Cambodia: Underground Medieval Cities Found Near Angkor Wat
Archaeologists in Cambodia
have found multiple, previously undocumented medieval cities not far
from the ancient temple city of Angkor Wat, the Guardian can reveal, in
groundbreaking discoveries that promise to upend key assumptions about
south-east Asia’s history.
The Australian archaeologist Dr Damian Evans, whose findings will be
published in the Journal of Archaeological Science on Monday, will
announce that cutting-edge airborne laser scanning technology has
revealed multiple cities between 900 and 1,400 years old beneath the
tropical forest floor, some of which rival the size of Cambodia’s
capital, Phnom Penh.
Some experts believe that the recently analysed data – captured in
2015 during the most extensive airborne study ever undertaken by an
archaeological project, covering 734 sq miles (1,901 sq km) – shows that
the colossal, densely populated cities would have constituted the
largest empire on earth at the time of its peak in the 12th century.
Evans said: “We have entire cities discovered beneath the forest that
no one knew were there – at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay and, it turns
out, we uncovered only a part of Mahendraparvata on Phnom Kulen [in the
2012 survey] … this time we got the whole deal and it’s big, the size of
Phnom Penh big.”
A research fellow at Siem Reap’s École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) and the architect of the Cambodian Archaeological Lidar Initiative (Cali), Evans will speak at the Royal Geographic Society in London about the findings on Monday.
Evans obtained European Research Council (ERC) funding for the
project, based on the success of his first lidar (light detection and
ranging) survey in Cambodia in 2012. That uncovered a complex urban
landscape connecting medieval temple-cities, such as Beng Mealea and Koh
Ker, to Angkor, and confirmed what archaeologists had long suspected,
that there was a city beneath Mount Kulen. It was not until the results
of the significantly larger 2015 survey were analysed that the size of
the city was apparent.
That survey uncovered an array of discoveries, including elaborate
water systems that were built hundreds of years before historians
believed the technology existed. The findings are expected to challenge
theories on how the Khmer empire developed, dominated the region, and
declined around the 15th century, and the role of climate change and
water management in that process.
“Our coverage of the post-Angkorian capitals also provides some
fascinating new insights on the ‘collapse’ of Angkor,” Evans said.
“There’s an idea that somehow the Thais invaded and everyone fled down
south – that didn’t happen, there are no cities [revealed by the aerial
survey] that they fled to. It calls into question the whole notion of an
Angkorian collapse.”
The Angkor temple ruins, which sprawl across the Unesco-protected
Angkor archaeological park, are the country’s top tourist destination,
with the main temple-city, Angkor Wat, appearing on the Cambodian
national flag. Considered the most extensive urban settlement of
pre-industrial times, and boasting a highly sophisticated water
management system, Angkor’s supposed decline has long occupied
archaeologists.
The new cities were found by firing lasers to the ground from a
helicopter to produce extremely detailed imagery of the Earth’s surface.
Evans said the airborne laser scanners had also identified large
numbers of mysterious geometric patterns formed from earthen
embankments, which could have been gardens.
Experts in the archaeological world agree these are the most significant archaeological discoveries in recent years.
Michael Coe, emeritus professor of anthropology at Yale University
and one of the world’s pre-eminent archaeologists, specialises in Angkor
and the Khmer civilisation.
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