[Paper] Diachronic modeling of the population within the medieval Greater Angkor Region settlement complex

via Science Advances, 07 May 2021: Really happy to share this paper published by my friends Sarah Klassen, Alison Carter and others about their estimation of population in the Greater Angkor Region. They estimate that up to 900,000 people lived there at its height. I’ve also included two videos at the end of the post, one with a visual representation of the population growth over time, and the second is a video by Dr Carter explaining this research in Khmer. She has set a great example for us all, and I hope more of us will follow this.

Angkor is one of the world’s largest premodern settlement complexes (9th to 15th centuries CE), but to date, no comprehensive demographic study has been completed, and key aspects of its population and demographic history remain unknown. Here, we combine lidar, archaeological excavation data, radiocarbon dates, and machine learning algorithms to create maps that model the development of the city and its population growth through time. We conclude that the Greater Angkor Region was home to approximately 700,000 to 900,000 inhabitants at its apogee in the 13th century CE. This granular, diachronic, paleodemographic model of the Angkor complex can be applied to any ancient civilization.

Source: Diachronic modeling of the population within the medieval Greater Angkor Region settlement complex | Science Advances