What happened in the city of Angkor already abandoned in the 15th century? Thanks to a coring, researchers were able to go back in time and better understand the decline of the ancient Khmer capital.
In the 15th century, the royal city of Angkor Thom was already abandoned.
When all the writings have disappeared in the tropical humidity, and only stone walls remain, how do you know what led to the abandonment of one of Southeast Asia's most powerful cities, the ancient capital Khmer Angkor?
A city completely abandoned in the 15th century
An international team led by Australian and Cambodian archaeologists has gone back in time thanks to a 70 cm earth core, dug in a moat in the royal city of Angkor Thom, in Cambodia, which we know has been completely abandoned in the 15th century. "The historical record is empty for 15th century Angkor, we have no written record to tell us why, when and how they left “, told AFP one of them, geographer Dan Penny, at the University of Sydney. Their study was published on February 25, 2019 in the Proceedings of the American National Academy of Sciences (PNAS ).
The elites have gradually turned away from Angkor
The sediment core serves as a "natural history book having recorded all the changes in land use, climate and vegetation, year after year ", explains the researcher. When humans inhabit a place, they burn wood, they erode the soil and disturb the vegetation. When they leave, the traces change. But "in the first decades of the 14th century , the decline begins ", says Dan Penny. By the end of the 14th century, the southern moat of Angkor was overgrown. "It follows that soil management had ceased ", write the researchers.
Historians have long debated the more or less gradual abandonment of Angkor, with some arguing that the end was abrupt, after the Ayutthaya invasion in 1431. Land conversely says that the city began to decline a century before, with the gradual departure of the royal, religious and commercial elites. "There was no collapse, it was a deliberate decision to turn away from Angkor “, says Dan Penny, the elites instead settling closer to the Mekong Delta trading hubs. Other carrots, at these destinations, will perhaps confirm the pace.