"How did Angkor Become Angkor? Conceptualizing the Rise of the Khmer Empire (9th to 15th C. CE), Cambodia"

The question of how the Khmer Empire became the most influential polity in medieval mainland Southeast Asia has been largely unaddressed in over 100 years of research. Recent work by the Industries of Angkor Project (INDAP) has sought to fill this gap via an intensive, multidisciplinary investigation of the material and social factors that enabled Angkor to become the largest settlement in the premodern era. INDAP’s focus is on the transformative role of iron – or specifically steel – for enhanc