Remote sensing for resources development and environmental management: Remote sensing for resources development and environmental management

damen, m. c. j.

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Multivolume work

Persistent identifier:: 856342815

Title:: Remote sensing for resources development and environmental management

Sub title:: proceedings of the 7th international Symposium, Enschede, 25 - 29 August 1986

Year of publication:: 1986

Place of publication:: Rotterdam; Boston

Publisher of the original:: A. A. Balkema

Identifier (digital):: 856342815

Language:: English

Additional Notes:: Volume 1-3 erschienen von 1986-1988

Editor:: Damen, M. C. J.

Document type:: Multivolume work

Volume

Persistent identifier:: 856641294

Title:: Remote sensing for resources development and environmental management

Sub title:: proceedings of the 7th international Symposium, Enschede, 25 - 29 August 1986

Scope:: IX Seiten, Seiten 551-956

Year of publication:: 1986

Place of publication:: Rotterdam; Boston

Publisher of the original:: A,. A. Balkema

Identifier (digital):: 856641294

Illustration:: Illustrationen, Diagramme

Signature of the source:: ZS 312(26,7,2)

Language:: English

Usage licence:: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Editor:: Damen, M. C. J.

Editor:: International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Commission of Photographic and Remote Sensing Data

Publisher of the digital copy:: Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover

Place of publication of the digital copy:: Hannover

Year of publication of the original:: 2016

Document type:: Volume

Collection:: Earth sciences

Chapter

Title:: 7 Human settlements: Urban surveys, human settlement analysis and archaeology. Chairman: W. G. Collins, Co-chairman: B. C. Forster, Liaison: P. Hofstee

Write comment:: Wegen zu enger Bindung kommt es teilweise im Original zu Textverlust.

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Chapter

Title:: Notes on the geomorphology of the Borobudur plain (Central Java, Indonesia) in an archaeological and historical context. Jan J. Nossin & Caesar Voute

