d'Extrême-Orient centre in Siem Reap (CAM).

**Jean-Baptiste Chevance** is an archaeologist and the Program Director for the Archaeology & Development Foundation—Phnom Kulen Program, Siem Reap (CAM).

**Chhay Rachna** is Head of the Ceramic Study Office in the Angkor International Centre of Research and Documentation, APSARA National Authority, Siem Reap (CAM).

**Chhem Rethy** is a distinguished professor of technology and humanities at the Cambodia University of Technology and Science (CamTech) (CAM).

**Chhom Kunthea** is an epigrapher and researcher in Apsara National Authority (CAM).

**Aedeen Cremin** is an independent scholar (AUS).
## Contributors

**Tess Davis** is a lawyer and archaeologist and is currently Executive Director of the Antiquities Coalition and teaches cultural property law at Johns Hopkins University (USA).

**Ea Darith** is Director of the Department of Conservation and Archaeology for the National Authority for Preah Vihear (CAM).

**Armand Desbat** is Emeritus research director at CNRS (FRA).

**Penny Edwards** is Professor of Southeast Asian Studies in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley (USA).

**Julia Estève** is Lecturer in Department of Global Buddhism, UTK, Institute of Science Innovation and Culture, Bangkok (THA).

**Damian Evans** is Senior Research Fellow at the École française d'Extrême-Orient in Paris (FRA) and an Honorary Associate in the Department of History, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, at the University of Sydney (AUS).

**Christian Fischer** is an independent scholar and Co-Director of the Molecular and Nano Archaeology Lab & Archaeomaterials Group at UCLA (USA).

**Roland Fletcher** is Professor of Theoretical and World Archaeology at the University of Sydney (AUS).

**Gillian Green** is an independent scholar. She is immediate past president of the Asian Arts Society of Australia and formerly Honorary Associate in the Department of Art History (AUS).

**Kenneth R. Hall** is Professor of History at Ball State University (USA).

**Tegan Hall** is a landscape architect and Lecturer at the Australian Catholic University and the Queensland University of Technology (AUS).

**Scott Hawken** is Director of the Landscape Architecture and Urban Design Program at the University of Adelaide (AUS).

**Mitch Hendrickson** is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (USA).

**Heng Piphal** is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA (USA).

**Trude Jacobsen Gidaszewski** is Professor of South and Southeast Asian History and faculty associate in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, a Title VI National Resource Center, at Northern Illinois University (USA).

**Wayne Johnson** is Senior Archaeologist with Place Management NSW (Australia) and Archaeological Field Director for Sydney University's Greater Angkor Project (AUS).
## Contributors

**Sarah Klassen** is Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow in the Digital Archaeology department at Leiden University (NLD).

**Pipad Krajaejun** is Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University (THA) and a PhD candidate at SOAS, University of London (UK).

**Paul A. Lavy** is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (USA).

**Stéphanie Leroy** is Senior Researcher in archaeometallurgy at the French National Research Center (FRA).

**Ian Lowman** is an independent scholar based in Aberdeen, North Carolina (USA).

**Eileen Lustig** is an independent scholar based in Sydney (AUS).

**Terry Lustig** is an independent scholar based in Sydney (AUS).

**Pierre-Yves Manguin** is Emeritus Professor at the École française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris (FRA).

**Dan Penny** is Associate Professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney and Co-Director of the Angkor Research Program at the University of Sydney (AUS).

**Phlong Pisith** is Lecturer at the Faculty of Archaeology, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh (CAM).

**Phon Kaseka** is Director General of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Royal Academy of Cambodia, Phnom Penh (CAM).

**Martin Polkinghorne** is a Senior Lecturer in archaeology at Flinders University, Adelaide (AUS).

**Christophe Pottier** is Associate Professor at the École française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris (FRA).

**Sachchidanand Sahai** is Resident Scholar at the ASPARA National Authority, Siem Reap (CAM).

**Yuni Sato** is a researcher at the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (JPN).

**Seng Sonetra** is a PhD candidate at the Department of History of Art and Archaeology, SOAS-University of London (UK).

**Peter D. Sharrock** is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (UK).
## Contributors

**Siyonn Sophearith** is Lecturer of Cambodian history at the Royal U of Fine Arts and a government official of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Phnom Penh (CAM).

