Vegetation and land-use at Angkor, Cambodia: a dated pollen sequence from the Bakong temple moat

Penny, D; Pottier, C; Fletcher, R; Barbetti, M; Fink, D; Hua, Q

Vegetation and land-use at Angkor, Cambodia: a dated pollen sequence from the Bakong temple moat

Date

2006-09

Authors

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Abstract

Investigating the use of land during the medieval period at the celebrated ceremonial area of Angkor, the authors took a soil column over 2.5m deep from the inner moat of the Bakong temple. The dated pollen sequence showed that the temple moat was dug in the eighth century AD and that the agriculture of the immediate area subsequently flourished. In the tenth century AD agriculture declined and the moat became choked with water-plants. It was at this time, according to historical documents, that a new centre at Phnom Bakeng was founded by Yasovarman I. © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

Keywords

Cambodia, Asia, Palynology, Agriculture, Plants, Pollen

Citation

Penny, D., Pottier, C., Fletcher, R., Barbetti, M., Fink, D., & Hua, Q. (2006). Vegetation and land-use at Angkor, Cambodia: a dated pollen sequence from the Bakong temple moat. Antiquity, 80(309), 599-614. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00094060