SYDNEY, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- New research from Australia suggests the mysterious ancient Cambodian capital of Koh Ker is likely to have been occupied much longer than archaeologists previously thought.
While the royal home of the Khmer Kingdom during the Angkor period is widely believed to have only been inhabited for around two decades during the 10th century, University of Sydney researcher Tegan Hall, discovered evidence that people lived in the temple city centuries earlier.
"It has been presumed this city was purpose-built by a king who wanted to set up his own capital city away from Angkor where most capital cities were generally built," she told Xinhua on Thursday.
"Although it's now crumbling and covered by jungle, it would have looked like other Angkor temple precincts back then although it had a slightly different style."
However, once the tenure of the king ended and his successor set up his own capital back in Angkor, the city quickly fell into disuse when the urban, agricultural population also decided to vacate.
But according to sediment testing conducted by Hall and her team, the mysterious tale of the ancient capital is a far more complex than first thought.
"It wasn't just a site that popped up one day and fell into disuse years later, it wasn't just purpose-built for this king," she said.
"We found it has a much more complicated and protracted history than the epigraphic record might suggest."
By examining environmental debris in sediment, like charcoal and pollen remains, the team were able to infer a long history of fluctuations at the site in fire regimes and vegetation, indicating patterns of human occupation and land use over time.
"We dated the sediments to go back as far as the 7th century, suggesting the building of this site happened much earlier."
The findings also appear to suggest that the urban, agriculture population did not follow the king back to Angkor, but rather continued to live at the site for many years after.
