Did Eco-Collapse Bring Down The Khmer Empire? Archaeologists Probe Angkor

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SIEM REAP, Cambodia — "After resisting Siamese invaders for years, Cambodia's greatest city and civilization — the temple-studded Angkor — was dealt a death blow with its final sacking in 1431. Or so say the history books. But an international research team now thinks its demise was set much earlier, by something that is the bane of many modern urban societies: ecological failure and infrastructure breakdown.

"They created ecological problems for themselves and they either didn't see it until it was too late or they couldn't solve it even when they could see it," said Roland Fletcher, an archaeologist working on the Greater Angkor Project. Angkor city, the capital of several Hindu kings who ruled over large swaths of Southeast Asia, flourished from the 9th to the 14th centuries, leaving a legacy of architectural splendor in its myriad of temples, including the country's cultural icon, Angkor Wat.

Project members are working on the theory that Angkorians created an elaborate system of reservoirs and canals — for irrigation, trade, and travel — that began to silt up as the population grew, and perhaps saw failures that caused flooding and water shortages.

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Seeking evidence for its theories, the Greater Angkor Project team is excavating waterways and digging up pottery and pollen grains. Members pore over radar ground-images collected by NASA and photographs taken from an ultralight plane to map the remnants of the ancient civilization, such as rice paddies, houses, shrines, and canals."

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http://www.enn.com/news/2004-06-10/s_24741.asp