**Nhim Sotheavin** is a researcher at the Sophia Asia Center for Research and Human Development, Sophia University, Japan (JPN)

**Dominique Soutif** is Lecturer of Southeast Asian archeology at the École française d'Extrême-Orient (FRA).

**Miriam T. Stark** is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (USA).

**Edward Swenson** is Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Archaeology Centre at the University of Toronto (CAN).

**Yukitsugu Tabata** is Professor in the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences at Waseda University, Tokyo (JPN).

**Ashley Thompson** is Hiram W. Woodward Chair in Southeast Art and Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (UK).

**Pelle Wijker** is a doctoral student at Université Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the École française d'Extrême-Orient (FRA).
# ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

## Chapter 1—Penny & Hall

The authors acknowledge the Cambodian National Authority for the Protection of the Site and the Management of the Region of Angkor (APSARA) for their long-standing support and collaboration. This research is funded by the Australian Research Council and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

## Chapter 2—Soutif & Estève

The research program Corpus des Inscriptions Khmères is a collaboration between the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), the Cambodian National Authority for the Protection of the Site and Management of the Region of Angkor (APSARA), UTK Krungthep, and the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia. This research has benefited from the financial support of the EFEO and the Dharma project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

## Chapter 4—Stark & Manguin

The authors would like to thank their host institutions for supporting their Mekong Delta-based research in Cambodia (Stark) and Vietnam (Manguin). Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and its Archaeology Faculty of the Royal University of Fine Arts were invaluable throughout the 1996–2009 Lower Mekong Archaeological Project field investigations. Vietnam's Southern Institute of Social Sciences (Ho Chi Minh City) was EFEO's research partner during the work at Óc Eo and surrounding areas. All mistakes remain the authors' responsibility.

## Chapter 5—Chevance & Pottier

The authors would like to thank Damian Evans for his careful proofreading; Lionel Courty for the translation; and H.E. Hang Peou, Director-General of the APSARA National Authority, for the unwavering support of APSARA and its departments. The Franco-Khmer Archaeological Mission on the Development of the Angkorian Territory (MAFKATA) is directed by
Acknowledgements

Christophe Pottier and operates in cooperation with APSARA. MAFKATA takes place under the auspices of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs through its *Commission des fouilles* and is co-financed by the French School of Asian Studies (EFEO). The Fondation Simone et Cino Del Duca has also supported MAFKATA. The Archaeology and Development Foundation (ADF) is directed by Jean-Baptiste Chevance in partnership with the APSARA National Authority. This research has been partly supported by the Mohamed S. Farsi Foundation.

**Chapter 7—Stark & Cremin**

Our thanks go to Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and to APSARA National Authority for supporting our work in Cambodia since 1996, some of which enabled us to produce the scholarship in the chapter.

**Chapter 8—Hall & Penny**

The authors acknowledge the Cambodian National Authority for the Protection of the Site and the Management of the Region of Angkor (APSARA) for their long-standing support and collaboration. This research is funded by the Australian Research Council and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

**Chapter 10—Evans et al.**

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and its various agencies, as well as the members of the Khmer Archaeology LiDAR Consortium. The contribution of D.E. and P.W. is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The contribution of M.P. is funded by the Australian Research Council.

**Chapter 11—Hawken & Klassen**

The authors acknowledge the Cambodian National Authority for the Protection of the Site and the Management of the Region of Angkor (APSARA) as well as the EFEO, Paris, and UCL, London, for supporting residencies for Dr. Scott Hawken in June and July of 2019. Thanks also to the School of the Built Environment, UNSW, Sydney, for supporting Dr. Scott Hawken's sabbatical. Additionally, the authors acknowledge the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship and for supporting residencies for Dr. Sarah Klassen at the University of British Columbia in 2019 and 2020 Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies) for supporting a residency in 2018. The authors are particularly grateful to Dr. Eileen Lustig for her thoughtful feedback on an initial draft of the chapter. The authors would also like to thank the editors for their detailed feedback on the various drafts of the chapter.

**Chapter 12—Lustig et al.**

The authors would like to thank Aedeen Cremin, John Downey, Damian Evans, Marnie Feneley, Nina Hofer, Eileen Lustig, Dan Penny, Sam Player, Martin Polkinghorne, Christophe Pottier, Sakhoeun Sakada, the Royal Angkor Foundation, and Chandana
Withannachchi for their comments, criticisms, and readiness to provide us with the benefits of their specialised knowledge.

Chapter 13—Davis & Lustig

The authors would like to acknowledge the late Philip Jenner for the translations of the Khmer inscriptions that are available online through his Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian dictionaries. In addition, the authors would like to thank the US Department of Homeland Security (ICE) for the ability to reprint the image of the Duryodhana sculpture.

