Re: Ancient Cambodian city revealed by radar.
- From: "Peter Jason" <pj@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:54:23 +1000
They didn't give one. Contact the
"proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences." i guess.
"chazwin" <chazwyman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message
news:1188288670.388019.38470@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Aug 27, 7:33 am, "Peter Jason"
<p...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
August 14 2007 at 12:55AM
Chicago - Archaeologists using radar
imagery have shown that an ancient
Cambodian
settlement centred on the celebrated
temple
of Angkor Wat was far more extensive than
previously thought, a study released on
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 kilometre area.
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 kilometres 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 civilisation'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.
No link?
.
- References:
- Ancient Cambodian city revealed by radar.
- From: Peter Jason
- Re: Ancient Cambodian city revealed by radar.
- From: chazwin
- Ancient Cambodian city revealed by radar.
- Prev by Date: Researchers say Italy's 5,000-year-old Iceman died from head trauma, not arrow
- Next by Date: Re: Were Africans Capsa and the Basques of Prehistoric Spain?
- Previous by thread: Re: Ancient Cambodian city revealed by radar.
- Next by thread: Mexico may be closing in on Aztec emperor's tomb.
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
