Archaeology world mourns Damian Evans, who discovered medieval cities near Angkor Wat



The world-leading Australian Canadian archaeologist Dr Damian Evans, who played a critical role in discovering previously undocumented medieval urban areas near Angkor Wat, has died from brain lymphoma.

Close friends confirmed Evans passed away on 12 September in Paris, where he was based working at the École Française d’Extrême-Orient.

Since the 1990s, he has worked extensively in Cambodia, where his cutting-edge research using laser technology to uncover archaeological landscapes in south-east Asia that has transformed the field.

Most notably, the team’s discovery of multiple cities between 900 and 1,400 years old within greater Angkor upended key assumptions about south-east Asia’s history.

Tributes poured in for Evans from his international colleagues on Wednesday evening.

The University of Sydney’s Prof Roland Fletcher supervised Evans for his honours thesis, where he produced the first comprehensive map of the whole of greater Angkor.

It led to the Greater Angkor Project, led by Fletcher and Evans, and a major collaboration with French archeologist Christophe Pottier to produce a new overall map of the region.

“He was always extremely competent and extremely efficient,” he said. “Very good at working with people and organising.”

Alison Carter, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon, met Damian in 2008 when she was in Cambodia doing her dissertation research.

“He immediately invited me to join him on a survey project,” she posted on social media. “He barely knew me, but was incredibly generous with his time and knowledge.

“Damian was also a great writer and editor. I could always count on him to improve a manuscript draft. There were many times I thought I had made a brilliant point in my own work, only to go back and see that Damian said it first, and better.

“Damian was occasionally grumpy, but mostly warm, generous, and funny. We lost him too soon.”

From 2007 to 2015 Evans was the co-director of the University of Sydney’s Overseas Research Centre at Siem Reap-Angkor.

Following its completion, Evans was one of the first researchers to use wide-area airborne laser scanning (Lidar) technology to uncover and analyse greater Angkor’s urban and agricultural networks.

His findings transformed scholars’ understanding of the landscape from past to present day.

In 2014, Evans was awarded a starting grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for his Cambodian Archaeological Lidar Initiative and moved his research to France.

Full story -https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... angkor-wat

Yes, I too am saddened at Damian's premature death.
Damian had so much to offer to modern archaeology and yet died so young.

I had known and worked with Damian, and then Associate Professor Roland Fletcher, in setting up the Greater Angkor Project (GAP) and the associated Angkor Ultralight Survey (AUS) working with the very likeably Eddie Smith, a remarkable Ultralight/Microlight Pilot, mechanic and a highly talented photographer. I've lost touch with Eddie, he does not seem to be in Cambodia any more and his phone numbers and emails are no longer active, more is the pity.

The early years of the Greater Angkor Project were great fun and it was good working with those from EFEO and the students from Sydney University and other specialists. But the GAP rapidly became near "vertical silos" of very specialist academic areas involving multi-universities and specialists.

Damien and I had the distinction of making the last hand-augur through sunbaked ground that felt as hard as concrete at the conclusion of the first season, to a target depth of circa 1.8 to 2 metres. We gave up the struggle at 1.8 metres, carefully extracted the hand augur, and found we had hit the jackpot, a former Angkorian House Mound complete with pottery shards and charcoal. This was to lead to the following season's start of a major archaeological dig that went on for a number of years. It was always filled in at the conclusion of each "season" to prevent looting and was frequently patrolled/visited by armed Apsara Authority (ANA) guards.

But then there was the exhumation human remains , including of 007, at another site. Think deeply before answering if a Professor from Sydney phones you at breakfast in Siem Reap asking you to bring human bone fragments back to Australia for scientific dating by ANSTO. Even though the content took up only the size of a packet of cigarettes. It took me a good three hours to clear customs and quarantine on return to Sydney Airport. And that was with a special research authorization!

Great days and great and very interesting people.

Vale Damian.

OML

Thank you, John. But I am not a Face Book user.

OML

eddie posts a lot on fb
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001255188365

this is his page as well:
dont need be a member to view
https://www.facebook.com/groups/439526806147391

he has been n sr for a long time

Ot Mean Loi wrote: ↑Sat Sep 16, 2023 1:21 pm Yes, I too am saddened

But then there was the exhumation human remains , including of 007,

Agent James Bond was planted there?

Sad to say pissontheroof, it was not James 007 and the very flattened skeletal remains proved female and. if I recall correctly, from the early 7th century CE.

It is very rare to fined very early burials in the greater Angkor area. And when a rare burial site is found, it is excavated with great care and each human remains is identified by a number. The samples that I was asked to bring back to Sydney for dating by ANSTO - Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation - came from human remains number 007. In fact from memory I think that there were only seven. It was Christophe Pottier from EFEO that brought the "samples" to me at the now long gone hotel built by a lovely man from Switzerland and his then Cambodian wife. Unfortunately, I can't recall his or the hotel's name. It stood on a huge plot of land.

It is normally easy to tell if buried human skeletal remains are male or female, but these had been in the ground so long identification of gender took longer than usual.

OML

Ot Mean Loi wrote: ↑Sun Sep 17, 2023 8:45 am Sad to say pissontheroof, it was not James 007 and the very flattened skeletal remains proved female and. if I recall correctly,

Well thank you for the detailed explanation , Normally my off the wall questions are not approved.
Or if so , they hardly ever get a reply .




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