Posted on 08/14/2007 4:44:29 AM PDT by Jedi Master Pikachu
The great medieval temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia was once at the centre of a sprawling urban settlement, according to a new, detailed map of the area. Using Nasa satellites, an international team have discovered at least 74 new temples and complex irrigation systems. The map, published in the journal PNAS, extends the known settlement by 1000 sq km, about the size of Los Angeles. Analysis also lends weight to the theory that Angkor's residents were architects of the city's demise.
"The large-scale city engineered its own downfall by disrupting its local environment by expanding continuously into the surrounding forests," said Damian Evans of the University of Sydney and one of the authors of the paper and map. Urban complex Working with researchers from Australia, Cambodia and France, the map was produced from ground surveys, airborne photography, and ground-sensing radar from Nasa's AIRSAR satellite. "The radar can sense differences in plant growth and moisture content that result from topographical variations of less than a meter," Mr Evans said.
The data allowed the researchers to peer through the vegetation that now shrouds the World Heritage site. It suggests that the medieval settlement surrounding Angkor, the one-time capital of the Khmer empire which flourished between the ninth and 14th centuries, was at least three times larger than previously though. The team believes it could have covered 3,000 sq km (1,150 sq miles), the largest pre-industrial complex of its kind. Its nearest rival is Tikal, a Mayan city in Guatemala, which covers between 100 and 150 sq km (40-60 sq miles). The detailed survey also allowed the researchers to map at least 74 new temples as well as more than 1,000 manmade ponds. They also discovered that the city's water supply probably relied on a single complex channel that extended 20 to 25km out from Angkor city.
The researchers say that the system, until now thought to be purely decorative and ceremonial, was probably used to support farming, in particular intensive rice agriculture. In all, the newly mapped terrain could have supported half a million people, the researchers believe. The new analysis of the irrigation system also sheds light on the civilization's collapse in the 14th century. "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," Mr Evans told the AFP news agency. In addition, deforestation, over population, topsoil erosion could have contributed to the population's sudden disappearance. "Angkor was extensive enough, and the agricultural exploitation intensive enough, to have created a number of very serious environmental problems," he said.
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Title of this article at the time of posting: “Map reveals ancient urban sprawl” .
Or, maybe, population shifts happened then as they do now, based on simple economics.
Asia pinglist ping.
If you haven’t already seen a corresponding article.
Interesting remote sensing article on Angkor...
In addition, deforestation, over population, topsoil erosion could have contributed to the population's sudden disappearance.
Anyone could now write an article on how socioeconomic shifts are "suggested" by infrastructure collapse and on how internecine warfare "could have" contributed to the population's sudden disappearance. In short, take any collapsed civilization and play Marxist, econazi to formulate a politically correct theory. Not convincing...
How do you say, “An Inconvenient Truth” in Cambodian?
Never mind the fact that major climate change was also underway in Europe, starting about 1315 or so - the beginnings of the Little Ice Age.
Never mind the Mayan empire collapse from climate change in the 11th century, and the Anasazi collapse in the 12th and 13th centuries.
It's all about those horrible humans and how they trash the environment. /sarcasm
Thanks!
REVEALED: Australiaâs raiders of the lost wat
Canberra Times | 14 August 2007 | Rosslyn Beeby
Posted on 08/13/2007 7:55:10 PM EDT by BlackVeil
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1880693/posts
Sprawling Angkor Brought Down By Overpopulation, Study Suggests
National Geographic | 8-13-2007 | Susan Brown
Posted on 08/13/2007 11:23:51 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1880781/posts
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gosh,
i’ll bet that’s a real al gore ma earth crime
when you build a too-big city, huh?
It was probably much drier when they built it, IMHO.
i think you’re right
because in college when i saw pictures of those buildings in
s.e. asia i often wondered what a job keeping the jungle at bay.
a drier climate would have spawned a less profuse and aggressive fauna.
As predicted in the suppressed prophesies of Algor Wat...
The Little Ice Age:
How Climate Made History 1300-1850
by Brian M. Fagan
Paperback
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