Chapter 14—Brotherson

The author wishes to thank the APSARA National Authority and the Greater Angkor Project. Research was funded by the Australian Research Council, the Australian Postgraduate Award, the Carlyle Greenwell Research Fund, and the Endeavour Fellowship. Thanks also to Michael Charney for comments on an early draft of this chapter.

Chapter 15—Chea et al.

The research program Yaśodharāśrama is a collaboration between the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), the University of Toronto, the Cambodian National Authority for the Protection of the Site and Management of the Region of Angkor (APSARA), UTK Krungthep, and the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia. This research has benefited from the financial support of the EFEO; the Commission des fouilles of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs; the Dharma project, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme; and the Hal Jackman Foundation.

Chapter 16—Chhem et al.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the *Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies*, who gave us permission to adapt parts of Chhem (2007), from which sections of our text were drawn. Funding for this contribution derives in part from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Chapter 17—Lustig et al.

The authors would like to acknowledge the late Philip Jenner for the translations of the Khmer inscriptions that are available online through his Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian dictionaries.

Chapter 19—Hawken & Castillo

The authors would like to thank the Cambodian National Authority for the Protection of the Site and Management of the Region of Angkor (APSARA) and Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts for their support. In addition, we thank Dr Eileen Lustig, Sarah Klassen, and the editors of the book for helpful feedback to improve the chapter. Scott Hawken would like to acknowledge both Damian Evans and Christophe Pottier of the EFEO for hosting his stay in Paris during the writing of the chapter and Dorian Fuller, who hosted him at the Institute of Archaeology at
UCL in London. This chapter was written with the support of the Faculty of the Built Envi-
ronment, UNSW Sydney.

**Chapter 20—Fischer et al.**

We thank the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia, the APSARA National Authority, the National Museum of Cambodia, and the École française d'Extrême-Orient. Special thanks go to Dominique Soutif and Bertrand Porte (EFEO) and to the Cambodian team of the stone workshop at the National Museum of Cambodia. Part of this research was supported through grants from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation, the PSL/Scripta and the Corpus des inscriptions khmères projects, the University of California Los Angeles, and by fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the E.W. Forbes Fund at the Freer Gallery of Art.

**Chapter 21—Hendrickson et al.**

The authors wish to thank the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the APSARA Authority for their long-standing support and continued collaborations. Thanks also to Dominique Soutif at the École française d'Extrême-Orient and the University of Sydney Robert Christie Research Centre, particularly So Malay, in Siem Reap. Funding for this work was provided in part by the National Science Foundation, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, and Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies. Finally, thanks to the National Museum of Cambodia for permission to include the effigy vessel image from their collection.

**Chapter 22—Castillo**

Thanks to the Cambodian National Authority for the Protection of the Site and Management
of the Region of Angkor (APSARA) for their continued support. I would like to thank my
colleagues and friends Mitch Hendrickson, who continued to push me to finish this chapter and
had faith in my work through some difficult times. I would also like to thank my many collabo-
rators: Miriam T. Stark, Alison K. Carter, Martin Polkinghorne, Heng Piphal, Rachna Chhay,
and the GAP and INDAP teams.

**Chapter 23—Estève**

This chapter is part of the Corpus des Inscriptions Khmères research program (https://cik.efeo.fr/), in charge of the inventory of ‘K. numbers’ initiated by George Cœdès (IC VIII) and continued by Claude Jacques (1971). It is part of the project Dharma that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

**Chapter 25—Hendrickson et al.**

The authors would like to acknowledge the late Philip Jenner for the translations of the Khmer
inscriptions that are available online through his Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian dictionaries.
The authors wish to thank the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh for permission
to publish the image of the buffalo cistern from their collection.
# 0

## PROLOGUE

### An Introduction to the Angkorian World

Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam T. Stark, Damian Evans
*with Roland Fletcher*

