Residential patterning at Angkor Wat

17 pages. Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015. First published on December 7th, 2015 at doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2015.159Considerable attention has been devoted to the architecture and art history of Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple in the last century. There has, however, been little research on the functions and internal organisation of the large rectangular enclosure surrounding the temple. Such enclosures have long been assumed to have been sacred precincts, or perhaps ‘temple-cities’: work exploring the archaeological patterning for habitation within them has been limited. The results of LiDAR survey and excavation have now revealed evidence for low-density residential occupation in these areas, possibly for those servicing the temple. Recent excavations within the enclosure challenge our traditional understanding of the social hierarchy of the Angkor Wat community and show that the temple precinct, bounded by moat and wall, may not have been exclusively the preserve of the wealthy or the priestly elite.Gracious thanks are extended to the APSARA Authority for permission to undertake field investigations in the Angkor Wat enclosure, including HE Bun Narith, HE Ros Borath and An Sopheap, which were undertaken under ARC grant DP1092663. We thank So Malay and Martin King for administrative support, and GAP 2010 and 2013 crew members, whose labour produced this research. Damian Evans drafted Figures 1–5. Martin King and Alex Morrison provided additional graphical expertise; conversations with Christophe Pottier, Roland Fletcher, Ea Darith, Ian Lowman, David Brotherson and Paul Lavy were exceptionally helpful. Thanks also to Li Baoping, John Miksic and Louise Cort for identifications of Chinese tradewares in the 2010 excavated materials. We thank the PT McElhanney, Indonesia, company for its contribution to the LiDAR acquisition, which was funded by eight institutions in the Khmer Archaeology LiDAR Consortium: APSARA Authority, the University of Sydney, l’Ecole francaise d’Extreme-Orient, Societe Concessionaire d’Aeroport, the Hungarian Southeast Asian Research Institute, Japan- PSARA Safeguarding Angkor, the Archaeology and Development Foundation and the World Monuments Fund. All mistakes are the responsibility of the principal author

Prasat and Pteah: Habitation within Angkor Wat's temple enclosure

11 pages. First published in "Archaeological Research in Asia" by Elsevier: Carter, A. K., Stark, M. T., Castillo, C. C., Heng, P., Zhuang, Y., & Chhay, R. (2022). Prasat and pteah: Habitation within Angkor Wat's temple enclosure. Archaeological Research in Asia, 32, 100405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2022.100405The Angkor empire (9-15th centuries CE) was one of mainland Southeast Asia's major civilizations, with a 3000 km2 agro-urban capital located in northwest Cambodia. Since 2010, the Greater Angkor Project has been investigating occupation areas within Angkor's urban core. This work has identified temple enclosures as important residential areas that made up part of Angkor's civic-ceremonial center. In this paper, we review excavations from residential areas within Angkor Wat's temple enclosure. We concentrate on evidence for residential patterning by focusing on our 2015 excavations, one of the largest horizontal excavations of a single occupation mound within Angkor's civic-ceremonial center. These data offer further evidence for archaeological patterns of residential occupation within the Angkor Wat temple enclosure and a comparative dataset for future research of habitation areas within Angkor as well as domestic spaces in other urban settings.The authors wish to thank the APSARA Authority for permission to undertake excavations at Angkor Wat and their cooperation and collaboration in undertaking this research. We also thank Dr. Roland Fletcher for his guidance and support of our project. We extend our deepest gratitude to So Malay and Martin King for administrative support and the University of Sydney Robert Christie Research Centre. Thanks also go to Alyssa Loyless for help with Fig. 2. This work would not have been possible without efforts from the 2010, 2013, and 2015 field crews. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under Grant DP1092663; National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration under Grant 9602–14; and Dumbarton Oaks under a Project Grant in Garden and Landscape Studies

