Discovery of ancient cities promises to rewrite history
Archaeologists in Cambodia have found multiple, previously undocumented medieval cities not far from the ancient temples of Angkor Wat, in groundbreaking discoveries that promise to upend key assumptions about Southeast Asia’s history.
Australian archaeologist Dr Damian Evans, whose findings will be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science tomorrow, will announce that cuttingedge airborne laser scanning technology has revealed multiple cities between 900 and 1400 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 1900 square kilometres – shows that the colossal, densely populated cities would have constituted the largest empire on Earth by population at the time of its peak in the 12th century.
Evans’s first lidar (light detection and ranging) survey in Cambodia, in 2012, 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 Mt Kulen. It was not until the results of the larger 2015 survey were analysed that the size of the city became apparent.
It 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.
Evans said the airborne laser scanners had also identified large numbers of mysterious geometric patterns formed from earthen embankments, which could have been gardens.
Michael Coe, emeritus professor of anthropology at Yale University and one of the world’s pre-eminent archaeologists, who specialises in Angkor and the Khmer civilisation, said: ‘‘I think that these airborne laser discoveries mark the greatest advance in the past 50 or even 100 years of our knowledge of Angkorian civilisation.
‘‘I saw Angkor for the first time in 1954, when I wondered at the magnificent temples, but there was nothing to tell us who had lived in the city, where they had lived, and how such an amazing culture was supported.’’
Charles Higham, research professor at the University of Otago in Dunedin, and the leading archaeologist of mainland southeast Asia, said it was the most exciting paper he could recall reading.
‘‘It is as if a bright light has been switched on to illuminate the previous dark veil that covered these great sites,’’ Higham said. ‘‘Emotionally, I am stunned. Intellectually, I am stimulated.’’
David Chandler, emeritus professor at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, the foremost expert on Cambodian history and the author of several books and articles on the subject, said the work was thrilling.
He credited Evans and his colleagues with ‘‘rewriting history’’.
Chandler said he believed it would would help people know more about Angkorian civilisation, and how it flourished and eventually collapsed.