22 March 2023 The Future is the Product of the Past

New Research Shows Angkor Wat’s Incredible Population Density

Angkor Wat was the grand capital of ancient Cambodia. The population of Angkor Wat, one of the most magnificent cities of the time, was between 750,000 and 900,000. This meant quite a large population density.

For the city, which seemed to be abandoned suddenly in 1431 after AD, researchers say the city was abandoned gradually, not suddenly.

An international team, led by the University of British Columbia, examined three decades of data to create a demographic model of the Medieval city.

This method for modeling urban center development, according to Sarah Klassen and colleagues, could be applied to other premodern cities.

Dr. Sarah Klassen, the lead author of the new paper, said the capital of the  Khmer Empire  represented “one of the largest pre-modern cities in the world, built up over several centuries of growth at different rates.”

This new form of data provides insights not only into the dynamics of rising and fall in ancient settlements but also into the complexities of Khmer social complexity. The report claims that Angkor, the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire, “suffered a slow decline,” and one of the most intriguing features of this study is that it shows how long Angkor Wat was abandoned.

In order to understand the so-called Khmer exodus, the study assessed the densities of people per hectare in the greater Angkor region over time. (C. Pottier, D. Evans and J-B. Chevance /  CC BY-ND )
In order to understand the so-called Khmer exodus, the study assessed the densities of people per hectare in the greater Angkor region over time. (C. Pottier, D. Evans and J-B. Chevance / CC BY-ND )

The new model shows “a gradual and protracted migration of its inhabitants dating back to the start of the 14th century.” Archaeologists and scholars have long questioned whether the kingdom collapsed after the 1431 AD conquest by Thai forces, but the new model reveals “a slow and prolonged exodus of its inhabitants dating back to the start of the 14th century.”

Since the city’s nonreligious architectural structures were made of organic materials that had long since decayed, no systematic demographic analysis of Angkor had ever been completed. According to Klassen and colleagues that this made traditional population size and density measurement techniques impractical.

To solve this obstacle, they created maps that model the city’s development over time using decades of archaeological excavation results, historical archives and maps, recent lidar surveys, and multiple machine learning algorithms.

The researchers discovered that it may have taken generations for Angkor’s population to hit its height, with development happening at varying rates in each of the temple’s three occupation zones. The civic-ceremonial center, which housed the royal residence and huge stone temples, the metropolitan district, and the embankments were among them.

When the researchers compared Angkor’s development to that of other preindustrial tropical and subtropical urban centers, they discovered that its range of metropolitan urban area densities was much smaller than that of the Mayan city of Caracol. Nonetheless, the density of its civic-ceremonial centers was equivalent to that of Teotihuacan in modern-day Mexico or Anyang in China.

The team also shows the abandonment of Angkor Wat as a gradual abandonment rather than a mass Khmer migration.

The findings have been published in the journal Science Advances.

Source: Daily Mail

Banner
Related Post

Early Female Emperors in Japan “Empress Kōken”

2 July 2021

2 July 2021

Born into the aristocratic Fujiwara clan, this extraordinary woman first ascended to the throne as Empress Kōken and became the...

10,000-year-old Settlement Discovered in Turkey’s Şanlıurfa

25 June 2021

25 June 2021

A Neolithic settlement was discovered in the garden of a house in the Sayburç Neighborhood of Şanlıurfa’s Karaköprü district. News...

Archaeologists discover a 4,000-year-old ancient city in the Iraqi Dhi Qar region

20 July 2021

20 July 2021

An astonishing find was made by archaeologists in Iraq‘s Dhi Qar province, where an ancient settlement estimated to be 4,000...

The 890-million-year-old sponge fossil may be the oldest animal yet discovered

1 August 2021

1 August 2021

890-million-year-old fossil sponges found in the “Little Dal” limestones of northwest Canada may be the oldest animal ever found. According...

Ancient Roman coin thought to be fake -certainly authentic and proves the existence of ‘forgotten’ leader Sponsian, study claims

26 November 2022

26 November 2022

History is littered with artifacts that were later discovered to be forgeries, but the opposite can also occur. A new...

Sheikh Sultan Opened ‘Tales from the East’ Exhibition

28 April 2021

28 April 2021

The opening of the ‘Tales from the East’ exhibition organized by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) was held with the...

A 2900-year-old collection of fossilized shark teeth found in the City of David, one of Jerusalem’s oldest Parts

5 July 2021

5 July 2021

Scientists discovered an inexplicable collection of fossilized shark teeth at a 2900-year-old archaeological site in Jerusalem’s City of David, one...

The camel carvings in Saudi Arabia are 8000 years old!

15 September 2021

15 September 2021

Life-size animal reliefs found in Saudi Arabia were carved almost 8,000 years ago, during the Neolithic period, when the desert...

Remains of ‘female vampire’ found with sickle across her neck and a padlocked toe in Poland

2 September 2022

2 September 2022

A skeleton of what archaeologists believe may have been a 17th-century female vampire has been discovered near Bydgoszcz in Poland....

Neanderthals too may have Developed a System of Numerical Notation

2 June 2021

2 June 2021

People developed numbers tens of thousands of years ago, according to archeological findings. Scholars are now investigating the first comprehensive...

Dark secrets of Korea’s famous Wolseong palace complex are unearthed

8 September 2021

8 September 2021

The remains of an adult woman were discovered at the base of the Wolseong palace in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang province,...

Artifacts found in Japan could be prototypes of ninja weapons

14 January 2022

14 January 2022

Artifacts discovered in the ruins of structures associated with warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s 1590 Siege of Odawara may be prototypes of...

Arrowhead from the Biblical Battle Discovered in the Hometown of the Giant Goliath’s

30 May 2021

30 May 2021

A bone arrowhead discovered in the ancient Philistine city of Gath might have been used fired off by the city’s...

A Special structure Contemporary to Göbeklitepe found at Gre Fılla Höyük in Eastern Turkey

4 August 2022

4 August 2022

Pit-bottomed structures dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period were found at Gre Fılla Höyük (Gre Fılla Mound) in the province...

Archaeologists have discovered sandstone blocks belonging to a pharaoh’s temple covered with hieroglyphs in Sudan

2 March 2023

2 March 2023

Polish archaeologists have discovered sandstone blocks belonging to a pharaoh’s temple covered with hieroglyphs during excavations at Old Dongola in...

Comments
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *