A reduction in the strength of the monsoon during the late Iron Age in Mainland Southeast Asia brought increased aridity. This coincided with growing evidence for an agricultural revolution that involved the construction of reservoirs, irrigation, ploughing and the development of wet rice cultivation in fixed fields. The social correlates to this rapid change in subsistence saw the rise of elites and increased competition and conflict. These crucial changes were magnified and documented through the surviving inscriptions from the rising small states of the Chenla Period, particularly manifested at the centre of Isanapura in Cambodia during the 7th century AD. With the establishment of the Kingdom of Angkor in about AD 800, the vital importance of water control and irrigation assumes a key variable in the survival of the state. The deified rulers were consistently linked with the construction of reservoirs, the diversion of rivers, and the reticulation of water through canals into the rice fields. This was an increasingly complex water control system that became the backbone of the state’s wellbeing. With the 15th century, however, a further climatic change brought about unpredictable fluctuations that involved periods of aridity and others of greatly increased precipitation that led to sedimentation and the destruction of the water control infrastructure. It was not long after that Angkor ceased to be the a political centre.

铁器时代晚期，季风雨季强度的降低给东南亚陆地带来了相对干燥的气候。与此相应的，有更多证据表明，农业革命正在这些地区兴起，包括水库修建、灌溉、特定区域水稻的耕种和培育。这种生存环境的快速变化所带来的社会改变见证了精英阶层的崛起，以及不断增加的竞争与冲突。真腊时代，小国兴起。存留下来的文献表明这些变化被记录下来，并且被夸大了。7世纪柬埔寨的伊赏那补罗国中心地区尤其如此。8世纪，随着吴哥王国的建立，水资源的管理和灌溉系统变得十分重要，并成为了政权存亡的关键因素。被神化的统治者始终与水库的建设、河流的改道和稻田水利网络的建设紧密相连。不断复杂的水利管理系统成为了当时国家福祉的关键。然而，15世纪的又一次气候变化带来了难以预测的气候波动，持续的干旱和急剧的降水导致了地面的沉降和水利设施的损毁。作为政权中心的吴哥不久就消亡了。

Charles Higham is a Research Professor in the University of Otago, and Honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. HIs archaeological fieldwork in Southeast Asia since 1969 has involved a series of excavation programmes relating to the late Hunter Gatherers, the first farmers, the origins of the Bronze Age and the Iron Age social changes that stimulated the rise of early states. His work has been recognized by Fellowships of the British Academy, the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Society of Antiquaries of London. The British Academy has awarded him the Grahame Clark Medal for distinguished archaeological fieldwork, and he has received the Mason Durie Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand. With his colleague Dr Rachanie Thosarat, his research was honoured at the first Shanghai Archaeological Forum.

查尔斯·海厄姆，奥塔哥大学教授，剑桥圣凯瑟琳学院荣誉院士。自1969年起主要致力于东南亚田野考古工作，其一系列的发掘项目涉及了石器时代的狩猎采集者、早期耕种者、青铜时代的起源和促使早期国家起源的铁器时代社会变迁等内容。其著作得到了不列颠学院、新西兰皇家学会、伦敦古物研究者学会等团体的认可。不列颠学院因其出色的田野考古工作授予格雷厄姆·克拉克奖章，新西兰皇家学会授予梅森奈尔奖章。