Mitch Hendrickson

I am a landscape archaeologist interested in the dynamics of networks, premodern state expansion and religion. My work on the Angkorian Khmer Empire in modern day Cambodia is focussed on the complex interaction between networks and technologies using a range of multi-scalar data sets. Over the past decade, my Industries of Angkor Project has sought to address what role regional centers played in the rise of medieval states through an intensive study of iron technology and economy. The collaboration with Dr. Stéphanie Leroy and numerous international specialists is aimed at generating a holistic, multiscalar approach to answer the question of whether access to iron acted as a catalyst in Angkor's major expansions between the 11th and 13thcenturies. My second project, The Two Buddhist Towers, also includes a range of leading international scholars focussed on documenting evidence of the transition from Mahayana to Theravada Buddhism at the site of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay in Preah Vihear province. In addition to the problem of viewing religious change in the material record we are also evaluating shifts in urban settlement patterns and craft production at what was the largest regional center built by the Angkorian Khmer.