| # | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
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The irrigation canals excavated at Santa Clara Coatitlan, dating to approx. 900 BC is the earliest documented floodwater irrigation system in the Basin of Mexico NGA,
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
although admittedly there were likely earlier systems that have not yet been discovered. They were discovered during a salvage excavation just north of Mexico City, with only several cuts of them being exposed, so their full extent is poorly understood. These channels run from a former incised seasonal torrent (barranca, which may itself have been modified) at approx 90 degrees, fanning out into to individual fields. It is unclear whether these are smaller channels that emanate from a larger canal, or whether each of them directly directly siphoned the barranca. Prior to construction, the area may have been exposed to erosive sheet flow from the barranca during heavy rain, which may suggest that the system was primarily aimed at mitigating the damaging effects of natural inundation. Since the ancient barranca was not excavated, it is unclear whether dams were used to control/manage flow, or whether they only funneled excess runoff.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Nichols, Deborah L. (1982) "A Middle Formative Irrigation System near Santa Clara Coatitlan in the Basin of Mexico." American Antiquity, 47(1): 133-144. [2]: Doolittle, William E. (1990) Canal Irrigation in Prehistoric Mexico: The Sequence of Technological Change. Austin: University of Texas Press, p.22-5. [3]: Nichols, Deborah L. (1987). "Risk and Agricultural Intensification during the Formative Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico." American Anthropologist 89(3): 596-616. [4]: Nichols, Deborah L. (2015). "Intensive Agriculture and Early Complex Societies of the Basin of Mexico: The Formative Period." Ancient Mesoamerica 26(2): 407-21. |
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The irrigation canals excavated at Santa Clara Coatitlan, dating to approx. 900 BC is the earliest documented floodwater irrigation system in the Basin of Mexico NGA,
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
although admittedly there were likely earlier systems that have not yet been discovered. They were discovered during a salvage excavation just north of Mexico City, with only several cuts of them being exposed, so their full extent is poorly understood. These channels run from a former incised seasonal torrent (barranca, which may itself have been modified) at approx 90 degrees, fanning out into to individual fields. It is unclear whether these are smaller channels that emanate from a larger canal, or whether each of them directly directly siphoned the barranca. Prior to construction, the area may have been exposed to erosive sheet flow from the barranca during heavy rain, which may suggest that the system was primarily aimed at mitigating the damaging effects of natural inundation. Since the ancient barranca was not excavated, it is unclear whether dams were used to control/manage flow, or whether they only funneled excess runoff.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Nichols, Deborah L. (1982) "A Middle Formative Irrigation System near Santa Clara Coatitlan in the Basin of Mexico." American Antiquity, 47(1): 133-144. [2]: Doolittle, William E. (1990) Canal Irrigation in Prehistoric Mexico: The Sequence of Technological Change. Austin: University of Texas Press, p.22-5. [3]: Nichols, Deborah L. (1987). "Risk and Agricultural Intensification during the Formative Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico." American Anthropologist 89(3): 596-616. [4]: Nichols, Deborah L. (2015). "Intensive Agriculture and Early Complex Societies of the Basin of Mexico: The Formative Period." Ancient Mesoamerica 26(2): 407-21. |
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This was the period during which intensive irrigation began. It continued to be expanded and intensified into the historical period
[1]
. However, for environmental reasons, the Big Island did not have as extensive irrigation as the other islands in the Hawaiian archipelago
[2]
. According to oral history, two men from a chiefly lineage were exiled from O’ahu and traveled to the Big Island, bringing with them their knowledge of irrigation. They used their knowledge to develop irrigation in the valley of Waipi’o, but their works were soon destroyed by a flood
[3]
. Oral history more generally states that irrigation began to intensify c. 1390CE, the end of the age of voyaging
[4]
[1]: Kirch, P. V. 1985. Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pp. 223, 303. [2]: Kirch, P. V. 2000. On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pg. 295. [3]: Kirch, P. V. 2010. How Chiefs Became Kings: Divine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawai’i. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pg. 85. [4]: Kirch, P. V. 2010. How Chiefs Became Kings: Divine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawai’i. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pg. 92. |
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This was the period during which intensive irrigation began. It continued to be expanded and intensified into the historical period
[1]
. However, for environmental reasons, the Big Island did not have as extensive irrigation as the other islands in the Hawaiian archipelago
[2]
. According to oral history, two men from a chiefly lineage were exiled from O’ahu and traveled to the Big Island, bringing with them their knowledge of irrigation. They used their knowledge to develop irrigation in the valley of Waipi’o, but their works were soon destroyed by a flood
[3]
. Oral history more generally states that irrigation began to intensify c. 1390CE, the end of the age of voyaging
[4]
[1]: Kirch, P. V. 1985. Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pp. 223, 303. [2]: Kirch, P. V. 2000. On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pg. 295. [3]: Kirch, P. V. 2010. How Chiefs Became Kings: Divine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawai’i. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pg. 85. [4]: Kirch, P. V. 2010. How Chiefs Became Kings: Divine Kingship and the Rise of Archaic States in Ancient Hawai’i. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pg. 92. |
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“In order to increase peasant landownership, the government attacked the Mesta and large landowners, and reforestation plans and irrigation schemes inevitably overruled traditional uses of Spain’s natural resources at the local level.”(Philips and Philips 2010: 190) Philips, William D. and Carla Rahn Philips. 2010. A Concise History of Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ZT84ZFTP
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Irrigation canals played an essential role in the Soviet conquest of Central Asia in the 20th century. From the time of Lenin onwards, Soviet authorities invested significant human and material capital to dig new irrigation channels in Central Asia’s arid deserts.
[1]
[1]: Brite, Elizabeth Baker. “The Hydrosocial Empire: The Karakum River and the Soviet Conquest of Central Asia in the 20th Century.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 52 (December 1, 2018) Zotero link: 2WD5HEB4 |
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Common feature of Chinese agriculture from the Shang Dynasty onwards.
