Radar illuminates ancient Cambodian site.A mix of rocket science and archaeology has provided the recipe for insight into an ancient Cambodian civilization and its prehistoric predecessors. Maps generated by an airborne radar system developed by NASN's Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. (JPL (language) JPL - JAM Programming Language. ) in Pasadena, Calif., have given researchers unprecedented glimpses of massive waterworks and temple remains in Angkor. "The flexibility of the radar technology for research purposes is extraordinary," says archaeologist Elizabeth Moore of the University of London For most practical purposes, ranging from admission of students to negotiating funding from the government, the 19 constituent colleges are treated as individual universities. Within the university federation they are known as Recognised Bodies , who directs the ongoing Angkor investigations. Moore described her radar-inspired archaeological finds at a JPL news conference last week. Angkor ranges over about 100 square miles of floodplain floodplain, level land along the course of a river formed by the deposition of sediment during periodic floods. Floodplains contain such features as levees, backswamps, delta plains, and oxbow lakes. and dense forest in northern Cambodia. Its approximately 1,000 temples were built from the 8th to the 13th centuries A.D., as was its massive waterworks system. Angkor Wat, the best-known of the temples, dates to the 12th century A.D. Three-dimensional radar portraits of moisture, vegetation, and elevation patterns at Angkor were taken in late 1996 from a NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. aircraft. Preliminary, less precise radar data for the region came from a 1994 space shuttle flight. In December 1997, Moore explored a modest earthen earth·en adj. 1. Made of earth or clay: an earthen fortification; an earthen pot. 2. Earthly; worldly. mound near Angkor Wat that the radar had identified. After clearing away vegetation, she discovered the remnants of four to six temples. Based on their architectural styles, the structures were occupied at least 300 years before Angkor Wat, Moore says. Further research will significantly alter the chronology of Angkor's occupation, she adds. Moreover, the new maps provide a close look at Angkor's huge network of water-related structures, including moats, reservoirs, dikes, and canals. It now seems clear that most of the major waterworks were aligned from east to west, apparently for religious reasons, says Moore. The ancient Khmer people who lived there revered water spirits, she notes. Water management was essential at Angkor, which alternates between extended rainy and dry seasons. Construction projects at Angkor melded functional concerns with the dictates of religious ritual, she theorizes. A similar pattern also may have characterized the ancient Maya civilization (SN: 1/24/98, p. 56). "The new findings at Angkor advance our understanding of a very important archaeological site," remarks John Stubbs of the World Monument Fund in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , a nonprofit organization Nonprofit Organization An association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well. Notes: Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. that funds archaeological research and preservation efforts. |
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