Early historic landscapes and the rise of centralised states on the Mekong Delta, Cambodia
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Grant Holder:
Professor Paul Bishop
The Mekong River delta region was a hearth of early state development in SE Asia. Archaeological research at the early historic city of Angkor Borei, Cambodia, is revealing the nature of the cultural landscape, but this information is yet to be articulated with records of change and variability in the ‘natural’ landscape. Through interdisciplinary research, we will: (i) characterise the region’s local and regional environmental variablity in the early historic period; and (ii) assess the influence such variability may have had on (a) interrelationships between people and landscapes, and (b) the emergence of early historic centres in the Mekong delta.
| Project start date: 2006-05 | Project end date: 2009-04 |
Subject domains:
Era(s):
Country/region(s):
| Methods used | Category |
|---|---|
| 2d Scanning and photography | Data capture |
| Remote sensing | Data capture |
| Geo-referencing and projection | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Geophysical survey | Data capture |
| Image enhancement | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Photogrammetry | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Statistical analysis | Data analysis |
| archaeology | Discipline |
Funding sources:
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Content types created:
Dataset/structured data
Source material used:
See 3.2 above
Digital resource created:
We are producing time-series data on isotope fractionation in speleothems (stalagmites and stalactites). These isotope fractionation data are a proxy for past temperatures and rainfalls, and will ultimately be used to reconstruct a history of the strength of the SE Asian monsoon during the archaeological period of interest. We aim to assess whether the decline of the great pre-Angkorian civilisation at Angkor Borei may be related to changes in the strength of the monsoon at Angkor Borei. The data consist of 'strings' of single isotopic fractionation data, each data point representing one sample that has been drilled from the speleothem. The samples are drilled at ~1mm spacing along the length of the speleothem to give a record of climate change as the speleothem grew.
We are also analysing sediment cores from the Angkor Borei area for a range of data, including grain size, organic matter content, magnetic susceptibility, density (via X-radiographs) and so on, to derive a regional flood record for comparison wth the local monsoonal record. All of these data, including processed images of the X-radiographs of the cores, will be available digitally.
Data Formats created:
Text file (TXT)
Institutions affiliated with this project:
| UK HE institutions involved: |
|---|
| University of Glasgow |
| UK HE institutions involved: |
|---|
| Royal University of Fine Arts |
| Phnom Penh |
| Kingdom of Cambodia |
| Ministry of Culture |
Project staff and expertise:
| Principal staff member: | Professor Paul Bishop; Professor Anthony Fallick |
|---|---|
| Other staff: | Postdoctoral researcher(s) / Research assistant(s) |
| External expertise: |
| Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) of record | Paul Bishop |
| Title | Early historic landscapes and the rise of centralised states on the Mekong Delta, Cambodia |
| Record created | 2008-05-22 |
| Record updated | 2010-06-11 11:17 |
| URL of record | http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2262 |
| Citation of record | Paul Bishop: Early historic landscapes and the rise of centralised states on the Mekong Delta, Cambodia. <http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2262> created: 2008-05-22, last updated 2010-06-11 11:17 |