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’The Garos may be roughly divided into Hill Garos and Plains Garos, and both classes inhabit the district which owes its name to the tribe.’
[1]
The primary subsistence strategy of the hill country is slash-and-burn/dry cultivation, whereas wet cultivation is practiced in the plains. Wet cultivation was expanded in the post-independence period: ‘There would appear to be somewhat less mutuality in labor exchange in areas of intensive wet rice agriculture. Not only can land be loaned to others on a sharecropping basis, but agricultural labor can sometimes be hired, especially at transplanting and harvest, when the demands of labor are particularly heavy. Labor is also sometimes hired for house-building, a practice unknown in Rengsanggri. Even when labor is given without payment, it is more often calculated and paid back in closely equivalent amounts, and less often given freely, than in the more traditional areas. In some plains areas, unlike Rengsanggri, money is also loaned at interest. Perhaps the relatively diverse origins of the people of wet rice areas makes traditional free labor exchange more difficult. One cannot so easily rely on the ancient bonds of kinship to supply the help that may be needed.’
[2]
‘Hill farmers seem to have had little opposition to the clearing of some land for wet rice, even though this has meant that it could no longer be used for dry cultivation. In most villages the areas in which wet cultivation is possible are more or less limited, it never yet having occurred to a Garo that hillsides might be terraced; and the threat of alienation of the land has not yet seemed particularly serious. Strangers, and sometimes even non-Garos, have been allowed to settle and clear new land. At the present time the laws passed by the Garo Hills District Council in an effort to encourage wet rice cultivation provide that if local villagers do not take advantage of suitable land, others will have the right to convert it to paddy fields. In some cases new settlers have probably paid the nokma or even the a’king owners (title-holders) a fee to permit its use and alienation. Some might interpret this as a’wil, the fee that is traditionally paid to the a’king owner by non-villagers who wish to use dry fields, though ordinarily a’wil confers only a temporary right. Others might interpret it as purchase price for the land; or, finally, it might be considered a bribe, since no such purchase is recognized as legal by the government. However regarded, such a fee might help to smooth over any antagonism toward the new arrival, though in practice it appears that the villagers have often failed to appreciate the value of potential paddy land and have let it go with little or no opposition.’
[3]
The code reflects dry rather than wet cultivation.
[1]: Playfair, Alan 1909. “Garos”, 4 [2]: Burling, Robbins 1963. “Rengsanggri: Family And Kinship In A Garo Village”, 310 [3]: Burling, Robbins 1963. “Rengsanggri: Family And Kinship In A Garo Village”, 304 |
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“The reign of Dhātusena (455-73) matched, if it did not surpass the achievements of Mahāsena and Vasabha in the extension of the island’s irrigation network. He is said to have added t the irrigation works in the Mahaväli region by building a dam across that river. But the main focus of attention in irrigation activity during his reign seems to have been the development of water resources in the western part of the dry zone. By far the most impressive achievement by this period is the construction of Kalāväva, which trapped the Kalā-Oya and helped to supplement the supply of water to Anurādhapura and the area round the city. […] By the end of the fifth century two major irrigation complexes had been developed, one based on the Mahaväli and its tributaries, and the other on the Malvatu-Oya and Kalā-Oya. These were elaborated further in subsequent centuries. The two cities Anurādhapura and Polonnaruva located here were vital centres of cultural activity and these contained the most impressive monuments of Sinhalese civilization. Anurādhapura was much larger of the two, and necessarily so, for during the first ten centuries of the Christian era it was, with brief interludes, the capital of the island.”
[1]
[1]: (De Silva1981, 30--31) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection |
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Unknown. During the Shang (exact period not mentioned): "Progress in hydraulic technology allowed the creation of great systems of irrigation, increasing the productivity of cultures along the Yellow river."
[1]
Any "progress" before the Shang?
[1]: (Lemoy 2011, 72) Lemoy, Christian. 2011. Across the Pacific: From Ancient Asia to Precolombian America. Universal Publishers. Florida. |
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The Hunnites were nomadic pastoralists and so would not have set up permanent water supply systems.
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Irrigation systems have not been mentioned in the sources consulted
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There has been no discussion of irrigation systems in the sources consulted.
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Menes began construction of basins to retain flood waters, dug canals and irrigation ditches to reclaim marshland.
[1]
"By the Early Dynastic Period, simple basin irrigation may have been practised, thus extending the amount of land under cultivation and producing increased yields."
[2]
[1]: (Angelakis et al. 2012, 128-130) [2]: (Bard 2000, 65) |
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Irrigation was a local responsibility throughout the Pharaonic period. Central authority primarily concerned with taxation. However, central government was responsible for national projects like land reclamation and irrigation of new areas in Fayyum and Delta. Techniques employed included extension of canal network for the control of flood waters, and the human powered shaduf system.
[1]
[1]: (Nicholson and Shaw 2000, 515) |
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Present in Ramesside period.
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Coded as present for primitive irrigation systems on Beaker Culture.
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"In the Mediterranean area, transhumance was very important, but in other areas, such as Central Europe, Great Britain, and the Southeast of the Iberian peninsula, production was based on intensive agriculture, thanks to the generalization of some innovations such as the plow, the carts drawn by animals, and a primitive system of irrigation."
[1]
[1]: (Clop Garcia in Peregrine and Ember 2001, 26) |
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although there were some private initiatives
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Bishops dug irrigation canals.
[1]
The king was Christian and many bishops owed their position to the king. If bishops dug irrigation canals then they are partly working on behalf of the king.
[1]: (http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/thierry-the-historical-essays-and-narratives-of-the-merovingian-era) |
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"Yet by his generally mild policies Imam Quli Khan acquired a considerable reputation for bringing peace to Transoxania. He had irrigation canals broadened and repaired, and undertook a number of other projects which helped to revive agriculture in some parts of the Bukhara khanate."
