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Throughout the Angkor period (9th to 15th centuries CE), the Khmer kingdom maintained a series of interconnected cities and smaller settlements across its territory on mainland Southeast Asia. One such city was Koh Ker, which for a brief period in the 10th century CE even served as a royal capital. The complexity of the political landscape meant the Khmer kings and the elite were particularly mobile through the Angkor period, and rupture in royal houses was common. However, while the historical record chronicles the 10th century migration of the royal seat from Koh Ker back to Angkor, the fate of Koh Ker's domestic population has remained unknown. In this article, we reconstruct the settlement history of Koh Ker, using palaeoecological and geoarchaeological techniques, and show that human activity and land use persisted in the city for several centuries beyond the city's abandonment by the royal court. These results highlight the utility of multi-proxy environmental reconstructions of Khmer urban settlements for re-evaluating prevailing assumptions regarding the use and occupation of Angkor-period cities.

The Khmer kingdom, whose capital was at Angkor from the 9(th) to the 14(th)-15(th) century, was founded in 802 by king Jayavarman II in a city called Mahandraparvata, on Phnom Kulen. Virtually nothing more is known of Mahandraparvata from the epigraphic sources, but systematic archaeological survey and excavation have identified an array of cultural features that point to a more extensive and enduring settlement than the historical record indicates. Recent remote sensing data have revolutionized our view, revealing the remains of a city with a complex and spatially extensive network of urban infrastructure. Here, we present a record of vegetation change and soil erosion from within that urban network, dating from the 8(th) century CE. Our findings indicate approximately 400 years of intensive land use, punctuated by discrete periods of intense erosion beginning in the mid 9(th) century and ending in the late 11(th) century. A marked change in water management practices is apparent from the 12(th) century CE, with implications for water supply to Angkor itself. This is the first indication that settlement on Mahendraparvata was not only extensive, but also intensive and enduring, with a marked environmental impact.