柬埔寨丛林中发现的神秘失落城市

柬埔寨丛林中发现的神秘失落城市

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

考古学家在柬埔寨丛林深处发现了失落的城市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.

据《古物》杂志发表的一篇论文称，考古学家不得不利用激光技术，来定位这座位于柬埔寨北部金边的神秘城市。

“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.”

“尽管知道金边的库伦山脉可能隐藏了高棉首都的踪迹，考古学家还是很难进入这个地区，”研究人员在论文的一份声明中解释说。“山区植被茂密，在上世纪90年代以前，这里一直是红色高棉游击队最后的据点之一——地雷和未爆弹药继续对山区生活和工作的社区构成威胁，并使考古研究复杂化。”

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.

通过将机载激光扫描和地面调查相结合，研究人员得以确定这座城市的位置。在此之前，Mahendraparvata的唯一证据证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世纪和9世纪，曾经是古代高棉帝国的首都。尽管没有吴哥窟的高棉寺庙和吴哥的古代大城市那么出名，但据专家说，Mahendraparvata比吴哥还要早。

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.”

研究人员认为，他们在网格基础上找到了一些城市街区。激光雷达还表明，一个“雄心勃勃的”水利工程项目在马亨德拉帕瓦塔启动，但却未能完成。研究人员在声明中说:“这意味着水系统不足以支持灌溉水稻农业，同时也意味着这座城市作为高棉权力中心的时间并不长。”“尽管Mahendraparvata的水库没有发挥作用，但它在吴哥窟形成之前就已经存在，并可能激发了建造巨大人工湖的灵感，这些人工湖后来成为吴哥窟的一个标志性特征。”