[1]
[1]: (Mukminova 2003, 49) |
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There are no archaeological data. Irrigation systems thought existed both in Byzantine and Islamic world.
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It is a commonplace that ancient Israel depended primarily on rainwater for its agriculture, in contrast to Egypt and Mesopotamia. No evidence for large-scale irrigation systems has been found; however, that does not make smaller systems impossible.
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"Though rains were the main source of irrigation, government also constructed canals from rivers, tanks and wells to take water to distant fields. [...] All these artificial means of irrigation were adopted by the state to improve agriculture. Considering the importance of irrigation, the State spent much money and imposed heavy fines and punishment on those who caused damage to them."
[1]
[1]: (Khosla 1982, 64) Sarla Khosla. 1982. Gupta Civilization. New Delhi: Intellectual Press. |
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already established structure in the region
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Irrigation canals.
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"the early settlers of the Susiana plain chose to settle on top of a low natural hill surrounded by shallow marshes at an elevation where dry farming was possible. Even today, when the region is much drier than it was in early Neolithic times, dry agriculture is still practiced as supplement."
[1]
[1]: (Alizadeh 2009, Encyclopedia Iranica Online, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/coga-bonut-archaeological-site) |
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"Ruins of reservoirs have been discovered along with water intakes, spillways and outlets and even the sewerage systems dating as far back as the Pre-Archaemenid and Assyrian (1500-600 BC) periods."
[1]
"Other major administrative achievements of the Elamites included ... the development and management of a gigantic system of underground canals (Qanat) for irrigation"
[2]
[1]: (Mahmoudian and Mahmoudian 2012, 97) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012.Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. [2]: (Farazmand 2009, 22) Farazmand, Ali. 2009. Bureaucracy and Administration. CRC Press. Boca Raton. |
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"the Sumerian civilisation which flourished before 3500 BC. This was an advanced civilisation building cities and supporting the people with irrigation systems, a legal system, administration, and even a postal service. Writing developed and counting was based on a sexagesimal system, that is to say base 60."
[1]
[1]: J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html |
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For irrigation systems, particularly North Africa, read Andrew Wilson.
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"It is clear that cultivation did appear in the Jomon period, but it is equally clear that it remained a minor activity that did not contribute significantly to the growth of social complexity (Rowley-Conwy 2002:62). In fact, Hudson (1997) has that the of full-scale rejection agriculture was one characteristic shared by argued Jomon societies."
[1]
.
[1]: (Pearson 2007, 363) |
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They existed in previous period, but sources do not say whether they still did at this time. Frequent warfare likely caused major disruptions, so continuity with preceding periods is more difficult to infer.
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’Recent work at Angkor by the EFEO and the Greater Angkor Project has mapped a vast water management network extending across approximately 1000 sq km. From the new map an outline can be provide of the development of the network between the 8th-9th and the 14th centuries. Each large extension of the network tapped water from a succession of natural rivers flowing from NE to SW. Each river was further north and was tapped further to the west. The network had five major components - E-W embankments that trapped water flowing from the north and northeast; N-S channels that eventually delivered water to large reservoirs (baray); the baray and the large temple moats; embankments and channels oriented from NW to SE that could distribute water back from west to east across the slope of the land; and channels oriented towards the southwest which could dispose of water rapidly to the lake, the Tonle Sap. Significantly the later major channels, such as the Angkor Wat canal and the canal that pre-dated the current Siem Reap river, were drains that served to dispose of water into the lake.’
[1]
’[T]he Khmer practised water management on a scale dwarfing that of the Maya and most other regions of the world. Angkor’s surrounds were converted into an artificial landscape criss-crossed with canals, embankments, reservoirs, dams and other massive engineering works to redirect river flows, store water for the dry season and avert floods by disposing of excess water during monsoons. The Khmer struggled for centuries to maintain their hydraulic landscape until it became overwhelmed by climate change, producing floods that broke embankments and canals filled with sediments from eroded terrains’
[2]
[3]
‘Retention and storage of surplus water during the rainy and flood seasons for use during the rest of the year was, along with the buildings of religious monuments, the major preoccupation of Khmer engineers throughout the long history of the empire.’
[4]
’Aside from the destructive effects of recurrent wars, Khmer kings constructively made it a priority to build reservoirs and canals, all necessary for collective irrigation. Some kings built rest houses along roads; others built hospitals.’
[5]
’Tikal featured constructed reservoirs in the centre among the main monuments and around the periphery of the central area that could hold about 568,000 m^3 of water at one time and more than 900,000 m^3 during the course of a year (Scarborough and Galloping 1991:661). By contrast, the West Baray at Angkor could hold more than 50 million m^3 of water at one time and covered 16 km^2 (Fletcher et al. 2008).’
[6]
’Pre-Angkor inscriptions refer to donations of rice field workers to temples, but not to irrigation. Thus agriculture was probably depen- dent on trapping floodwater or rainfall. Another possibility in certain areas around the Great Lake was a system of natural pumping created by raising the level of groundwater through creating a unique, com- plex system arising from local ecology. This might have been the rea- son for the construction of the large baray of the Angkor period. Early Cambodian water retention systems may have consisted of earthen dams open on one side, in a system similar to that of Java. Inscriptions contain no references to plowing, but do mention water buffalo and use of a yoke.’