We have designed this volume as a state-of-the-art summary of research on the Angkorian World for a general readership. Drawing from more than a century of research in several discrete (and only rarely overlapping) disciplines has produced new and exciting views of this important but little-known Asian civilisation. So has inviting this generation of authors from different fields to collaborate in multi-authored chapters. Archaeologists have worked with epigraphers, art historians, and historians to develop innovative and holistic perspectives for this volume that push the boundaries of conventional archaeological research. Angkorian scholarship remains distinct from mainstream archaeological research in its stubbornly interdisciplinary approach and its roots in a particularist French intellectual tradition that emphasised epigraphic and art historical approaches. The fact that most research has also taken place within a heritage context, from the early to mid-20th century EFEO conservation efforts to the post-1992 UNESCO World Heritage era, affects the shape of scholarship. So does the lack of dedicated geographic concessions to different teams (as is sometimes the case in the Near East and Mesoamerica), which has meant that multiple research projects have worked in overlapping areas, with varying degrees of cooperation, to produce competing explanations from the same sites. Such frictions are difficult to navigate but can be intellectually productive; our goal is to highlight the particular kinds of insights that emerge from this context.

Our book comprises 35 original chapters written by leading scholars from Cambodia, the United States, France, Australia, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Thailand. Despite strenuous efforts at authorial parity and even coverage, we are acutely aware of our volume's shortcomings through its long period of development. Our authorship still skews toward Euroamericans, with fewer Khmer voices than we had hoped. Little room exists in this kind of volume for the conventional culture histories that newcomers to Angkorian studies often seek, which often draw heavily on the Francophone canon that was instrumental to the development of Angkorian research. Limited space has been allocated to some topical debates in Angkorian scholarship, like Groslier's (1979) 'hydraulic city' model and discussions of collapse (e.g. Lucero et al. 2015; Penny et al. 2019). We include a basic timeline of Angkorian history (Figure 0.1) and urge readers to consult previously published overviews, some relatively new (Coe and Evans 2018) and some more established (Briggs 1951; Dagens 2003) for key cultural history, the history of research in the field, and key debates through time. Maps included at the end of this chapter provide the reader with a reference of the spatial extent of the Khmer Empire's
influences (Figure 0.2), its reach, and the location of significant sites mentioned in the text (Figure 0.3). Our editorial mission has been to view the Angkorian World as historical scientists: to inspire new ways of looking at things that acknowledge old paradigms and offer new approaches. The following sections provide rationale for our volume's structure.

## Part I: Contexts

This section provides foundational information regarding the study of the Angkorian World, from its heartland (Figure 0.4) to its far reaches. The World's ancient empires all depended on rich local environments, and Angkor is no different. The annual flooding of Cambodia's great lake, the Tonle Sap, fed large populations across the Khmer state, and surrounding regions held myriad forest products that the Chinese sought throughout the polity's lifespan. We have largely limited our focus to the 9th–15th century Angkor Period because of space limitations: our many chapters only graze the surface of scholarship. Some chapters delve into earlier (Pre-Angkorian and prehistoric) developments that were foundational to the Angkorian state. The discussion of early capitals encapsulates the idea of continuity within the larger transformations from small polities to one of the greatest empires in Asian history. Focusing on epigraphic research of minor texts written on objects complements classic research on royal stelae.

We close this section with a discussion of how conventional Angkorian scholarship rendered Cambodian researchers nearly invisible in the study of their own history: despite the fact that French EFEO conservators worked directly with Khmer technical experts (e.g. Falser 2020, 54, 112 for Marchal's conservation work) and despite a florescence in Khmer studies in the mid-20th century (see Dy 2006; Népote 1979; Peycam 2010, 162–64; 2011). This long-standing invisibility was clear even after the Khmer Republic proposed to make Phnom Penh the archaeological centre for a mainland Southeast Asia institute (ARCAFA: Applied Research Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts or ARCAFA). Only 7 of the 42 individuals listed as specialists in Khmer archaeology for that proposal (SEAMEO 1972, 304–6) were actually Khmer, and of those 7, only 2 were trained as archaeologists (Chea Thay Seng and Roland Mourer). Khmer scholars have gradually become more visible in the last few decades, a development that our chapters seek to illustrate. This transformation includes essential voices that will continue to expand our understanding of Angkor as an empire, a cultural icon, and a heritage site of global significance.

