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The water management network of Angkor, Cambodia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Roland Fletcher ,
Dan Penny ,
Damian Evans ,
Christophe Pottier ,
Mike Barbetti ,
Matti Kummu ,
Terry Lustig  and
Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA) Department of Monuments and Archaeology Team
Roland Fletcher
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, Australia (Email: roland.fletcher@arts.usyd.edu.au; m.barbetti@emu.usyd.edu.au; terry@environmentalmanagement.com.au)
Dan Penny
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Australia (Email: d.penny@geosci.usyd.edu.au)
Damian Evans
Affiliation:
Archaeological Computing Laboratory, University of Sydney, Australia (Email: evans@acl.arts.usyd.edu.au)
Christophe Pottier
Affiliation:
Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), Siem Reap, Cambodia (Email: efeo.pottier@online.com.kh)
Mike Barbetti
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, Australia (Email: roland.fletcher@arts.usyd.edu.au; m.barbetti@emu.usyd.edu.au; terry@environmentalmanagement.com.au)
Matti Kummu
Affiliation:
Water Resources Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland (Email: matti.kummu@iki.fi)
Terry Lustig
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, Australia (Email: roland.fletcher@arts.usyd.edu.au; m.barbetti@emu.usyd.edu.au; terry@environmentalmanagement.com.au)
Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA) Department of Monuments and Archaeology Team
Affiliation:
Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA) Department of Monuments and Archaeology Team, Cambodia (Email: apsara.dma@online.com.kh)
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Extract

Meticulous survey of the banks, channels and reservoirs at Angkor shows them to have been part of a large scale water management network instigated in the ninth century AD. Water collected from the hills was stored and could have been distributed for a wide variety of purposes including flood control, agriculture and ritual while a system of overflows and bypasses carried surplus water away to the lake, the Tonle Sap, to the south. The network had a history of numerous additions and modifications. Earlier channels both distributed and disposed of water. From the twelfth century onwards the large new channels primarily disposed of water to the lake. The authors here present and document the latest definitive map of the water network of Angkor.

Keywords

CambodiaAngkorKhmerbaraywater managementwater ritual
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 82 , Issue 317 , September 2008 , pp. 658 - 670
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

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