[7]
[1]: (Fletcher et al. 2008, p. 57) [2]: (Diamond 2009, p.480). [3]: (Fletcher et al 2008, 658) [4]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.22) [5]: (Mannikka 1996, p.4) [6]: (Fletcher 2012, p.300) [7]: (Miksic 2007, p. 81) |
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’Recent work at Angkor by the EFEO and the Greater Angkor Project has mapped a vast water management network extending across approximately 1000 sq km. From the new map an outline can be provide of the development of the network between the 8th-9th and the 14th centuries. Each large extension of the network tapped water from a succession of natural rivers flowing from NE to SW. Each river was further north and was tapped further to the west. The network had five major components - E-W embankments that trapped water flowing from the north and northeast; N-S channels that eventually delivered water to large reservoirs (baray); the baray and the large temple moats; embankments and channels oriented from NW to SE that could distribute water back from west to east across the slope of the land; and channels oriented towards the southwest which could dispose of water rapidly to the lake, the Tonle Sap. Significantly the later major channels, such as the Angkor Wat canal and the canal that pre-dated the current Siem Reap river, were drains that served to dispose of water into the lake.’
[1]
:’[T]he Khmer practised water management on a scale dwarfing that of the Maya and most other regions of the world. Angkor’s surrounds were converted into an artificial landscape criss-crossed with canals, embankments, reservoirs, dams and other massive engineering works to redirect river flows, store water for the dry season and avert floods by disposing of excess water during monsoons. The Khmer struggled for centuries to maintain their hydraulic landscape until it became overwhelmed by climate change, producing floods that broke embankments and canals filled with sediments from eroded terrains’
[2]
[3]
‘Retention and storage of surplus water during the rainy and flood seasons for use during the rest of the year was, along with the buildings of religious monuments, the major preoccupation of Khmer engineers throughout the long history of the empire.’
[4]
’Aside from the destructive effects of recurrent wars, Khmer kings constructively made it a priority to build reservoirs and canals, all necessary for collective irrigation. Some kings built rest houses along roads; others built hospitals.’
[5]
’Tikal featured constructed reservoirs in the centre among the main monuments and around the periphery of the central area that could hold about 568,000 m^3 of water at one time and more than 900,000 m^3 during the course of a year (Scarborough and Galloping 1991:661). By contrast, the West Baray at Angkor could hold more than 50 million m^3 of water at one time and covered 16 km^2 (Fletcher et al. 2008).’
[6]
’Not only did the productivity of marginal lands therefore begin to fall, but the complex of transport canals and agricultural waterworks on which Angkor’s economy rested became clogged.’
[7]
[1]: (Fletcher et al. 2008, p. 57) [2]: (Diamond 2009, p.480). [3]: (Fletcher et al 2008, 658) [4]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.22) [5]: (Mannikka 1996, p.4) [6]: (Fletcher 2012, p.300) [7]: (Lieberman 2003, p. 239) |
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’There is evidence that the major step during the Funan period toward the integration of the small, dry-rice-growing and root-cultivating principalities, whose people worshipped Siva, with hunting and gathering societies inland from Oc-Eco was the introduction, perhaps as late as 500, of systematic irrigation; drainage probably came earlier.’
[1]
The latest archaeological survey work by Evans using LiDAR attests to the large extent of irrigation systems from the fifth century onward
[2]
[1]: (Chandler 2008, p. 21) [2]: (Evans 2016) |
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Not mentioned in sources.
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No extensive agriculture at this time.
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"In northwestern Mongolia irrigation systems existed with channels and even simple aqueducts made of hollow logs (onggocha/ongots). Many of these irrigation systems were ancient, dating back to the military farms created under the Mongol Empire (see CHINQAI; QARA-QORUM; SIBERIA AND THE MON- GOL EMPIRE)."
[1]
[1]: (Atwood 2004, 175) |
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Canals.
[1]
Gary Feinman (pers. comm.) writes that small-scale irrigation, such as check-dams and small canals were in use.
[2]
[1]: Kirkby, A. (1973). "The use of land and water resources in past and present Valley of Oaxaca. Museum of Anthropology, Memoirs No. 5." Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan. [2]: (Feinman, Gary. Personal Communication with Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. Email. April 2020) |
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No information found in relevant literature.
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||||||
|
It is assumed here that relevant structures continued to be privately managed.
|
||||||
|
Evidence for irrigation technology does not appear to predate the Chalcolithic
[1]
[1]: (Akhund and Haroon 1995: XII) Hameed Akhun and Hameed Haroon. 1995. ’Preface’ in Mehrgarh, edited by Catherine Jarrige, Jean-Francois Jarrige, Richard H. Meadow, and Gonzague Quivron. Karachi: Dept. of Culture and Tourism, Govt. of Sindh ; in collaboration with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |
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|
The wealth of the Greeks and the number of cities were based on extensive irrigation and a wetter climate. These were based on the maintenance of Persian networks and expansion under the Greeks.
[1]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. pp. 101-105 |
||||||
|
"[T]here is no evidence from the Indus period either of large-scale irrigation or of salinization there: The annual river floods and limited rainfall seem to have been adequate to support agriculture in the plains."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2008, 24) Jane McIntosh. 2008. The Ancient Indus Valley. Santa Barbara; Denver; Oxford: ABC-CLIO. |
||||||
|
System is known from cuneiform texts, but has not been yet unearthened during excavations.
|
||||||
|
inferred continuity with earlier periods in the region
|
||||||
|
inferred present from territory held
|
||||||
|
inferred present from territory held
|
||||||
|
Irrigation systems present from earlier periods (e.g. in Egypt) and maintained during Roman Dominate.
|
||||||
|
Present in Central Asia from about 800 BCE - 1200 CE: "the major Central Asian hydraulic systems appear to have been maintained with few serious interruptions for over two millenniums, extending down to the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century."
[1]
[1]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. |
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|
"Muslim dynasties followed each other including the Rasulids ... when Yemen excelled in the arts and sciences. However, millennia of deforestation and irrigation of crops had subjected the fertile lands to erosion and salinization."
[1]
"Agriculture flourished: special officials supervised irrigation and one of the princes even wrote a scientific treatise on the culture of cereals."
[2]
[1]: (Stanton 2003, 159) William Stanton. 2003. The Rapid Growth of Human Populations, 1750-2000: Histories, Consequences, Issues, Nation by Nation. Multi-Science Publishing. [2]: (Bidwell 1983, 14) Robin Leonard Bidwell. 1983. The Two Yemens. Longman. |
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|
Taxes were used to maintain a vital irrigation network in the southern part of Afganistan. Furthermore, existing networks of irrigation were present in conquered areas.