## Part II: Landscapes

Here our authors offer broad perspectives on agrarian, hydrological, and demographic contexts of the Angkorian World. Work described in this section's chapters owe much to the extensive archaeological survey programs and remote sensing campaigns that foreign scholars (e.g., those from the EFEO, the Greater Angkor Project, and others) have completed in collaboration with Cambodian institutions, most notably those housed under the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts (including the APSARA National Authority) and the Royal Academy of Cambodia. The 'lidar revolution' resulting from two separate missions that covered over 2000 km² of Greater Angkor (Figure 0.5) and beyond has set the stage for new visions of early urban centres and their associated water management systems. Patterns of occupation around Angkor, and along one of the most important corridors in the Angkorian World, the Mekong, show a degree of consistency and coherence, as well as variability and adaptation to local conditions. Archaeobotanical studies, still in their infancy in Angkorian research, offer new insights into agriculture, subsistence, and land use that are canvassed in our chapters.
## Prologue

### Part III: State Institutions

The chapters in this section examine key social traditions that structured ancient Angkorian society by focusing on its capital, which we call Greater Angkor (Figure 0.5). Angkor's success and emergence as Southeast Asia's largest empire were based in large part on the successful operationalisation of a complex and Indic-tinged system of statecraft. Unravelling the intricate genealogies of Khmer kings and locating their religious, art historical, and architectural legacies in time and space have long been mainstays of the literature on the Angkorian World; instead, our volume focuses on selected social processes that force new understandings of Khmer agency and power. How kings became fully legitimate kings rested on systems of bureaucracy and ritual. As the final arbiter and overseer of land ownership, the king sat at the head of Angkorian legal institutions. Physical representations of Brahmanic and Buddhist deities in the state temples of Angkor were central to the reproduction of royal power; we also see that, beyond the capital, local deities became intertwined with Brahmanical practices across the diverse landscapes of the Angkorian World.

### Part IV: Economies

In this section, our contributors focus on the myriad activities and structures that facilitated the rise and functioning of the Angkorian state. Greater Angkor's geographic location was instrumental to its deep occupational history and helps to explain its huge population. Temple transactions and donations recorded in the Khmer-language inscriptions attest to the diverse range of products available in this cashless, barter economy and offer insight into the relative value of certain goods. The primacy of rice is attested to both in these records and in the vast landscape of wet-rice agricultural systems that stretch across the lake's northern margins. Tracing the spatial organisation and orientation of these field systems offers insights into the complexity of farming practices and provides another glimpse at the palimpsest history of occupation in Greater Angkor. The Khmer also produced a range of material culture that would come to define their legacy in mainland Southeast Asia, including distinct green and brown glazed ceramics, metal objects, and their iconic masonry temples. The systematic expansion of archaeological field research beyond Angkor has allowed us to pinpoint the sources for some of these products and identify widespread pyrotechnological activity across the Khmer territories, including the region south of Phnom Penh. The discovery of dozens of stoneware ceramic kilns and hundreds of iron smelting mounds illustrates shifting scales of production and how demand for different types of material was linked to major periods of expansion, particularly during the 12th century and the reign of Jayavarman VII. New approaches to the study of sandstone, the building material of choice for the Khmers from the 11th century onwards, also reveal the complex and dynamic interplay between resource availability, architectural transformations, and the historical trajectory of the Khmer Empire.

### Part V: Ideologies and Realities

The contributions here survey belief systems that underpinned Angkor's merging of religion and state and examine key structuring principles like gender, ideology, and social organisation. As with other premodern states in mainland Southeast Asia, Angkorian people selectively integrated Indic beliefs and practices into their own specific cultural milieux. Conventional Angkorian scholarship emphasises a syncretic fusion of Hindu/Buddhist and local beliefs as
a form of ‘Hindicisation’ (from Georges Cœdès’ classic works [see e.g. Cœdès 1968]). More recent research instead emphasises pluralism, and a kind of ‘indigenization’ in which Khmer elites selected key foreign elements that supported their political goals and Worldview. The beautiful statues that served as foci for religious veneration in the Pre-Angkor and Angkor Periods are now counted among Southeast Asia’s greatest artistic achievements. Our contributors elaborate in detail on their manufacture and elucidate the roles these images played in social and political reproduction across the Angkorian World. One chapter explores roles that key animals like bovids (cattle and water buffalo) played in Angkor’s ritual and political economies. Other chapters use material culture and stylistic traditions to map the geographic boundaries of the Khmer polity. Attention then turns to daily life for Angkorian Khmers within and beyond temple walls, from sartorial expressions to gender roles. Image, performance, and agency all shaped daily life in the Angkorian World, and it is this aggregate that our authors study as long-term history.

