Paper short abstract:

The talk intends to investigate the main steps and ruptures in the evolution the Khmer settlements, from the earliest open urban settlements founded in the Angkor plain, to the multiplication of inhabited enclosures, culminating in the formal configuration of Angkor Thom.

Paper long abstract:

The road has been long enough to get out of the standard image of the urban history of Angkor as a series of successive cities, each enclosed behind their walls. We observe henceforth the resolutely open character of the first urban settlements established in the Angkor region after the 6th century. At the other end, recent cartographic studies also confirmed unsuspected density of settlements and features in the heart of Angkor, especially in the vast enclosure of the later temples. We will try to identify various developments and key ruptures that have led to this configuration, which peaks in the late 12th century at the singular symbiosis of a temple and a city that is Angkor Thom.