| Abstract: |
The Mekong River and its tributaries have nurtured the Khmer civilisation from its protohistoric foundations in the Funan Period through the lifespans of its Pre-Angkorian polities and the rise of the Angkorian Empire. Despite shifts in political centres through time and focus within the Tonle Sap plain, epigraphic and archaeological data suggest that Mekong-based centres continued to serve as key interaction nodes and resource zones through the 9th to 15th centuries. Angkor’s rulers established reciprocal political relationships with the elites who lived along the Mekong through ancestral connections, religious foundations, and taxation. This chapter uses archaeological, art historical, and epigraphic data to explore Angkorian settlement patterns and their Pre-Angkorian predecessors located along the Mekong River from the Mekong Delta to Vientiane (in modern-day Laos). Understanding the provincial settlements offers insights on the dynamics of economic and political structures in the Angkorian world.
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