## Part VI After Angkor

This final section challenges the conventional ‘collapse’ view of Angkor and threads together the centuries-long denouement of the Angkorian period with subsequent developments in Cambodian and Southeast Asian history. Conventional scholarship has long depended on the European ‘discovery’ of Angkor and on a catastrophic 15th-century ‘collapse’: two concepts that our authors challenge using environmental and archaeological data from micro to landscape scale. Research on urbanism in Greater Angkor chronicles the decline of this capital, its continued occupation, and a demographic shift south to take advantage of growing maritime networks through capitals at Longvek and ultimately Phnom Penh. Other chapters use art, architecture, epigraphy, and religion to explore Angkorian legacies in the 16th–17th century polities that flourished in the territories of the former Empire. Finally, we underscore that the period ‘after Angkor’ continues to the present day in Khmer religious practice. This resilience and continuity is illustrated by the enduring presence of Yama, a minor god during the time of the Empire, who now occupies a central role in Khmer Buddhist practice. More than just an immutable assemblage of massive and durable stone monuments, Angkor has always been a canvas upon which to elaborate particular ways of looking at and thinking about the past, and our final contributions trace some of the ways in which ideas about Angkor are expressed in contemporary Cambodian society and culture.

## Perspectives

A recurring theme in accounts of Angkor, from the earliest times until the present day, has been amazement and fascination with the prodigious scope of what was achieved, which by certain measures appears to be without parallel in the pre-industrial world. But the sheer scale of Angkor has given rise to its own set of theoretical and methodological problems. Historically, the precious and finite resources that we have available for investigations on the ground have focused on a handful of great temples in the urban centres of places like Angkor, and the art-works and inscriptions they contain, at the expense of the many thousands of smaller Angkorian shrines that sprawl across the Angkorian World. By focusing on the largest of the monuments, researchers have typically ignored the traces of communities and their everyday life that remain inscribed on the surface of the landscape, which are literally and figuratively overshadowed by the stone temples. Because of the unique scale of Angkor, conceptual and definitional problems abound.
## Prologue

As one example, the urban structure of Angkor itself defies easy categorisation: zoomed out to a certain extent, it resembles a sprawling and integrated 'city' of the kind we are now familiar with in the contemporary world: however, it is fully two orders of magnitude more extensive than other 'cities' of the pre-modern world Zooming in for more detail, Angkor Thom (and the Yasodharapura area, Figure 0.6) is a complicated mosaic of urban and rural space, with smaller urban centres that reflect the macro pattern of the settlement complex while also evincing specific local characteristics (Evans et al. 2007). Recent research has underscored the inherent tension in considering Angkor at different scales of time and space: on one level, the layout of Angkor is deliberate and reflects the designs of kings and the religious imperatives of the Angkorian state; on another level, it is the aggregate outcome of countless individual decisions over centuries (Klassen and Evans 2020). The functioning whole has emergent properties—material inertia and systemic vulnerability arising from centuries of reconfiguring the Earth's surface at regional scale (Penny et al. 2018)—that cannot readily or usefully be reduced to the beliefs and designs of individual kings, nor of farmers.

Recognising such differences in analytical scales is critically important to generating robust new insights about Angkor, particularly in identifying correspondences and non-correspondences between different lines of data (Fletcher and Evans 2012). Details matter, from the specific moment when an inscription was completed, associated with the specific intentions of an individual in the larger socio-political context in which they worked; through the schedules of daily routes and walking distances to collect water; the timing of 5-6-km travel distances to and from markets and workplaces; the fortnightly shifts of thousands of people across Angkor with the waxing and waning of the moon; up to the slow incessant movement of water through the canal networks. Angkor's space and time were structured and organised at different magnitudes. So were the products of long-term aggregate labour investment: if Angkor Wat temple was really constructed in three to four decades, as one interpretation of the inscriptions might suggest, labourers must have moved around 200 blocks of two to three tons, every single day, all year round—a feat that few quarry masters can match even today. The masonry of the towers on top of Ta Keo temple alone is estimated to weigh 6000 metric tons. Scaling further out, the West Baray held approximately 55 million cubic metres of water, and its banks extending for about 20 km contained over 12 million cubic metres of deposit. Thousands of human workers, working months and even years, moved these enormous quantities of materials (Pottier 2000, 104,114). Charismatic and effective rulers were necessary for Angkorian society to complete these projects, particularly their association of the Khmer ruler with the *devarāja* (god-king) and view of him as their *cakravartin* (universal ruler). On the other hand, it is likely that the everyday life of ordinary citizens over the centuries unfolded in much the same way regardless of which king sat on the throne or the specific gods to whom he professed devotion.

