Angkor, Interdisciplinary Research and Urban Risk

Angkor, the vast low-density Khmer capital founded in the 7 to 8th century CE, was largely abandoned some time in the past 500 years. The processes, rate and period of its demise can now be better understood through the relationship between its infrastructure, the economy and the changing climate of the 14th-15th century CE. In this presentation Roland will examine the structure of Angkor’s social and spatial organisation; the way the urban complex operated; and its environment to diagnose why, when and how it was abandoned and to reveal the transformations from the 7th to 19th centuries that created the modern landscape out of 3000 years of cultural continuity.

About the speaker: Roland Fletcher is Professor of Theoretical and World Archaeology at the University of Sydney. Roland’s fields of expertise are the theory and philosophy of archaeology, the study of settlement growth and decline and the analysis of large-scale cultural phenomena over time. In 1995 he published ‘The Limits of Settlement Growth: a theoretical outline’ - an analysis of the past 15,000 years of settlement-growth and decline. Roland is the instigator of the Greater Angkor Project, which began in 1999 and is part of a major, collaborative, interdisciplinary research program by the University of Sydney.

Part of a special series of lunchtime archaeology talks presented by the Chau Chak Wing Museum: one each weekday during National Archaeology Week. Find the series details here!

When: 12 – 12.45pm, Wednesday 19 May 2021

Where: Chau Chak Wing Museum, University Place, Camperdown NSW 2006

Register: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/lunchtime-archaeology-talks-tickets-148515595143