Palaeoenvironmental data for core PSP/07/16/A, Srah Ta Set, Angkor

Pollen, charcoal, uXRF, sedimentary, and radiocarbon raw data extracted and analysed from a 97.7 cm sediment core retrieved from a small (c. 90x45m) stone-lined pond (Srah Ta Set) inside Angkor Thom, Cambodia, during a 2016 coring campaign. The location of the coring site is 13°26'42.30"N 103°51'39.80"E. Data were used as proxies for land use and human activity. Pollen from herbaceous / agricultural taxa and macrocharcoal influx begin to decline at 70 cm and 66.5 cm respectively, indicating the beginning of a protracted decline in land-use intensity from the mid-14th century. Decreasing sediment grain-size, Zr/Rb ratios, and mineral sedimentation rates from 50 cm suggest further reductions in land use from the mid-16th century. Pollen from secondary tree species increase from 60 cm and reveal the beginning of forest recovery from the mid-15th century. Sustained increases in organic matter deposition and wetland aquatics at 57.5 cm and 40 cm, respectively, suggest that by the mid-17th century Srah Ta Set had become colonised by a community of floating aquatic vegetation, and had likely fallen into disuse.