Angkor & the Khmer Civilization

The latest (2024) edition of Angkor & The Khmer Civilization by Michael D. Coe and Damien Evans is a beautifully illustrated overview of thousands of years of Cambodian history. While what the authors term the "Classic" period, or the medieval empire that lasted from c.802 to 1327, occupies the most attention from the authors (in part due to the well-earned fame of Angkor and the greater attention paid to that period by archaeologists and historians), prehistoric and the Early Kingdoms epochs receive scholarly attention, too. With the new advances in LiDAR and other archaeological techniques, we know more than ever about ancient Cambodia, thereby opening the door to new questions and considerations about its past. For instance, the authors draw from recent work by archaeologists to support Groslier's "hydraulic city" model for Angkor, although they prefer an estimate of at most 750,000 for the Angkor metropolis. They also push back strongly against the idea of Classic Angkor as a mandala state or decentralized polity. The imprint of the royal administration down to the village level, inscriptions attesting to the presence of government officials appointed by the king, and regular censuses for corvee and taxation purposes suggest this was a strong government, even in the Post-Classical phase when territorial contraction and pressure from the Thai and Vietnamese weakened Cambodia. Overall, this is an excellent introduction that, of course, cannot do full justice to thousands of years of history given the archaeological gaps and the loss of countless manuscripts in Classical and Post-Classical times. Indeed, by adopting an approach to Cambodia over a longue durée allows one a reasonable perspective on the development of Cambodian civilization over time.  Naturally, numerous questions remain, some of which may be answered in the future with the aid of new techniques and models for understanding the art, temples, monuments, and public works projects of ancient Cambodia. Perhaps further analysis of reliefs from temples at Angkor and more analysis of inscriptions in Khmer and Sanskrit could have been utilized here for more insights on land tenure, the temples, and labor, but only such much can be done with the limited sources available.