Angkor was a city ahead of its time
The technology for harvesting water that enabled the Khmer to thrive
also led to their fall, researchers say.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 14, 2007
....
The system was complex enough that the Khmer could have grown rice
throughout the year and not just during the rainy season, Evans said. It
is not yet clear if they did so, however.
"The intentional movement of earth to create the whole water system is
just really mind-boggling," Saturno said. "It was an enormous
undertaking" that required not just administrative skills, but also
engineering know-how and massive amounts of physical labor.
But in the end, maintenance became too labor-intensive, Evans said. As
trees were removed from the landscape, sediment began accumulating in
the canals at a rate more rapid than it could be removed. Many dike
walls collapsed, although it is not yet known when that occurred.
"We're going now and excavating [the sites] on the ground, and trying to
get a grip on when they happened -- whether they were a precursor of the
decline, a symptom or the system gradually falling into ruin after they
left," he said.
cont'd....
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-angkor14aug14,1,2238688.story?coll=la-news-science&ctrack=1&cset=true