Ancient urban networks around Angkor Wat discovered

14 มิถุนายน 2559

Huge lost city next to Angkor Wat in Cambodia revealed by new laser scanning land survey technology.

ARCHAEOLOGY

Ancient urban networks around Angkor Wat discovered

13/06/2016
AP News Agency

New evidence of ancient urban and agricultural networks surrounding the ancient city of Angkor Wat has been found by a team of archaeologists led by Australian Damian Evans.

Using high-tech lasers to scan the Cambodian jungle, Damian Evans and colleagues say they found traces of extensive networks surrounding the monumental stone temple complex at Angkor Wat.

Mr Evans said their findings could further our understanding of Khmer culture and throw into question traditional assumptions about the 15th- century decline of the empire.

Archaeologists using Lidar laser land survey technology have discovered a huge lost city near the ancient city of Angkor Wat (Source: YouTube)

NEW LASAR TECHNOLOGY USED TO MAKE MAPS

A laser technology known as lidar was used to create precise maps of ancient networks that left only vague traces -- invisible to the naked eye -- in the landscape surrounding the temples.

Lidar sees through the vegetation of the jungle and maps variations in the surface of the land (topography).

"You could be standing in the middle of the forest looking at what appear to be some random lumps and bumps. But they might actually be evidence of old excavated ponds or built-up roadways," Mr. Evans explained.

"All of these things left traces in the surface of the landscape that wouldn't make sense to you without a more detailed picture."

Buddhist monks prepare for a blessing ceremony next to the helicopter and lidar instrument at the remote temple complex of Banteay Chhmar in Cambodia. (Damian Evans/French Institute of Asian Studies in Paris via AP)

To obtain such details, Mr Evans said his colleagues spent 90 hours in a helicopter directing laser scans into the jungle surrounding Angkor Wat.

He said that the resulting images are so intricate "you can see objects lying next to a tiny anthill".

The research was published on Monday in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

It was the result of a joint project including the French Institute of Asian Studies in Paris, the Cambodian national authority responsible for protecting Angkor Wat and the ministry of culture and fine arts.

COLLAPSE OF ANGKOR: PREVIOUS THEORIES

For years, experts have assumed that the ancient Khmer civilisation collapsed in the 15th century when invading Thai armies sacked Angkor Wat, forcing populations to relocate to southern Cambodia.

But Mr Evans said their laser maps showed no evidence of relocated, dense cities in the south and that it wasn't clear there was any such mass migration.

The new results show that Cambodia was a much more advanced civilisation than previously thought, especially about the management plan of the city and irrigation system to improve agriculture in the area," according to Cambodian scholar Chanratana Chen at the Sorbonne in Paris.

ROYAL ROAD & SANDSTONE QUARRIES LOCATED

Among the most noteworthy discoveries Mr Evans and colleagues had found were proof of medieval sandstone quarries and traces of a royal road between various temple complexes, he said.

Mr Evans doubted tourists would soon be flocking to see the unremarkable "mounds in the ground" that the lasers had decoded at Angkor Wat, but said he and colleagues have now pinpointed sites that might be fruitful for further archaeological excavation.

He said it was likely there could be similar such discoveries elsewhere in Southeast Asia, possibly in Burma and even the Americas, where archeologists might unearth more secrets about the remains left behind by the sixh-century Mayan Empire.