164 QUERSCHNITT Weltkulturerbe AngkorWat Can you tell us what life in Greater Angkor was like around the year 1000? Angkor was still growing around the year 1000, having been established at least two centuries before that time. We think the height of the city was actually in the 12– 13th centuries. Throughout its lifespan, many people would have lived around the state temples in the civic-ceremonial center. We think many of these people might have worked in the temples or had other occupations in the city, like working for the Royal family, in construction, or in craft production jobs like sculpting statuary or making pottery. Outside this core zone lay an agricultural landscape that was dotted by small village temples, each surrounded by rice fields and house mounds where farmers lived and worked. Archaeological research suggests that people have lived in the area around Angkor for more than 3000 years and settled the region more than a millennium before the great city arose. Angkor was a relatively healthy place to live in because its food supply was reliable and it had a continually flowing water network. Substantial protein was available from fish in the great lake, the Tonle Sap on the south side of Angkor. Rice fields also provide substantial protein from fish and amphibians. Food was also provided by gardens around the houses. The low-density settlement pattern of the suburbs reduced disease transmission because people predominantly lived in small occupation clusters around their own large watertanks. The population of Angkor was divided into gra– ma [= Untergruppen] which had average populations of about 20–30 people. Can you tell us about the dimensions of the city and the number of inhabitants around the year 1000? The main “downtown” area Angkor covered about 30 square kilometers, but the broader metropolitan area was about 3000 square kilometers. Recent work has estimated the population in the downtown zone around 1000 to be about 115 000 people, with over 700 000 people living in the entire Greater Angkor region. However, at Angkor’s height in the 12–13th centuries we estimate the population could have been even higher – between 700 000–900 000 people. Vom 9. bis zum 15. Jh. war Angkor das Zentrum des mächtigen Khmer-Königreiches im heutigen Kambodscha. Die Siedlungen und Tempelanlagen des Großraums Angkor erstreckten sich über eine Fläche von ungefähr 3000 km2, das entspricht etwa zweimal der Fläche des heutigen Londons. Die Herrscher des Khmer-Reiches ließen nacheinander mehrere Hauptstädte am gleichen Ort errichten; im Zentrum stand jeweils ein großer Haupttempel, der von zahlreichen kleineren Tempeln und Heiligtümern umgeben war. Die Tempelanlage Angkor Wat war Teil dieses weitläufigen Komplexes und ist bis heute das größte religiöse Bauwerk der Welt. Die Khmer-Könige waren davon überzeugt, dass sie ihre Macht der Göttlichkeit verdankten und sahen sich als Ebenbilder von Göttern. Viele Fragen über Angkor und die Khmer sind bis heute nicht geklärt. Interview über die Tempelanlage Angkor Wat mit den US-amerikanischen Wissenschaftler/innen Alison Stark, Miriam Stark und Roland Fletcher, University of Sydney (Sommer 2021) When talking about Angkor Wat is it correct to call it a city? First of all, it is important to define the terms: Angkor Wat is one temple that was built in the 12th century within the center of an urban complex that we call Greater Angkor. Greater Angkor was a sprawling city that included a highdensity civicceremonial center (where most of the stone temples that tourists visit are found) and an extensive metropolitan area that was more agrarian in nature. M1 Die Tempelanlage Angkor Wat in Kambodscha, 2020 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Ve lags öbv
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