Temple occupation and the tempo of collapse at Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Abstract

The 9th–15th century Angkorian state was Southeast Asia’s greatest premodern empire and Angkor Wat in the World Heritage site of Angkor is one of its largest religious monuments. Here we use excavation and chronometric data from three field seasons at Angkor Wat to understand the decline and reorganization of the Angkorian Empire, which was a more protracted and complex process than historians imagined. Excavation data and Bayesian modeling on a corpus of 16 radiocarbon dates in particular demand a revised chronology for the Angkor Wat landscape. It was initially in use from the 11th century CE with subsequent habitation until the 13th century CE. Following this period, there is a gap in our dates, which we hypothesize signifies a change in the use of the occupation mounds during this period. However, Angkor Wat was never completely abandoned, as the dates suggest that the mounds were in use again in the late 14th–early 15th centuries until the 17th or 18th centuries CE. This break in dates points toward a reorganization of Angkor Wat’s enclosure space, but not during the historically recorded 15th century collapse. Our excavation data are consistent with multiple lines of evidence demonstrating the region’s continued ideological importance and residential use, even after the collapse and shift southward of the polity’s capital. We argue that fine-grained chronological analysis is critical to building local historical sequences and illustrate how such granularity adds nuance to how we interpret the tempo of organizational change before, during, and after the decline of Angkor.

A model-based approach to the tempo of “collapse”: The case of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

“…Our results demonstrate that the tempo plot technique has wide applicability for quantifying the timing and rate of change of archaeological processes, in particular declines or cessation of activities associated with purported 'collapse' events and provides a viable alternative to the more common approach of using summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates. Tempo plots can also provide a useful extension of more common Bayesian approaches and offer ways to better characterize and quantify similar case studies around the world, such as the rate of decline at various Maya political centers (e.g., Ebert et al, 2017Ebert et al, , 2016Hoggarth et al, 2016) and other areas (e.g., Bar-Oz et al, 2019;Carter et al, 2019;O'Shea et al, 2019).…”

“…Moving past this generalization requires developing chronological models for these events involved in monument construction activities. Like with many chronological issues in archaeology, formal Bayesian models provide a useful tool to better resolve temporal patterns of monument construction (e.g., Carter et al, 2019;Chirikure et al, 2013;Culleton et al, 2012;Dye, 2016Dye, , 2012Schulz Paulsson, 2019).…”

Diachronic modeling of the population within the medieval Greater Angkor Region settlement complex

“…Since the 1990s, however, an interdisciplinary effort has brought new approaches and methods to bear on the problem of Angkor’s population, focusing on the subtle, remnant traces of the nondurable urban environment, much of which had been previously obscured by dense vegetation ( 14 ). Here, we present the culmination of that 30-year effort, combining multiple lines of evidence at a landscape scale, including historical archives and maps ( 4 ), measurements from multiple airborne lidar acquisitions ( 6 , 7 ), fine-grained archaeological excavation data ( 13 , 15 , 16 ), and machine learning algorithms ( 17 ) and present the first granular, diachronic, paleodemographic model of the Angkor complex. This modeling of the growth of an urban center can be used for diachronic paleodemographic modeling of premodern cities elsewhere.…”

Sustainable water management in the Angkor Temple Complex, Cambodia

“…It is estimated that around one million foreign tourists visit the temple annually [4], many of whom feel an important historic, cultural or spiritual connection. It also features as the centrepiece of Cambodia's flag, making it a symbol of national identity [5]. Thus, the Siem Reap River plays a valuable role in preserving the cultural, spiritual, religious heritage and national identity of Cambodia.…”