[1]
[1]: Noelle, Christine. State and Tribe in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan, 1826-1863. Psychology Press, 1997. |
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|
The wealth of the greeks and the number of cities were based on extensive irrigation and a wetter climate. These were based on the maintenance of Persian networks and expansion under the greeks.
[1]
[1]: Tarn, William Woodthorpe. The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press, 2010. pp. 101-105 |
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|
Hephthalites were nomadic but this did not preclude them from using specialized buildings of settled people such as mints. They may also have had some interest in the irrigation systems present in the regions they conquered, if only for purposes of tribute.
|
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|
During the Kushan period irrigation canals were constructed on large scale: "As a result of the extensive development of irrigation networks, practically all the main provinces of Central Asia were brought under cultivation during this period and the establishment of the major crop-growing oases was completed."
[1]
At least some of the irrigation infrastructure would have been maintained into the Kidarite period.
[1]: (Mukhamedjanov 1994, 257) Mukhamedjanov, A R in Harmatta J, Puri B N and Etemadi G F eds. 1994. History of civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. UNESCO. |
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|
Irrigation around the Euphrates and Tigris rivers provided sustainable means of agriculture for thousands of years.
[1]
It has also been suggested, that a complex irrigation system would have been necessary if the hanging gardens of Babylon (thought to have been built by Nebuchadrezzar) existed.
[2]
[1]: Mori, L. 2009. Land and Land Use: the Middle Euphrates Valley. In Leick, G. (ed.) The Babylonian World. London: Routledge. p.41-42 [2]: Baker, H.D. 2012. The Neo-Babylonian Empire. In Potts, D.T. (ed.) A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Volume II. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. p.916 |
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|
Irrigation canals were constructed on large scale. "As a result of the extensive development of irrigation networks, practically all the main provinces of Central Asia were brought under cultivation during this period and the establishment of the major crop-growing oases was completed."
[1]
"In the K’ang-chü-Kushan period, when irrigation systems reached their highest level of development, the area under irrigation along the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya totalled 35,000-38,000 km2 (13,000 km2 on the lower Amu Darya and 22,000-25,000 km2 on the lower Syr Darya). Thus, in antiquity, the land area under irrigation along the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya was four times greater than it is today. ... not more than 10-15 per cent of the land area, the irrigation zone, was directly used for crop-raising, in spite of the substantial supply of water."
[2]
"The process of carrying water to the fields was improved and various water distribution devices were introduced. Irrigation was effected in accordance with a specific flow pattern: main river, head, main canal, distribution canal, irrigation canal and fields."
[3]
"The major achievements of Kushan irrigation engineering included the boring of tunnel-like water-intake channels at the heads of main canals that emerged from the sheer rock sides of a mountain river, and the construction of aqueducts across ravines or gaps in mountain ridges."
[4]
[1]: (Mukhamedjanov 1994, 257) Mukhamedjanov, A R in Harmatta J, Puri B N and Etemadi G F eds. 1994. History of civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. UNESCO. [2]: (Mukhamedjanov 1994, 261) Mukhamedjanov, A R in Harmatta J, Puri B N and Etemadi G F eds. 1994. History of civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. UNESCO. [3]: (Mukhamedjanov 1994, 260-261) Mukhamedjanov, A R. Economy and Social System in Central Asia in the Kushan Age. in Harmatta J, Puri B N and Etemadi G F eds. 1994. History of civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. UNESCO. [4]: (Mukhamedjanov 1994, 262-263) Mukhamedjanov, A R in Harmatta J, Puri B N and Etemadi G F eds. 1994. History of civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. UNESCO. |
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|
In the Khwarazm region.
[1]
"In Sogdiana, as in Bactria, only irrigated oases were fertile, "but a large part of this territory consists of uninhabited desert; owing to its aridity these cheerless regions are without inhabitants and produce nothing".1 Large settlements provided with walls (the site at Afrasiyab = Maracanda, and the Kyuzeligyr site in Chorasmia), apparently lacked continuous built-up areas and were (like the "cliffs" mentioned in connection with Alexander’s campaigns) places of refuge for the whole population of an oasis (comparable to the refugia of the European "barbarians") rather than towns. Only about the beginning of theChristian era and in the first centuries of it do archaeological data give evidence of the appearance of trunk-canals of great length for irrigation purposes, and the rise of urban life in the full sense of the word."
[2]
[1]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. [2]: (Zeimal 1983, 244) |
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|
During the Shang (exact period not mentioned): "Progress in hydraulic technology allowed the creation of great systems of irrigation, increasing the productivity of cultures along the Yellow river."
[1]
Since the source did mention three periods just before this quote and no period is assigned to this data one may infer that it implies a development that encompassed all periods, including the Erligang.
[1]: (Lemoy 2011, 72) Lemoy, Christian. 2011. Across the Pacific: From Ancient Asia to Precolombian America. Universal Publishers. Florida. |
||||||
|
This is unclear for the sources reviewed for this time period. The sources reviewed so far do not describe any publicly managed irrigation systems.
|
||||||
|
The sources reviewed so far do not describe any publicly managed irrigation systems.
|
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|
According to Ethnographic Atlas variable 28 ’Intensity of Agriculture’, the Hmong practice ’Intensive irrigated agriculture (J.)’ Agricultural technologies and practices varied depending on the prevalence of dry swidden versus wet rice cultivation: ’Economic strategies vary. The Hua Miao were shifting-swidden agriculturalists, growing buckwheat, oats, corn, potatoes, and hemp, and using a simple wooden hand plow or hoe. Sheep and goats were fed on nearby pasture land. Additionally the Hua Miao hunted with crossbow and poisoned arrows and gathered foodstuffs in the forests. In parts of Guizhou, the Miao more closely resembled their Han neighbors in their economic strategies as well as in their technology (the bullock-drawn plow, harrowing, use of animal and human wastes as fertilizer). The Cowrie Shell Miao in central Guizhou were settled farmers growing rice in flooded fields, and also raising millet, wheat, beans, vegetables, and tobacco. Their livestock was limited to barnyard pigs and poultry, with hunting and gathering playing a very minor role. Some of the Black Miao in southeast Guizhou combine intensive irrigated terrace farming of rice with dry-field upland cropping.’
