The Angkorian World

1. An Environmental History of Angkor: Beginning and End
2. Texts and Objects: Exploiting the Literary Sources of Medieval Cambodia
3. ‘Invisible Cambodians’: Knowledge Production in the History of Angkorian Archaeology
4. The Mekong Delta before the Angkorian World
5. The Early Capitals of Angkor
6. Angkor’s Multiple Southeast Asia Overland Connections
7. Angkor and China: 9th–15th Centuries
8. Forests, Palms, and Paddy Fields: The Plant Ecology of Angkor
9. Angkor and the Mekong River: Settlement, Resources, Mobility and Power
10. Trajectories of Urbanism in the Angkorian World
11. Angkor’s Temple Communities and the Logic of its Urban Landscape
12. Angkor as a ‘Cité Hydraulique’?
13. Angkorian Law and Land
14. Warfare and Defensive Architecture in the Angkorian World
15. Āśramas, Shrines, and Royal Power
16. Education and Medicine at Angkor
17. Angkor’s Economy: Implications of the Transfer of Wealth
18. The Temple Economy of Angkor
19. Angkor’s Agrarian Economy: A Socio-Ecological Mosaic
20. From Quarries to Temples: Stone Procurement, Materiality, and Spirituality in the Angkorian World
21. Crafting with Fire: Stoneware and Iron Pyrotechnologies in the Angkorian World
22. Food, Craft, and Ritual: Plants from the Angkorian World
23. Gods and Temples: The Nature(s) of Angkorian Religion
24. Bodies of Glory: The Statuary of Angkor
25. ‘Of Cattle and Kings’: Bovines in the Angkorian World
26. An Angkor Nation? Identifying the Core of the Khmer Empire
27. The Angkorian House
28. Vogue at Angkor: Dress, Décor, and Narrative Drama
29. Gender, Status, and Hierarchy in the Age of Angkor
30. Perspectives on the ‘Collapse’ of Angkor and the Khmer Empire
31. Uthong and Angkor: Material Legacies in the Chao Phraya
32. Mainland Southeast Asia After Angkor: On the Legacies of Jayavarman VII
33. Early Modern Cambodia and Archaeology at Longvek
34. Yama, the God Closest to the Khmers
35. Inarguably Angkor

The Angkorian World explores the history of Southeast Asia’s largest ancient state from the first to mid-second millennium CE. Chapters by leading scholars combine evidence from archaeology, texts, and the natural sciences to introduce the Angkorian state, describe its structure, and explain its persistence over more than six centuries. Comprehensive and accessible, this book will be an indispensable resource for anyone studying premodern Asia. The volume’s first of six sections provides historical and environmental contexts and discusses data sources and the nature of knowledge production. The next three sections examine the anthropogenic landscapes of Angkor (agrarian, urban, and hydraulic), the state institutions that shaped the Angkorian state, and the economic foundations on which Angkor operated. Part V explores Angkorian ideologies and realities, from religion and nation to identity. The volume’s last part reviews political and aesthetic Angkorian legacies in an effort to explain why the idea of Angkor remains central to its Cambodian descendants. Maps, graphics, and photographs guide readers through the content of each chapter. Chapters in this volume synthesise more than a century of work at Angkor and in the regions it influenced. The Angkorian World will satisfy students, researchers, academics, and the knowledgeable layperson who seeks to understand how this great Angkorian Empire arose and functioned in the premodern world.