The evolution of agro-urbanism: A case study from Angkor, Cambodia

Alison Carter (1) , Sarah Klassen (2, 3) , Miriam Stark (4) , Martin Polkinghorne (5) , Piphal Heng , Rachna Chhay , Damian Evans (6)

1 University of Oregon [Eugene]
2 UBC - University of British Columbia
3 Universiteit Leiden = Leiden University
4 UHM - University of Hawai‘i [Mānoa]
5 Flinders University [Adelaide, Australia]
6 EFEO - École française d'Extrême-Orient

The vast agro-urban settlements that developed in the humid tropics of Mesoamerica and Asia contained both elite civic-ceremonial spaces and sprawling metropolitan areas. Recent studies have suggested that both local autonomy and elite policies facilitated the development of these settlements; however, studies have been limited by a lack of detail in considering how, when, and why these factors contributed to the evolution of these sites. In this paper, we use a fine-grained diachronic analysis of Angkor's landscape to identify both the state-level policies and infrastructure and bottom-up organization that spurred the growth of Angkor as the world's most extensive preindustrial settlement complex. This degree of diachronic detail is unique for the ancient world. We observe that Angkor's low-density metropolitan area and higher-density civic-ceremonial center grew at different rates and independently of one another. While local historical factors contributed to these developments, we argue that future comparative studies might identify similar patterns.

Mots clés: Urbanism; Agro-urbanism; Demography; Cambodia; Angkor; Southeast Asia

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Alison Carter, Sarah Klassen, Miriam Stark, Martin Polkinghorne, Piphal Heng, et al.. The evolution of agro-urbanism: A case study from Angkor, Cambodia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2021, 63, pp.101323. ⟨10.1016/j.jaa.2021.101323⟩. ⟨hal-03686514⟩