| Abstract: |
Angkor is widely known for its durable religious monuments of stone and brick, but architecture beyond these temples was mostly of non-durable material that decayed long ago, leaving only faint traces inscribed in the Earth’s surface. As a result, the nature of human settlement in the Angkorian world has long been a focus of debate and disagreement. Recently, however, archaeological work combining aerial and ground investigations has brought the lived-in spaces of the Angkorian world into much sharper focus. There is a very strong correlation between religious monuments and occupation areas. Larger monuments usually have dense, well-structured occupation in their immediate area, which is in turn surrounded by more diffuse settlement extending over a much wider area. Few settlements are neatly enclosed by walls or moats, and boundaries are generally difficult to define, challenging our conventional definition of ‘cities’ and blurring the classic distinction between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ spaces.
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