Temporal scales also vary broadly, from the duration of a single temple's construction to the lifespan of interaction and communication systems. Trade networks that moved textiles from South Asia and China to Angkor lasted for centuries. The Medieval Warm Phase, a period of oscillating higher global temperatures, lasted nearly five centuries. Greater Angkor's water system had a still longer duration, commencing at least with the establishment of Bhavapura with its proto-baray in the 8th century (Fletcher and Pottier 2022, 728-31) and continuing to the eventual abandonment of its last portion in Angkor Thom in the late 16th century (Groslier 1958). Ceramics were traded into Cambodia from China before the 9th century, and the circulation of this material culture continued beyond the demise of Greater Angkor (Brotherson 2019). Underlying all these developments was a rice-based agrarian foundation that reached Southeast Asia no later
than the early second millennium BCE (Fuller and Castillo 2022) and created a sophisticated local ecology that facilitated surpluses needed to feed the city. This system was embedded in a much older story of the cropping of floating rice and flood recession rice, which has a long ancestry in the seasonally inundated lowlands of the lower Mekong Basin (Fox and Ledgerwood 1999).

Long-standing approaches to art history, inscriptions, and architecture might seem to offer few insights to many of these questions. Inscriptions, for example, while extraordinarily rich in detail on some aspects of Angkorian society, are frustratingly silent on things like the production of material like iron and ceramics, on water management, on the beliefs and perspectives of non-elites, and on the mechanics of society beyond temples and the royal court. On the other hand, several contributions to this volume underscore the value of using innovative approaches, informed by fields such as digital humanities, anthropology, and the applied sciences, to reap new information from sources that have been intensively studied for a century or more. Quantitative analysis of vocabulary and material culture in inscriptions now allow us to track social and economic changes across time and space (Lustig and Lustig 2019), for example, while studies of the geochemistry of ceramics and iron and petrographic analyses of sandstone allow us to connect artefacts to the specific groups people who produced and used them (Leroy et al. 2018; Polkinghorne et al. 2015).

Archaeology continues to play an outsize role in filling in the gaps in our knowledge that remain, but we must be clear-eyed about its limitations, especially given the ephemeral and non-durable nature of most Khmer material culture. We must also reframe the research questions that we ask, since there are a range of compelling and important questions to which we will almost certainly never know the answers. Scholars working elsewhere in the premodern world have demonstrated the importance of studying slavery, health, and mobility in the maintenance of ancient cities and their states. Yet Angkorian mortuary practices—the systematic cremation of the dead—preclude their study. We have no texts that provide insight into whether, and to what extent, belief systems promoted by kings were accepted by the general population or the degree to which the vast investments of labour in temple construction were motivated by devotion or servitude. Urban anatomy, from neighbourhoods to urban sectors, remains a challenge for Angkorian researchers to parse. Deciphering provincial dynamics, from economic organisation to linkages to the capital, requires more work. So does understanding the structure of the agrarian economy that supported the emergence and functioning of the capital. We hope that these chapters inspire the next generation of researchers to begin their research journeys into the Angkorian World.

Every volume in this Routledge series synthesises vast bodies of scholarship on a given 'World', and most draw from an array of disciplinary approaches that we also tap in this volume. Much of what makes Angkorian research important and difficult is not commonly found across the scholarly communities who crafted previous volumes. These include the impact of Angkor's colonial origins and legacies in current research practice, tensions between particularistic and comparative approaches, and geopolitical dynamics translated into scholarly conflicts. As in so many other archaeological research contexts, we currently lack unified or coherent systems for data collection, data access, and collections management. Yet some challenges seem unique to our field of Angkorian studies, from methodological challenges (and accomplishments) born of work in post-conflict land-mined regions, pressures to pursue less invasive research strategies in World Heritage properties, and an archaeological heritage that its descendant community so values that nearly every national flag since the mid-19th century has included Angkor's silhouette. Archaeology and heritage interdigitate in the Angkorian World to inspire both the kind of pride that encourages Khmers to become archaeologists and nationalism that occasionally also provokes armed conflict.
Prologue

