柬埔寨叢林中發(fā)現的神秘失落城市

柬埔寨叢林中發(fā)現的神秘失落城市

Archaeologists have discovered the lost city of Mahendraparvata deep in the Cambodian jungle.

考古學家在柬埔寨叢林深處發(fā)現了失落的城市Mahendraparvata。

Archaeologists had to harness laser technology to locate the mysterious city, which is nestled in the Phnom Kulen mountains of Northern Cambodia, according to a paper published in the journal Antiquity.

據《古物》雜志發(fā)表的一篇論文稱，考古學家不得不利用激光技術，來定位這座位于柬埔寨北部金邊的神秘城市。

“Despite knowing that the Phnom Kulen mountains likely hid traces of a Khmer capital city, archaeologists have had difficulty accessing the region,” the researchers explain in a statement accompanying the paper. “The mountains are covered in dense vegetation and they were one of the last strongholds of Khmer Rouge guerillas until the 1990s – land mines and unexploded ordnance continue to pose a threat to communities living and working in the mountains and complicate archaeological research.”

“盡管知道金邊的庫倫山脈可能隱藏了高棉首都的蹤跡，考古學家還是很難進入這個地區(qū)，”研究人員在論文的一份聲明中解釋說。“山區(qū)植被茂密，在上世紀90年代以前，這里一直是紅色高棉游擊隊最后的據點之一——地雷和未爆彈藥繼續(xù)對山區(qū)生活和工作的社區(qū)構成威脅，并使考古研究復雜化。”

By combining airborne laser scans and ground surveys, researchers were able to locate the city. Previously, the only evidence of Mahendraparvata was a small number of isolated shrines.

通過將機載激光掃描和地面調查相結合，研究人員得以確定這座城市的位置。在此之前，Mahendraparvata的唯一證據證明它一小部分孤立的神殿。

Mahendraparvata, which dates back to the 8th and 9th century AD, was once the capital of the ancient Khmer Empire. Although less well known than the Khmer temple complex of Angkor Wat and the ancient megacity of Angkor, Mahendraparvata pre-dates Angkor, according to experts.

Mahendraparvata可以追溯到公元8世紀和9世紀，曾經是古代高棉帝國的首都。盡管沒有吳哥窟的高棉寺廟和吳哥的古代大城市那么出名，但據專家說，Mahendraparvata比吳哥還要早。

Laid out on a grid basis, the researchers believe that they have found a number of the city’s blocks. LiDAR also indicates that an “ambitious” hydraulic engineering project was started at Mahendraparvata, but never finished. “This meant that the water management system was not sufficient to support irrigated rice agriculture, which may suggest the city did not last long as a Khmer power center,” the researchers said, in the statement. “Even though the reservoir at Mahendraparvata was not functional, it predated and may have inspired the vast artificial lakes that would become a defining feature of Angkor.”

研究人員認為，他們在網格基礎上找到了一些城市街區(qū)。激光雷達還表明，一個“雄心勃勃的”水利工程項目在馬亨德拉帕瓦塔啟動，但卻未能完成。研究人員在聲明中說:“這意味著水系統不足以支持灌溉水稻農業(yè)，同時也意味著這座城市作為高棉權力中心的時間并不長。”“盡管Mahendraparvata的水庫沒有發(fā)揮作用，但它在吳哥窟形成之前就已經存在，并可能激發(fā)了建造巨大人工湖的靈感，這些人工湖后來成為吳哥窟的一個標志性特征。”