The evolution of agro-urbanism: A case study from Angkor, Cambodia

16 pages. Published in "Journal of Anthropological Archaeology" by Elsevier: A.K. Carter, S. Klassen, M.T. Stark, M. Polkinghorne, P. Heng, D.H. Evans, R. Chhay; The evolution of agro-urbanism: a case study from Angkor, Cambodia; J. Anthropol. Archaeol., 63 (2021), Article 101323The vast agro-urban settlements that developed in the humid tropics of Mesoamerica and Asia contained both elite civic-ceremonial spaces and sprawling metropolitan areas. Recent studies have suggested that both local autonomy and elite policies facilitated the development of these settlements; however, studies have been limited by a lack of detail in considering how, when, and why these factors contributed to the evolution of these sites. In this paper, we use a fine-grained diachronic analysis of Angkor’s landscape to identify both the state-level policies and infrastructure and bottom-up organization that spurred the growth of Angkor as the world’s most extensive pre-industrial settlement complex. This degree of diachronic detail is unique for the ancient world. We observe that Angkor’s low-density metropolitan area and higher-density civic-ceremonial center grew at different rates and independently of one another. While local historical factors contributed to these developments, we argue that future comparative studies might identify similar patterns.The Authors thank the APSARA National Authority for their permission to conduct remote sensing and field investigations. Thanks also to Roland Fletcher for his support. Thank you to Terry and Eileen Lustig for their comments and suggestions on aspects of economic geography and Michael E. Smith for reading and offering comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Thanks to Malay So and Maryne Dana for administrative support. Research, planning, and writing of this manuscript was undertaken with the support of the University of Oregon Global Oregon Faculty Collaboration Fund supported by the Global Studies Institute in the UO Office of International Affairs. Data collection for parts of the research in this study have been funded by: the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration under Grant 9602-14; Dumbarton Oaks under a Project Grant in Garden and Landscape Studies; the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship; the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Awards (#1638137); Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE150100756) and Council Discovery Grant (DP170102574); and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreements 639828 and 866454)

LTC4 synthase polymorphism modifies efficacy of botanical seed oil combination in asthma

Botanical seed oils reduce the generation of leukotrienes in patients with asthma. Our objective was to determine the efficacy of a botanical seed oil combination against airflow obstruction in asthma, and to determine the pharmacogenomic effect of the leukotriene C4 synthase (LTC4S) polymorphism A-444C. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over clinical trial in mild to moderate asthmatics to determine the change in FEV1 after 6 weeks of therapy with borage and echium seed oils versus corn oil placebo. We also examined the effect of the variant LTC4S -444C allele on the change in lung function. We did not identify a difference in FEV1 in the study cohort as a whole (n = 28), nor in the group of A homozygotes. In the C allele carriers (n = 9), FEV1 improved by 3% after treatment with borage and echium seed oils and declined by 4% after placebo corn oil (p = 0.02). All 9 C allele carriers demonstrated an improvement in their FEV1 on active treatment compared to placebo as compared to only 7 out of 19 A allele homozygotes (p = 0.007). We observed transient differences in ex vivo leukotriene generation from circulating basophils and granulocytes. We did not observe significant differences in urinary LTE4 levels. We conclude that compared to corn oil, a combination of borage and echium seed oils improves airflow obstruction in mild to moderate asthmatics who carry the variant allele in the LTC4S gene (A-444C). Botanical oil supplementation may have therapeutic potential in asthma if used in a personalized manner. Trial registration: This trial was registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00806442

Impact of botanical oils on polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism and leukotriene generation in mild asthmatics