[1]
Wet rice cultivators farmed irrigated fields: ’In the region where the rivers flow down, the hills are less steep than in the plateau area. Both sides of the rivers can be made into terraced fields, and the water from the rivers used for irrigation. Further, the rivers are navigable by small craft, thus making communication relatively easier, and the Chinese have migrated here.’
[2]
’Besides the yü fields the Miao also plant plots of land which can be flooded for growing rice. Rice grown in flooded fields is transplanted in April and May and is harvested in August and September. The Miao area is very mountainous and there are very few level areas for rice fields. They are found in small number only in the small basins in the mountains and along the banks of streams and rivers (Illus. 27), the rest being terraced fields (Illus. 28, 29). The land of the basins in the mountains are mainly irrigated by leading water from springs fed by mountain streams. Water wheels (Illus. 30) are used for irrigation in the terraced fields along the streams.’
[3]
As indicated above, we have decided to code for the A-Hmao, who were swidden cultivators. We have assumed that swidden farming was practiced without irrigation systems.
[1]: Diamond, Norma: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Miao [2]: Ling, Shun-sheng, Yifu Ruey, and Lien-en Tsao 1947. “Report On An Investigation Of The Miao Of Western Hunan”, 53 [3]: Ling, Shun-sheng, Yifu Ruey, and Lien-en Tsao 1947. “Report On An Investigation Of The Miao Of Western Hunan”, 81 |
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|
The Shuar did not practice irrigation, and instead relied on proximity to minor freshwater tributaries: ’The Indians like to dwell in the vicinity of rivers. Once they have found a suitable spot, they start by clearing out a lot. [51] Such clearing is necessary everywhere, for there is no territory without forest. On the clearing a temporary hut is built out of the timber which the clearing process had yielded. More trees are then cut down to obtain a larger area for the fields where they plant Yucca, corn, cotton, bananas, and maní. This field is as a rule somewhat removed from the house and in the middle of the forest. I have not been able to find out the reason for this. They do it perhaps because there is no suitable land close to the river, where the huts are set up, or for some other reason. As they go along, they collect the material for their permanent home. The erection of the permanent dwelling is a slow process, and occasionally it may take several years before it is ready since they work on it only seldom and with long interruptions.’
[1]
’“In describing my journeys among the Jibaro Indians I had occasion to mention repeatedly that the savage Jibaros never settle on the banks of the main rivers, but prefer to make their houses beside small affluents in the interior of the country. The reason for this is obvious: it is due to their constant fear of hostile attacks. By hiding themselves in the forests in the way they do, they not only avoid the whites, who now and then travel along the main rivers, but they are also better protected against hostile Indian tribes. The Jibaro houses are also largely constructed with a view to keeping off uninvited guests; in fact, nearly every house is a sort of fortress, as will be shown in greater detail in the part dealing with the warfare of the Indians.”’
[2]
[1]: Brüning, Hans H. 1928. “Travelling In The Aguaruna Region”, 50p [2]: Karsten, Rafael 1935. “Head-Hunters Of Western Amazonas: The Life And Culture Of The Jibaro Indians Of Eastern Ecuador And Peru", 94 |
||||||
|
According to Ethnographic Atlas variable 28 ’Intensity of Agriculture’, the Hmong practice ’Intensive irrigated agriculture (J.)’ Agricultural technologies and practices varied depending on the prevalence of dry swidden versus wet rice cultivation: ’Economic strategies vary. The Hua Miao were shifting-swidden agriculturalists, growing buckwheat, oats, corn, potatoes, and hemp, and using a simple wooden hand plow or hoe. Sheep and goats were fed on nearby pasture land. Additionally the Hua Miao hunted with crossbow and poisoned arrows and gathered foodstuffs in the forests. In parts of Guizhou, the Miao more closely resembled their Han neighbors in their economic strategies as well as in their technology (the bullock-drawn plow, harrowing, use of animal and human wastes as fertilizer). The Cowrie Shell Miao in central Guizhou were settled farmers growing rice in flooded fields, and also raising millet, wheat, beans, vegetables, and tobacco. Their livestock was limited to barnyard pigs and poultry, with hunting and gathering playing a very minor role. Some of the Black Miao in southeast Guizhou combine intensive irrigated terrace farming of rice with dry-field upland cropping.’
[1]
Many Hmong groups practice wet rice terrace irrigation and used the horse-driven wooden water-wheel. Others were swidden agriculturalists who did not have irrigation.
[2]
[3]
[1]: Diamond, Norma: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Miao [2]: Ling, Shun-sheng, Yifu Ruey, and Lien-en Tsao 1947. “Report On An Investigation Of The Miao Of Western Hunan”, 53, 81 [3]: Nurettin Celmeoglu. 2011. The Historical Anthroscape of Adana and the Fertile Lands. Selim Kapur. Hari Eswaran. W.E.H. Blum eds. 2011. Sustainable Land Management. Learning from the Past for the Future. Springer-Verlag. Berlin. pp. 262-263. |
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|
[1]
[2]
the Qing regime extended irrigation infrastructure into new areas, and the long- or short-term community enterprises like irrigation systems and other various civil construction projects offered sources of income through their management.