<table><caption>Figure 0.1 Timeline of the Angkorian World.</caption><thead><tr><th>DATE</th><th>PERIOD</th><th>MAJOR RULERS</th><th>SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1900</td><td>Protectorate</td><td>Norodom Ang Duong</td><td>1863 Treaty with French Phnom Penh the capital</td></tr><tr><td>1800</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>1700</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>1600</td><td>Early Modern/ Middle</td><td>Ang Chan</td><td>Udong the capital<br>Longvek the capital; Rededication of Angkor<br>Khmer court moves south Thai attacks on Angkor</td></tr><tr><td>1500</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>1400</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>1300</td><td></td><td>Jayavarman VIII</td><td>Zhou Daguan account of Angkor</td></tr><tr><td>1200</td><td></td><td>Jayavarman VII</td><td>Angkor Thom<br>Civil war/Cham invasion of Angkor</td></tr><tr><td>1100</td><td>Angkor</td><td>Süryavarman II</td><td>Angkor Wat</td></tr><tr><td>1000</td><td></td><td>Süryavarman I</td><td>Baphuon</td></tr><tr><td>900</td><td></td><td>Rajendravarman II</td><td>Yaśodharapura the capital; Pre Rup Koh Ker the capital; Prasat Thom<br>Yaśodharapura the capital; Bakheng</td></tr><tr><td>800</td><td></td><td>Jayavarman IV</td><td>Yaśo varman I Indravarman I<br>Heriharālaya the capital; Bakong Mahendraparvata the capital; Rong Chen Founding of the Khmer Empire</td></tr><tr><td>700</td><td></td><td>Jayavarman II</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>600</td><td>'Chenla/Zhenla'</td><td>Jayadevi</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>500</td><td>Pre-Angkor</td><td>Jayavarman I<br>Iśanavarman</td><td>Iśanapura (Sambor Prei Kuk) a capital</td></tr><tr><td>400</td><td>'Funan/ Fou-nan'</td><td>Bhavavarman I<br>Rudravarman</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>300</td><td></td><td></td><td>Brahmanic and Buddhist evidence in Southeast Asia</td></tr><tr><td>200</td><td></td><td></td><td>Angkor Borei/ Óc Eo</td></tr><tr><td>100</td><td>Protohistoric/ Prehistoric</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>0</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>
Navigating these challenges takes mindfulness, and we close by offering thoughts about the kind of future research we hope will expand our views of the Angkorian World. At the pragmatic level, more local engagement and less international oversight is needed to decolonise the study of Angkorian heritage field and hear local voices. Standardised researcher protocols, ranging from research ethics to data management systems, would strengthen the field and enhance the research value of more than a century of research collections. As several scholars have argued (see e.g. Heng and Phon 2017; Stark and Piphal 2017), we must eradicate persistent asymmetries between foreign and local researchers in Angkorian studies to move forward. As we commit to doing so, it will not be sufficient to simply dismiss the scholarship that has come before as ‘colonial’, which is obviously and necessarily true: the hard work that confronts us is to systematically and rigorously reappraise the archaeological record and to critically evaluate what is of enduring value and what is not.

We end with a note on chronological terminology. The timeline (Figure 0.1) is broadly divisible into Prehistoric and Early Historic. Culturally we speak of Pre-Angkor (6th to 8th c. CE) and Angkor Periods (9th to mid-15th c. CE), followed by the Early Modern or Middle Period (16th to 19th c. CE). Historians have also identified different phases within the Early Historic Period that correspond to the rise of state-level political entities, including *Funan* (4th to 5th c. CE) and *Chenla* (6th to 8th c. CE). Different meanings of these terms are described in detail elsewhere (Jacques 1979; Vickery 1986). References to late Angkor typically are associated with the late 13th to 15th century and are typically associated with the decline of the Empire.

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>*Figure 0.2* South and Southeast Asia, showing key sites.</figcaption></figure>
## Prologue

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Figure 0.3 Southeast Asia, showing key sites.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>*Figure 0.4* Heartland of the Khmer Empire, showing key sites and extent of the Angkorian road system.</figcaption></figure>
## Prologue

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Figure 0.5 Greater Angkor, showing major temple sites and the extent of infrastructure.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>*Figure 0.6* Capital region of Yaśodharapura, highlighting the urban layout in and around Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat.</figcaption></figure>
## Prologue

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>Figure 0.7 Capital region of Hariharālaya (Roluos).</figcaption></figure>

## Funding

Funding for this contribution derives in part from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreements 639828 and 866454).

## References

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* Brotherson, D., 2019. *Commerce, the capital, & community: trade ceramics, settlement patterns & continuity throughout the demise of Angkor*. PhD thesis, Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney.

* Coe, M. & D. Evans, 2018. *Angkor and the Khmer Civilization*. London: Thames & Hudson.

* Cœdès, G., 1968. *The Indianized States of Southeast Asia*. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii.

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