Page 52 - Canadian Geographic

PLAIN OF JARS

PRESERVING
CAMBODIA’S PAST

HERITAGE WATCH was founded
by Dougald O’Reilly in 2003
after he witnessed widespread
looting of ancient antiquities in
Cambodia. The non-profi t aims
to preserve prehistoric sites
there. “I felt the looting was an
incredible tragedy,” says
O’Reilly. “One can’t blame folks
for digging around their homes
to fi nd anything of value, since
poverty is what drives looters.
But these sites give us clues to
OVER THREE WEEKS at Site 52, the O’Reilly has done extensive work in the rise of civilizations, about
team never did fi nd bones but, signifi - Cambodia, too, including documenting which little is known.”
cantly, they found four previously burial fi nds at Prei Khmeng, site of a Hindu He had ideas for how to
unknown quarry sites. They also tried a temple built atop a prehistoric cemetery. reduce the destruction, so he set
new type of testing. In simple terms, says up an offi ce in his Phnom Penh
Shewan, stone can’t be dated, “so we took in Melbourne. Drone photos gathered in apartment and mobilized some
core samples from the bottoms of the 2016 have been used to create a virtual of his former students, paying
jars for ‘optically stimulated lumines- Site 1. (They collected drone photos at them with his own money and
cence’ testing.” They hope it will reveal Site 52 and will soon be able to revisit it taking no salary himself. “We
when the jar bottoms were last exposed in 3D, too.) CAVE2 is the world’s largest began with small-scale projects,
to sunlight — therefore, when they were virtual reality facility of its kind — no VR such as village training sessions,
goggles required. “We can ‘return’ to to educate locals on the impor-
‘ The fact that too little our excavations to do things like take tance of preserving the past.”
measurements and interpret data,” Heritage Watch, which O’Reilly
was known about the jars says O’Reilly. And thanks to drones, believes is the fi rst organization
they’ll have a safe way to check out jar of its kind, also promotes respon-
had been one of the sites that may not yet be clear of UXO. sible tourism: visitors are dis-
“Of course, you can’t excavate without couraged from buying antiquities,
hurdles they’d been being there, but you can gather a lot of businesses are certifi ed as “heri-
information on site location and the tage-friendly” with stickers or
facing in gaining World surrounding landscape.” sign age to help travellers identify
It could be a year until the team has
Heritage status’ results from soil and other physical sam- ethical companies, and locals are
employed to work on excavations.
ples — including a human tooth — that And now Heritage for Kids is in
placed on the ground where they sit. The they gathered at Site 52, and up to two play, to educate children about
process of taking those stone samples years for the optically stimulated lumines- preserving heritage and the envi-
was tricky, as no light can be present: cence results. But O’Reilly hopes the data ronment. “We have a pilot pro-
black lightproof tarps were tented over will fi nally provide some answers about gram in schools in northwest
the extraction site, and O’Reilly held a these massive megaliths on remote mist- Cambodia involving some 600
fl ashlight covered in a red fi lter while he shrouded mountaintops. “Archeology,” kids,” says O’Reilly. “The schools
used a drill to extract the core. says O’Reilly, “is largely about untangling love it, the government loves it,
The team heads to Assam, India, this mysteries, and the Plain of Jars is one of and the kids love it.”
year to see how jars there compare to the world’s enigmas.” In 2009, O’Reilly won the pres-
what they’ve found in Laos. Meantime, tigious Archaeological Institute of
they can “visit” Laos any time they like Get a closer look at the Plain of Jars by America’s Conservation and DOUGALD O’REILLY
from their base in Australia, at the watching spectacular drone footage of the Heritage Management Award for
CAVE2 3D facility at Monash University site at cangeo.ca/ma18/jars. his work leading the non-profi t.

52 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2018