Reconfiguring Kingdoms: the end of Angkor and the emergence of Early Modern period Cambodia

In this detailed survey of the Angkorian Empire last decades, the author notes: 

“The last known Angkorian stone inscription linked to a construction is from the temple of Mangalartha dating to 1295; and the last inscription in Old Khmer dates to 1327. During this period there were apparently minor modifications to architecture, but by the end of the fourteenth century or before, the capability to contract vast temple production systems, from quarries to finished monuments, had ceased.”

Later on, he pleads for a bigger picture, extending research and summarization to geographical areas that have been less studied than Angkor and surrounding temples:

“Since the early years of the colonial era, Angkor has understandably been the primary focus of scholars seeking to comprehend Cambodia’s past. To understand the decline and aftermath of Angkor, historians have deconstructed Cambodian textual sources. A complementary path to the Early Modern period is to examine the immense and largely unexamined information residing in its material culture. New studies can consider communities unrecognised by histories tied to the [Royal] Chronicles. Applied at Cambodia’s Early Modern period capitals, these approaches are beginning to clarify how these settlements transformed.”