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

858 3.1. The Borobudur Lake The discussion about the existence of an ancient lake near and around Borobudur was started in 1931 by the famous painter W.O.J.Nieuwenkamp, who had spent several years of intensive studies on Hindu- Buddhist architecture, in particular on the Island of Bali, and who also visited Borobudur several times. As an artist he visualized Borobudur, sit ting on top of its hill, as a "lotus flower drifting on a lake, on which the new-born Buddha was seated". Support for this idea is found in the conventional lay-out of Buddhist sanctuaries, very often surrounded by a moat symbolizing the cosmic ocean from which the earth was created. Typical examples of such moats exist around the various temples of the Angkor Vat complex in Cambodia, whereby it should be remembered that the Buddhist Khmer civilization of Cambodia was much inspired by the older Javanese Hindu-Buddhist traditions. Modern examples are the ponds with their lotus flowers, so often found in front of the Balinese temples. Several geologists took part in the debate which was carried around 1933 in the monthly journal "Nederlandsch-Indie Oud en Nieuw ", and the daily paper "Algemeen Handelsblad", Amsterdam, in par ticular the two friends Prof. Dr. L.M.R.Rutten and Dr W.Nieuwenkamp, the latter son of the painter. Furthermore, persuaded by W.O.J.Nieuwenkamp , Cr.Ch.E.A.Harloff and Dr. A.J.Pannekoek carried out a serious geological and geomorphological study, first reported in 1937 and finally published in 1940 (Harloff and Pannekoek, 1940 ). The subject was studied again in 1966 by two Indonesian hydrogeologists (Purbohadiwidjojo and Sukardi, 1966). These studies confirmed that a lake could have existed here in pre-historic times, filled up by at least 10 metres of sandy-clayey alluvium. It is true, the hill on which Borobudur stands, consists largely of man-made fill requiring a borrow-area of fair dimensions. This could have created a new, although artificial small lake at the time of construction of Borobudur (Soekmono, 1969, 1976). However, the study of large-scale air photos of the Borobudur site, undertaken in 1968, failed to reveal traces of such a major borrow- area, which once could have formed a large pond or small lake corresponding to the moats found in Angkor Vat or the ponds in front of the Balinese temples (Voûte, 1969, 1981). Moreover, soil samples taken from archaeological trial trenches on Borobudur hill and on the plain immediately south of it, were analyzed for their content of pollen and spores, in order to obtain information on the vegetation of the area surround ing Borobudur at the time of its construction and immediately thereafter. No indications were found of a vegetation characteristic of an aquatic en vironment (lake, pond or marsh); on the contrary, Borobudur at the time of its construction appears to have been surrounded by agricultural land and palm trees as is still the case today (Thanikaimoni, 1977, Dumarçay, 1977). 3.2 The eclipse of the Mataram Kingdom The second theory refers to an entirely different phenomenon. Formulated in its final form by Dr. Ir. R.W. van Bemmelen in 1949 after a first publication in 1941, it is based originally on a translation and interpretation of ancient Hindu-Javanese Sanskrit texts by the archaeologist van Hinloopen Labberton (Van Bemmelen, 1941,1949). In a study published in 1921 the apparent destruction of the old Mataram State in the Sjaaka year 928 (equivalent to AD 1006) was assigned to a "Maha Pralaya" (natural calamity of terrible proportions), interpreted as a major volcanic eruption accompanied by intense rainfall and very extensive flooding, during which King Dharmawangça and many people of high standing and noble birth died. The King’s son-in-law, 16 years old, escaped, and under the name of King Erlangga ("He, able to escape the floods") , founded a new kingdom in east Java, which under the name Daha (Kediri) continued the Hindu-Javanese traditions in a modified form. This found its apogee in the 14th century in the empire of Modjopahit (also in East Java). Meanwhile, during two centuries the ancient sources kept an absolute silence on once flourishing and densely populated Central Java (Van Hinloopen Labberton, 1921). Van Bemmelen, who had formulated new hypotheses about geology, including the role of gravity- induced large-scale sliding movements in relatively recent times, interpreted this calamity as a cataclysmic outburst in 1006 AD, of Merapi Volcano, depopulating, desorganizing and destroying the prosperous Hindu state of Central Java , and con verting its fertile fields into grim deserts of ashes and mudflows (lahars). This outburst would have been accompanied by the collapse of much of the western slopes of Merapi, which slided down along slipfaults, pushing up the Gunung Gendol hills south of Muntilan village, blocking the Kali Progo valley, and through this damming up, flooding the Borobudur area by a large lake (van Bemmelen, 1941, 1949). The volcanic cataclysmic theory has remained very popular with the Indonesian archaeologists as a rational explanation for the shift of political power and architectural/cultural activities from Central to East Java (Boechari,1976, 1976/82, 1977/82; Moendardjito, 1978/82; Soekmono, 1976). They were convinced to have found further confirma tion when the various archaeological trial trenches made in the surroundings of Borobudur from 1973 onward showed the presence in several places of an ash layer from a few millimetres to a few cen timetres, and locally also a 30 cm. thick layer of sand, below which there occurred to a depth of 1 metre, occupational soil with many potsherds of Indonesian and Chinese manufacture (Boechari, loc.cit; Mandardjito, loc.cit ; Voûte, 1981). However, this sand layer could very well be the product of local downwash and sheetfloods from the Menoreh Hills somewhat farther South. In any case the accumulation of soil and debris of a magnitude as found here, need not put an end to human occupa tion, as is quite evident from the fact that the layers with potsherds and other artefacts, sign of regular religious festivals over a period of about two centuries, are rather thick. Some other evidence also pleads against the deposi tion of large masses of materials (pyroclastics and lahar deposits) during the ill-fated year of 1006 AD of the old chronicles and descriptions. In the districts immediately surrounding Borobudur no less than 207 archaeological sites have been inven toried, including the remains of 43 temples (Voute, 1975/82) , none of which are deeply buried. At Mendut temple, east of Borobudur, several feet of ashes and lahar deposits had to be cleared away to reach the original surface of the temple square, 7'30'S Fig.l. L< ai above si. 900- 800- 700- 600- 500- 400- 0H—» 0 1 Fig.2. Lc while ii up to i Labbertoi Moreover, slope, v accumulal up and volcanic tion of organic the mori during e lerated trees, r quire exc

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