Investigate the role of agriculture in the rise and fall of Angkor, Cambodia

Summary

Using palaeo-botanical techniques, this project will test the hypothesis that the demise of the medieval city of Angkor related at least in part, to the collapse of its agricultural base

Supervisor(s)

Dr Daniel Penny

Research Location

School of Geosciences

Program Type

N/A

Synopsis

Angkor was the royal capital of the Khmer Empire, one of the World’s largest ‘pre-industrial’ cities, and now the World’s largest archaeological site.  It has long been hypothesized that Angkor’s collapse and abandonment – some time during the 15th century C.E. – was related, at least in part, to the demise of rice agriculture, itself a result of a decline in soil productivity or a systemic failure of the huge and convoluted water management network used to transport and capture water.  This project will utilize micro-fossil remains of cultivated rice (phytoliths) preserved in soils and sediments throughout the city, to reconstruct and precisely date the supposed collapse of rice agriculture.  In doing so the project will provide the first robust empirical evidence capable of testing the agricultural hypothesis of Angkor’s demise. Potential candidates will be assisted in applying for funding. This project will be closely associated with a long-running multi-disciplinary research project at the University of Sydney (website).

Keywords

Asia, Cambodia, Angkor, palaeoclimate, geoarchaeology, Geochemistry, palynology, palaeoecology, pollen, diatoms, phytoliths, sedimentology, archaeology, geology, Geography

Opportunity ID

The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is: 631

Other opportunities with Dr Daniel Penny

• Determine the environmental impact of intensive industry in medieval Cambodia