Radar reveals vast medieval Cambodian city
- From: Florida <demeter547opine@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:34:19 -0700
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070813/wl_asia_afp/usarchaeologycambodia_070813210755;_ylt=A0WTcUZDzcBGrCwAmQ0iANEA
Radar reveals vast medieval Cambodian city: study
August 13, 2007 21 minutes ago
CHICAGO (AFP) - Archaeologists using radar imagery have shown that an
ancient Cambodian settlement centered on the celebrated temple of
Angkor Wat was far more extensive than previously thought, a study
released Monday said.
The medieval settlement surrounding Angkor, the one-time capital of
the illustrious Khmer empire which flourished between the ninth and
14th centuries, covered a 3,000 square kilometer area (1,158 square
miles).
The urban complex was at least three times larger than archaeologists
had previously suspected and easily the largest pre-industrial urban
area of its kind, eclipsing comparable developments such as Tikal a
Classic Maya "city" in Guatemala.
Archaeologists have been trying to map the boundaries of the sprawling
agricultural environs of Angkor in Siem Reap province since the 1950s,
but the ancient remains have been subsumed by modern residential and
agricultural developments, complicating the task.
So in 2000, a group of archaeologists from Australia, France and
Cambodia who were working on the project turned to the US space agency
NASA for help.
The agency obliged, providing radar images of the terrain that
distinguished the contours of the landscape under the surface of the
earth, identifying the location of roads, canals and ponds surrounding
temples.
When the researchers combined the data with aerial photography and
ground surveys, they were able to identify several thousand ponds and
74 long-lost temples.
The researchers concluded the complex irrigation network that provided
the basis for the settlement's rice agricultural extended 20-25
kilometers out from Angkor city, to the north and south to the border
of Lake Tonle Sap.
The roads and canals, the defining features of the area, demonstrated
that the urban settlement extended far beyond the walls of Angkor -- a
World Heritage site home to Angkor Wat and other renowned temples.
The settlement could have supported a population of up to half a
million people, although there were signs that some of the terrain was
sparsely populated, said Damian Evans, a graduate student in the
archaeology department at Sydney University and author of the paper.
The study also yielded clues to support the theory that environmental
disaster was the cause of the civilization's collapse in the 14th
century, Evans said.
"We saw signs that embankments had been breached and of ad hoc repairs
to bridges and dams, suggesting that the system became unmanageable
over time.
"Angkor was extensive enough, and the agricultural exploitation
intensive enough, to have created a number of very serious
environmental problems," he said.
Deforestation, over population, topsoil erosion and degradation with
subsequent sedimentation or flooding could have been disastrous for
the medieval population, he said.
The paper appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
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