Ref ID:	23675
Ref Type:	Book Section
Authors:	Fletcher, Roland Pottier, Christophe Johnson, Wayne
Title:	Angkor and water management: the implications of massive masonry water control structures
Date:	2008
Source:	From <i>Homo erectus</i> to the living traditions
Place of Publication:	Chiang Mai
Publisher:	European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists
Notes:	Choice of Papers from the 11th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Bougon, 25th-29th September 2006.
Abstract:	For over twenty years there has been a debate about the water management system of Angkor, characterised as a contrast between a French functionalist-irrigation model and an English symbolic-ritualist model. In actuality the French scholars offered a dual explanation - and in the medieval Khmer world the dichotomy is unlikely to have much meaning. None-the-less it is logically necessary to assess whether or not the water management system of Angkor included the kinds of structures, such a spillways and flow management exit channels, that would be consistent with large-scale engineering control for the precise and calibrated movement of water across the landscape. Such structures would support the case for a pragmatic component to water management in Angkor. Excavations have revealed a massive masonry spillway at Bam Penh Reach in northern Angkor and clearance of vegetation has exposed the large, masonry-lined exit channel of the East Baray in central Angkor. The paper will report on the nature and implications of these massive and sophisticated masonry structures.
Date Created:	10/7/2008
Editors:	Pautreau, Jean-Pierre Coupey, Anne-Sophie Zeitoun, Valéry Rambault, Emma
Page Start:	231
Page End:	237