Angkor and the Irrational: Craft Production in a premodern Southeast Asian Polity

Abstract

<p>Focusing primarily on elite monumental art-history and epigraphy has caused bias when considering Angkorian society. An alternative approach, the analysis of the organisation of craft production, has proven to be successful when analysing other preindustrial cultures. The lack of alternative data sources and the irrational, unconventional ceramic trade and exchange network suggests applicability to Angkor. Here, this paradigm is applied for the first time focusing on the chronology and organisation of ceramic manufacture from the 9^th to 15^th centuries CE. This thesis examines craft production complexes (ceramic kilns) to extrapolate physical evidence for a proxy assessment of changes in social, economic and political functioning of the State.</p>