Archaeologists to dig for more clues about demise of ancient Angkor
The Associated PressPublished: August 15, 2007PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Excavations are planned at Angkor to scour for more clues about ecological problems which led to the demise of Cambodia's great ancient city, an Australian archaeologist said Thursday.
"We have clear evidence now that Angkor was big enough to have caused environmental problems," Damian Evans said.
"But we need finer-grained detail to determine for sure how severe those problems were, and whether or not the local population was able to deal with them or not," said Evans, deputy director of the Greater Angkor Project at the University of Sydney.
His group published its findings in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They reveal that Angkor, during its zenith between the 9th and 14th centuries, was "the world's most extensive preindustrial low-density complex" and far larger than previously thought. It included an elaborate water management network encompassing nearly 1,000 square kilometers (390 square miles).
Research found that the complex was too vast to manage. Extending rice fields to support a population of more than 1 million resulted in serious ecological problems, including deforestation, topsoil degradation and erosion.
The study's conclusions supported a theory in the early 1950s by Bernard-Philippe Groslier, a prominent French archaeologist, that the collapse of Angkor stemmed from over-exploitation of the environment.
The study produced a comprehensive digital mapping database detailing tens of thousands of individual features across nearly 3,000 square kilometers (1,160 square miles).
Previously, there were around 800 known temple sites in the mapped area, Evans said in an e-mail, adding that the number will likely be between 950 and 1,000 once results from the excavations have been verified on the ground.
In a separate statement posted on his group's Web site, he said some of those sites and other delicate traces of great archaeological significance are under serious threat from uncontrolled development in Siem Reap province to meet rising tourist demand.
He said the development is good for Cambodia, but that proper heritage management systems must be in place so that "small local temples sites and so on can be properly excavated and studied by archaeologists before they are destroyed for modern development."
He said he also hoped that the study will give a "stimulus for greater recognition of the need to stop the illicit international trade" in Cambodian antiquities.
The Angkor temples have suffered extensive destruction by nature and pillaging by looters during three decades of warfare and revolution in Cambodia.
The impoverished country is now at peace and the monuments, including the famed Angkor Wat, are the country's main tourist attractions, earning much-needed hard currency.
But in recent years, conservationists have expressed concerns about stress to the monuments from the tourist invasion.
Evans' study is a wake-up call for more vigilance in Cambodia's efforts to conserve its centuries-old heritage, an official of the Apsara Authority, the government agency managing the site, said Wednesday.
The official, Soeung Kong, said what happened to ancient Angkor in the past "appears to be repeating itself now" and thus highlights current challenges in managing and conserving the temples.
"Since we are aware of this, we have to take measures to prevent it from worsening or to minimize the impact as much as possible," he said.
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On the Net:
Greater Angkor Project:
http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/angkor/gap/index.phpProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:
http://www.pnas.org/current.shtmlhttp://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/16/healthscience/AS-SCI-Cambodia-Greater-Angkor.php
