Category:Ancient Village

As they were constructed using perishable materials Angkor and pre-Angkor period villages are largely invisible today and therefore often overlooked as important historical sites. Certain sites may today be represented by a simple tuol, or earthen mound, which would nonetheless contain domestic items and refuse as well as pottery fragments. Under rare conditions, postholes can be perceived indicating former structures. Despite appearances, temples were rarely constructed on their own in the middle of a field or forest and even remote, solitary structures seen today, indicate the presence of an ancient settlement or village.

Such sites were often constructed in a circular form, surrounded by palisades and/or moats, and some may even be occupied today, with Puok near Siem Reap, often cited as an example of a continually inhabited, early circular settlement. Note that while many such sites are easily discernable on satellite images, the timeframe of occupation is much harder to determine and many ancient village listings remain, inevitably, speculative.

Additionally, size and population are extremely difficult to judge and consequently our Ancient Village category includes sites ranging from probable small settlements up to substantial-sized towns. (Sites that are estimated to have housed large populations and that were clearly of considerable importance are correspondingly listed in our Ancient City category but this is obviously not an exact science.)