Background: Dietary supplementation with botanical oils that contain n-6 and n-3 eighteen carbon chain (18C)-PUFA such as γ linolenic acid (GLA, 18:3n-6), stearidonic acid (SDA, 18:4n-3) and α linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3n-3) have been shown to impact PUFA metabolism, alter inflammatory processes including arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism and improve inflammatory disorders. Methods: The diet of mild asthmatics patients was supplemented for three weeks with varying doses of two botanical seed oils (borage oil [Borago officinalis, BO] and echium seed oil [Echium plantagineum; EO]) that contain SDA, ALA and GLA. A three week wash out period followed. The impact of these dietary manipulations was evaluated for several biochemical endpoints, including in vivo PUFA metabolism and ex vivo leukotriene generation from stimulated leukocytes. Results: Supplementation with several EO/BO combinations increased circulating 20–22 carbon (20–22C) PUFAs, including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and dihommo-gammalinolenic acid (DGLA), which have been shown to inhibit AA metabolism and inflammation without impacting circulating AA levels. BO/EO combinations also inhibited ex vivo leukotriene generation with some combinations attenuating cysteinyl leukotriene generation in stimulated basophils by >50% and in stimulated neutrophils by >35%. Conclusions: This study shows that dietary supplementation with BO/EO alters 20–22C PUFA levels and attenuates leukotriene production in a manner consistent with a reduction in inflammation

Experimental cross-contamination of chicken salad with Salmonella enterica serovars Typhimurium and London during food preparation in Cambodian households

Non-typhoidal Salmonellae are common foodborne pathogens that can cause gastroenteritis and other illnesses in people. This is the first study to assess the transfer of Salmonella enterica from raw chicken carcasses to ready-to-eat chicken salad in Cambodia. Twelve focus group discussions in four Cambodian provinces collected information on typical household ways of preparing salad. The results informed four laboratory experiments that mimicked household practices, using chicken carcasses inoculated with Salmonella. We developed four scenarios encompassing the range of practices, varying by order of washing (chicken or vegetables first) and change of chopping utensils (same utensils or different). Even though raw carcasses were washed twice, Salmonella was isolated from 32 out of 36 chicken samples (88.9%, 95% CI: 73.0–96.4) and two out of 18 vegetable samples (11.1%, 95% CI: 1.9–36.1). Salmonella was detected on cutting boards (66.7%), knives (50.0%) and hands (22.2%) after one wash; cross-contamination was significantly higher on cutting boards than on knives or hands (p-valu

The Khmer did not live by rice alone: Archaeobotanical investigations at Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm

21 pages. Published first in "Archaeological Research in Asia" by ElsevierThe Angkorian Empire was at its peak from the 10th to 13th centuries CE. It wielded great influence across mainland Southeast Asia and is now one of the most archaeologically visible polities due to its expansive religious building works. This paper presents archaeobotanical evidence from two of the most renowned Angkorian temples largely associated with kings and elites, Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm. But it focuses on the people that dwelt within the temple enclosures, some of whom were involved in the daily functions of the temple. Archaeological work indicates that temple enclosures were areas of habitation within the Angkorian urban core and the temples and their enclosures were ritual, political, social, and economic landscapes. This paper provides the first attempt to reconstruct some aspects of the lives of the non-elites living within the temple enclosures by examining the archaeobotanical evidence, both macroremains and phytoliths, from residential contexts and data derived from inscriptions and Zhou Daguan's historical account dating to the 13th century CE. Research indicates that plants found within the temple enclosure of Ta Prohm and Angkor Wat were grown for ritual or medicinal use, and also formed important components of the diet and household economy.We wish to thank the APSARA National Authority for their collaboration and permission to undertake excavations within the Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm enclosures. We thank So Malay and Martin King for administrative support, and Greater Angkor Project 2013–2015 field crew members, whose labor supported this research. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [grant number DP1092663]. The 2015 fieldwork at Angkor Wat was also supported by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration Grant and a Dumbarton Oaks Project Grant. The phytolith samples from Angkor Wat were collected by Tegan McGillivray in 2015, processed at University College London by Lindsay Duncan, counted by Alison Weisskopf and analysed by Eleanor Kingwell-Banham. Archaeobotanical research at Ta Prohm was supported by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) [grant number NE/N010957/1]. We also wish to thank The Robert Christie Foundation. Finally, we would like to thank Philip Piper for the financial support of the dating of botanical remains through the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship [grant number FT100100527] and Rachel Wood for radiocarbon dating the samples

The Angkorian city: From Hariharalaya to Yashodharapura

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