Geoarchaeological evidence from Angkor, Cambodia, reveals a gradual decline rather than a catastrophic 15th-century collapse

A gradual decline, not a catastrophic collapse, characterized the abandonment of Angkor, Cambodia, according to new geoarchaeological evidence. Analysis of paleobotanical and stratigraphic data from radiometrically dated sediment cores in Angkor Thom's 12th-century walled city reveals that land use intensity, burning, forest disturbance, and soil erosion began decreasing as early as the first decades of the 14th century—long before the Ayutthayan invasion conventionally marking the end of the Angkor Period. The study also shows that maintenance of Angkor Thom's moat ceased by the late 14th century, indicating a protracted shift in power away from the capital to other urban centers during this period.

Penny, D., Hall, T., Evans, D., & Polkinghorne, M. (2019). Geoarchaeological evidence from Angkor, Cambodia, reveals a gradual decline rather than a catastrophic 15th-century collapse. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(11), 4871–4876. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821460116