| Abstract: |
Life in Cambodia remained vibrant after Angkor, yet we know very little about the period. This dearth of information is partially explained by the relative absence of durable monumental architecture and art and by archaeologists’ obsession with the Angkor Period. Systematic archaeological investigations of Early Modern Period Cambodia (ca. 1400–ca. 1850 CE) are now beginning. This chapter provides a review of recent investigations into the economic transformations that situated Cambodia in its global Early Modern context and that are often credited with contributing to the decline of Angkor as capital. The pursuit of new economic opportunities was seen as the most plausible early explanation for the demise of Angkor as capital (Vickery 1977a, 515). Angkor’s population declined as regional mercantile opportunities emerged further south, but the causal relationship between these transformations remains unclear. Large segments of Angkor’s population were theoretically drawn southward in response to intensification of Chinese trading patterns that produced new commercial options at river ports near the junctions of the Tonle Sap, Mekong, and Tonle Touc Rivers. Understanding these economic transitions in the wake of decline at Angkor in the 14th and 15th centuries is largely limited to historical analyses at present, but a growing body of archaeological evidence from the 16th- and 17th-century capital of Longvek (laṅvaek) demonstrates that Cambodia was increasingly connected to bourgeoning global trade.
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