[3]
[1]: (Yi 2011, 45-52) [2]: (Zhang 2011, 286-292) [3]: (Rowe 2010, p.55, 113) |
||||||
|
During the Shang: "Progress in hydraulic technology allowed the creation of great systems of irrigation, increasing the productivity of cultures along the Yellow river."
[1]
[1]: (Lemoy 2011, 72) Lemoy, Christian. 2011. Across the Pacific: From Ancient Asia to Precolombian America. Universal Publishers. Florida. |
||||||
|
"Besides the more well-known extensive irrigation works and man-made transport canals linking up the major rivers, the provision of water supplies to its cities formed the third important element of China’s ancient water civilization."
[1]
[1]: (Du and Koenig 2012, 169) Du, P and Koenig, A. in Angelakis, Andreas Niklaos. Mays, Larry W. Koutsoyiannis, Demetris. 2012. Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. |
||||||
|
"Besides the more well-known extensive irrigation works and man-made transport canals linking up the major rivers, the provision of water supplies to its cities formed the third important element of China’s ancient water civilization."
[1]
[1]: (Du and Koenig 2012, 169) Du, P and Koenig, A. in Angelakis, Andreas Niklaos. Mays, Larry W. Koutsoyiannis, Demetris. 2012. Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. |
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|
Irrigation known in this period: "The oldest known hydraulic engineers of China were Sunshu Ao (6th century BCE) of the Spring and Autumn Period and Ximen Bao (5th century BCE) of the Warring States period, both of whom worked on large irrigation projects."
[1]
"Around 430 B.C., the first known large-scale irrigation project was built on the North China Plain (near present-day Hebei Province) to channel water from the Yellow River to nearby fields."
[2]
[1]: (Henkel 2015, 87) Henkel, Marlon. 2015. 21st Century Homestead: Sustainable Agriculture III: Agricultural Practices. Lulu.com. [2]: (Karplus and Deng 2007, 10) Karplus, Valerie J. Deng, Xing Wang. 2007. Agricultural Biotechnology in China: Origins and Prospects. Springer Science & Business Media. |
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|
"The presence of irrigation canals along the coast and garden terraces in the mountain indicates that the Tairona cultivated the land intensively; areas beside the sea were exploited seasonally for salt, and in places where ecological factors dictated low yields of fish, agriculture could be intensified."
[1]
"covered canals" are mentioned in Pueblito. "This situation changed dramatically at some point between A.D. 1100 and A.D. 1200 as terraces in the central area are raised rather rapidly, their areas extended by way of masonry retaining walls and stone foundation rings are set in place. It is also at this point in time that the Eastern Plaza is built and acquires the form we see today; the large ceremonial/feasting ring is set into place, the covered canal is built, and the residences located towards the eastern side of the plaza are dismantled and the level raised at least 1 meter."
[2]
[1]: (Oyuela-Caycedo 2008, 423) [2]: (Giraldo 2010, 207) |
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|
Commercialization of rural hinterland began 1050-1100 CE. "This was the date of similar signs of agrarian development in eastern Lombardy, too, the hinterlands of Bergamo, Brescia, and Cremona. Here, François Menant points to the late eleventh and twelfth centuries as the moment of take-off for systematic irrigation, the development of vineyards on cleared land, the development of transhumant pastoralism, and, later in the twelfth century in the Cremonese, linen."
[1]
[1]: (Wickham 2015, 107-108) Wickham, C. 2015. Medieval Rome: Stability and Crisis of a City, 900-1150. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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|
The Shuar did not practice irrigation, and instead relied on proximity to minor freshwater tributaries: ’The Indians like to dwell in the vicinity of rivers. Once they have found a suitable spot, they start by clearing out a lot. [51] Such clearing is necessary everywhere, for there is no territory without forest. On the clearing a temporary hut is built out of the timber which the clearing process had yielded. More trees are then cut down to obtain a larger area for the fields where they plant Yucca, corn, cotton, bananas, and maní. This field is as a rule somewhat removed from the house and in the middle of the forest. I have not been able to find out the reason for this. They do it perhaps because there is no suitable land close to the river, where the huts are set up, or for some other reason. As they go along, they collect the material for their permanent home. The erection of the permanent dwelling is a slow process, and occasionally it may take several years before it is ready since they work on it only seldom and with long interruptions.’
[1]
’“In describing my journeys among the Jibaro Indians I had occasion to mention repeatedly that the savage Jibaros never settle on the banks of the main rivers, but prefer to make their houses beside small affluents in the interior of the country. The reason for this is obvious: it is due to their constant fear of hostile attacks. By hiding themselves in the forests in the way they do, they not only avoid the whites, who now and then travel along the main rivers, but they are also better protected against hostile Indian tribes. The Jibaro houses are also largely constructed with a view to keeping off uninvited guests; in fact, nearly every house is a sort of fortress, as will be shown in greater detail in the part dealing with the warfare of the Indians.”’
[2]
[1]: Brüning, Hans H. 1928. “Travelling In The Aguaruna Region”, 50p [2]: Karsten, Rafael 1935. “Head-Hunters Of Western Amazonas: The Life And Culture Of The Jibaro Indians Of Eastern Ecuador And Peru", 94 |
||||||
|
Irrigation improved under al-Kamil.
[1]
A multitude of public works were carried out under the supervision of Saladin’s eunuch Qaraqush, including a canal in Upper Egypt which is known Bahr Yusif, after Saladin’s second name, even though it had originally been dug by the Pharaohs and had silted up.
[2]
По приказанию Салах ад-Дина всего было сооружено 40 с половиной плотин и один канал.
[3]
[1]: (Oliver 1977, 35) [2]: (Marsot 1985, 22) [3]: (Семенова 1966, 87) |
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|
Menes began construction of basins to retain flood waters, dug canals and irrigation ditches to reclaim marshland.
[1]
"By the Early Dynastic Period, simple basin irrigation may have been practised, thus extending the amount of land under cultivation and producing increased yields."
