Provincial Angkorian Urbanism in Battambang Province, Cambodia

Alison Carter1* and Miriam Stark2

Recent research on the Angkorian state has focused most efforts on Greater Angkor, the massive urban centre that was its capital for most of the 9th - 15th centuries CE. Yet empires like Angkor depended on their provinces for provisioning and political legitimation, and few studies have focused on how the waxing and waning of state control impacted provincial populations. In this paper, we present results from our collaborative research project at Baset village in Battambang Province, which offers some of the first systematic archaeological research on provincial Angkor. Excavations reveal that people lived at Baset for centuries before King Suryavarman I consecrated a sandstone temple there in the early 11th century CE and that this action subsequently altered life in this village. The ceramic, environmental and radiocarbon data highlight the transformations at Baset Village over time, and we conclude by offering preliminary hypotheses on the nature of interaction between the capital and the provinces in the Angkor Empire.