High flying archaeologist (5/11/2008)

Dr Evans is a member of the University of Sydney's Greater Angkor Project, which is investigating why Angkor declined.

Investigating the ruins of Angkor, working with NASA scientists, flying ultralight aircraft and dodging landmines is just part of the job for University of Sydney archaeologist Damian Evans.

This Tuesday he appears on Foreign Correspondent explaining why the civilisation of Angkor suddenly disappeared more than five hundred years ago.

Dr Evans is a member of the University of Sydney's Greater Angkor Project, which uses technology such as radar remote-sensing data from NASA, and aerial surveys using ultra-light aircraft and helicopters, to investigate why Angkor declined.

The team has painstakingly compiled a detailed map which reveals that Angkor was the largest pre-industrial urban settlement known to man, stretching for over 1,000 square kilometres. It was the size of Los Angeles, and totally dependent on an elaborate irrigation scheme.

Dr Evans is also embarking on new three year project exploring half a dozen new temple sites in Cambodia.

"Compelling evidence exists that other temple complexes in Cambodia may have had similar [irrigation] systems," he says.

But research of these sites has been hampered by the lack of access, particularly in heavily landmined areas.

He says his latest study will use "new geospatial technologies to map these sites in detail, and to chronologically refine the map of Angkor."

One of the most important sites he will be investigating is Koh Ker, which mysteriously took over from Angkor as the seat of power for about 20 or 30 years in the tenth century.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the University of Sydney

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