page_title: Post-Angkor Period
section_title: Outlook
hierarchical_section_title: Post-Angkor Period / Consequences and conclusions / Outlook
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Présenté lors de l'exposition Indochine des territoires et des hommes 1856 1956.
context_page_description: The post-Angkor period of Cambodia, also called the Middle Period and Dark Age, and Vigilantism refers to the historical era from the early 15th century to 1863, the beginning of the French Protectorate of Cambodia. As reliable sources are very rare, a defensible and conclusive explanation that relates to concrete events that manifest the decline of the Khmer Empire, recognised unanimously by the scientific community, has so far not been produced. However, most modern historians have approached a consensus in which several distinct and gradual changes of religious, dynastic, administrative and military nature, environmental problems and ecological imbalance coincided with shifts of power in Indochina and must all be taken into account to make an interpretation. In recent years scholars' focus has shifted increasingly towards human–environment interactions and the ecological consequences, including natural disasters, such as flooding and droughts.
  Stone epigraphy in temples, which had been the primary source for Khmer history, is already a rarity throughout the 13th century, ends in the third decade of the fourteenth, and does not resume until the mid-16th century.
context_section_description: Archaeology of Cambodia is considered to be still in its infancy. The introduction of new methods of geochronology such as LIDAR-Scanning and Luminescence dating has revealed new sets and kinds of data and studies on climate—and environmental imbalances have become more numerous in recent years. Reflection of results obviously requires time, as in an article of the US National Academy of Sciences of the year 2010, the author complains: "Historians and archaeologists have, with a few notable exceptions only rarely considered the role played by environment and climate in the history of Angkor".
  Widely debated remain historiography, culturalism and other aspects of the historical sources as wide contradictions suggest. Probably the greatest challenge is to synchronise all research with the conclusions of the neighbouring countries. Delicate issues exist that are rooted in this historical period (border disputes, cultural heritage), which are politically relevant and far from solved. Definitive conclusions with all contributing factors in a reasonable context are clearly future events.
  Miriam T. Stark in: "From Funan to Angkor Collapse and Regeneration in Ancient Cambodia"
  "...explaining why particular continuities and discontinuities characterize ancient Cambodia remains impossible without a more finely textured understanding of the archaeological record... Future work, that combines systematic archaeological research and critical documentary analysis can and should illuminate aspects of resilience and change..."
caption: Coronation of Norodom, 3 June 1864.
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