Alternative models exist for the movement of large urban populations following the 15th-century CE abandonment of Angkor, Cambodia. One model emphasizes an urban diaspora following the implosion of state control in the capital related, in part, to hydroclimatic variability. An alternative model suggests a more complex picture and a gradual rather than catastrophic demographic movement. No decisive empirical data exist to distinguish between these two competing models. Here we show that the intensity of land use within the economic and administrative core of the city began to decline more than one century before the Ayutthayan invasion that conventionally marks the end of the Angkor Period. Using paleobotanical and stratigraphic data derived from radiometrically dated sediment cores extracted from the 12th-century walled city of Angkor Thom, we show that indicia for burning, forest disturbance, and soil erosion all decline as early as the first decades of the 14th century CE, and that the moat of Angkor Thom was no longer being maintained by the end of the 14th century. These data indicate a protracted decline in occupation within the economic and administrative core of the city, rather than an abrupt demographic collapse, suggesting the focus of power began to shift to urban centers outside of the capital during the 14th century.

This is the first time an archaeobotanical analysis based on macroremains, both charred and desiccated, from Cambodia is reported. The archaeobotanical samples are rich and provide evidence of rice processing, consumption of non-indigenous pulses, and the use of economic crops. The evidence is supported by data from inscriptions, texts and historical ethnography. This study demonstrates that the city of Angkor in the 14th and 15th centuries CE, despite its decline, was still occupied. Angkor's inhabitants continued their everyday lives cultivating and consuming their staple food, rice, with a suite of pulses, and also used the harvests in the performance of rituals.

Angkor is one of the world’s largest premodern settlement complexes (9th to 15th centuries CE), but to date, no comprehensive demographic study has been completed, and key aspects of its population and demographic history remain unknown. Here, we combine lidar, archaeological excavation data, radiocarbon dates, and machine learning algorithms to create maps that model the development of the city and its population growth through time. We conclude that the Greater Angkor Region was home to approximately 700,000 to 900,000 inhabitants at its apogee in the 13th century CE. This granular, diachronic, paleodemographic model of the Angkor complex can be applied to any ancient civilization.

Les sites de production artistique du royaume khmer et les méthodes de fabrication associées sont longtemps restés inconnus. Pour la première fois en Asie du Sud-Est, un projet multidisciplinaire a identifié un atelier de bronziers d'époque historique où étaient fabriqués tant des statues que des objets, comme l'attestent divers déchets de production mis au jour. Les résultats préliminaires de prospections et de fouilles conduites au nord du palais royal d'Angkor Thom, complétées par une série d'analyses de matériaux, ont posé des nouveaux jalons pour une caractérisation de la métallurgie du cuivre et de ses alliages à Angkor. La proximité du complexe du palais royal suggère que l'atelier était d'une importance considérable pour l'élite politique qui commandait les produits des bronziers, ceci non seulement afin de fournir palais et temples en objets, mais aussi de légitimer son pouvoir au moyen d'images de dieux. L'étude technique du mobilier archéométallurgique, qui inclut céramiques techniques (creusets, moules, parois de fours), objets en cuivre et chutes de fonderie, objets en fer, scories, outils en pierre et en céramique, révèle de son côté les pratiques de fonte privilégiées par des artisans spécialisés.

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