Leroy Stéphanie, Hendrickson Mitch, Delqué-Kolic Emmanuelle, Vega Enrique, Dillmann Philippe
Archaeomaterials and Alteration Prediction Laboratory (LAPA), LMC-IRAMAT UMR5060/NIMBE UMR3685, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEA Saclay, Gif/Yvette, France.
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2015 Nov 4;10(11):e0141052. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141052. eCollection 2015.
Architecture represents key evidence of dynastic practice and change in the archaeological world. Chronologies for many important buildings and sequences, including the iconic temples of medieval Angkor in Cambodia, are based solely on indirect associations from inscriptions and architectural styles. The Baphuon temple, one of the last major buildings in Angkor without textual or scientifically-derived chronological evidence, is crucial both for the context and date of its construction and the period when its western façade was modified into a unique, gigantic Reclining Buddha. Its construction was part of a major dynastic change and florescence of the Hindu-Mahayana Buddhist state and the modification is the key evidence of Theravada Buddhist power after Angkor's decline in the 15th century. Using a newly-developed approach based on AMS radiocarbon dating to directly date four iron crampons integrated into the structure we present the first direct evidence for the history of the Baphuon. Comprehensive study of ferrous elements shows that both construction and modification were critically earlier than expected. The Baphuon can now be considered as the major temple associated with the imperial reformations and territorial consolidation of Suryavarman I (1010-1050 AD) for whom no previous building to legitimize his reign could be identified. The Theravada Buddhist modification is a hundred years prior to the conventional 16th century estimation and is not associated with renewed use of Angkor. Instead it relates to the enigmatic Ayutthayan occupation of Angkor in the 1430s and 40s during a major period of climatic instability. Accurately dating iron with relatively low carbon content is a decisive step to test long-standing assumptions about architectural histories and political processes for states that incorporated iron into buildings (e.g., Ancient Greece, medieval India). Furthermore, this new approach has the potential to revise chronologies related to iron consumption practices since the origins of ferrous metallurgy three millennia ago.
建筑是考古界王朝实践与变迁的关键证据。许多重要建筑及其序列的年代测定，包括柬埔寨吴哥窟标志性的寺庙，仅基于铭文和建筑风格的间接关联。巴戎寺是吴哥最后一座没有文字记载或科学测定年代证据的主要建筑之一，其建造背景和时间以及西立面被改造成独特的巨型卧佛的时期都至关重要。它的建造是印度教 - 大乘佛教国家重大王朝变革与繁荣的一部分，而这次改造是15世纪吴哥衰落之后上座部佛教势力的关键证据。我们采用一种新开发的基于加速器质谱放射性碳测年的方法，直接测定融入该建筑结构的四个铁扣件的年代，从而首次为巴戎寺的历史提供了直接证据。对含铁元素的全面研究表明，建造和改造都比预期早得多。现在可以认为巴戎寺是与苏利耶跋摩一世（公元1010 - 1050年）的帝国改革和领土巩固相关的主要寺庙，此前没有发现能证明其统治合法性的建筑。上座部佛教的改造比传统的16世纪估计早了一百年，且与吴哥的重新使用无关。相反，它与15世纪30年代和40年代吴哥被神秘的阿瑜陀耶占领有关，当时正处于气候不稳定的主要时期。准确测定含碳量相对较低的铁的年代，是检验关于将铁用于建筑的国家（如古希腊、中世纪印度）建筑历史和政治进程的长期假设的决定性一步。此外，这种新方法有可能修正自三千年前黑色金属冶金起源以来与铁消费实践相关的年代顺序。