[2]
[1]: (Angelakis et al. 2012, 128-130) [2]: (Bard 2000, 65) |
||||||
|
Sesostris II (1897-1878 BCE) irrigation and land reclamation in Fayyum. Project completed under Amenemhet III (1842-1797 BCE).
[1]
Evidence of major public projects in Kush so Egyptians could colonise region.
[2]
Middle Kingdom irrigation systems were pre-shaduf. Shaduf introduced middle second millennium BCE
[3]
, which would be around start of the New Kingdom. "the irrigation regime, which lay at the root of the economy, was based on a system with basins or basin chains, i.e. smaller or larger areas within which collaboration is a precondition for successful agriculture."
[4]
[1]: (Stearns 2001, 30) [2]: (Angelakis et al. 2012, 132) [3]: (Juan Carlos Moreno García, Recent Developments in the Social and Economic History of Ancient Egypt, 14) [4]: (Willems 2013, 352) |
||||||
|
"There is no field evidence of irrigation during the Gerzean as suggested by Krzyzaniak (1977), but some of the design motifs on Gerzean pots may be interpreted as canals."
[1]
The inhabitants of the Nile Valley were dependent on agriculture by c3800 BCE and "It has been noticed that in the end of Naqada I period, the climate became drier and Nile floods were declining. The fields could not be longer irrigated naturally.
[2]
[1]: (Hassan 1988, 156) [2]: Perez-Largacha, A. "Chiefs and Protodynastic Egypt. A hydraulic relation ?". Archéo-Nil 5 (1995): 80-81. |
||||||
|
"It is clear that cultivation did appear in the Jomon period, but it is equally clear that it remained a minor activity that did not contribute significantly to the growth of social complexity (Rowley-Conwy 2002:62). In fact, Hudson (1997) has that the of full-scale rejection agriculture was one characteristic shared by argued Jomon societies."
[1]
.
[1]: (Pearson 2007, 363) |
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|
irrigation canals or dams. a dam would also count as a water source infrastructure for agricultural use. "There is no field evidence of irrigation during the Gerzean as suggested by Krzyzaniak (1977), but some of the design motifs on Gerzean pots may be interpreted as canals."
[1]
However, the inhabitants of the Nile Valley were dependent on agriculture by c3800 BCE and "It has been noticed that in the end of Naqada I period, the climate became drier and Nile floods were declining. The fields could not be longer irrigated naturally
[2]
- does this suggest irrigation systems appear as a response to climate change, when the "natural irrigation" (known before the Naqada II period) no longer became as effective? The closest and earliest evidence we have for digging associated with irrigation is the ceremonial inauguration of a waterwork on the macehead of the Scorpion King, which shows two workmen with hoes excavating while the king wields a large hoe and a man holding a basket anticipates the king’s action. The scene may represent not the digging of a canal but rather the ceremonial breaking of a dam to let floodwater flow into a natural irrigation basin, an act which was traditional in later times.
[1]
The iconographical interpretation of the mace-head of the Skorpion raises a lot of controversy and it is said that it could either be the canal building in a particular place (possibly Memphis), and not appearance of the irrigation system in general - or, there are also interpretations which are far from the canal digging.
[3]
[1]: (Hassan 1988, 156) [2]: Perez-Largacha, A. "Chiefs and Protodynastic Egypt. A hydraulic relation ?". Archéo-Nil 5 (1995): 80-81. [3]: Ciałowicz, K. M. 1999. Początki cywilizacji egipskiej. Warszawa-Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. pg: 338-339. |
||||||
|
Present in Central Asia from about 800 BCE - 1200 CE: "the major Central Asian hydraulic systems appear to have been maintained with few serious interruptions for over two millenniums, extending down to the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century."
[1]
[1]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. |
||||||
|
irrigation canals and/or dams "There is no field evidence of irrigation during the Gerzean as suggested by Krzyzaniak (1977), but some of the design motifs on Gerzean pots may be interpreted as canals."
[1]
However, the inhabitants of the Nile Valley were dependent on agriculture by c3800 BCE and "It has been noticed that in the end of Naqada I period, the climate became drier and Nile floods were declining. The fields could not be longer irrigated naturally
[2]
- does this suggest irrigation systems appear as a response to climate change, when the "natural irrigation" (known before the Naqada II period) no longer became as effective? The closest and earliest evidence we have for digging associated with irrigation is the ceremonial inauguration of a waterwork on the macehead of the Scorpion King, which shows two workmen with hoes excavating while the king wields a large hoe and a man holding a basket anticipates the king’s action. The scene may represent not the digging of a canal but rather the ceremonial breaking of a dam to let floodwater flow into a natural irrigation basin, an act which was traditional in later times.
[1]
The iconographical interpretation of the mace-head of the Skorpion raises a lot of controversy and it is said that it could either be the canal building in a particular place (possibly Memphis), and not appearance of the irrigation system in general - or, there are also interpretations which are far from the canal digging.
[3]
[1]: (Hassan 1988, 156) [2]: Perez-Largacha, A. "Chiefs and Protodynastic Egypt. A hydraulic relation ?". Archéo-Nil 5 (1995): 80-81. [3]: Ciałowicz, K. M. 1999. Początki cywilizacji egipskiej. Warszawa-Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. pg: 338-339. |
||||||
|
Irrigation was a local responsibility throughout the Pharaonic period. Central authority primarily concerned with taxation. However, central government was responsible for national projects like land reclamation and irrigation of new areas in Fayyum and Delta. Techniques employed included extension of canal network for the control of flood waters, and the human powered shaduf system.
[1]
Shaduf introduced middle second millennium BCE
[2]
, which would be around start of the New Kingdom.
[1]: (Nicholson and Shaw 2000, 515) [2]: (Juan Carlos Moreno García, Recent Developments in the Social and Economic History of Ancient Egypt, 14) |
||||||
|
Irrigation systems from Menes who began construction of basins to retain flood waters, dug canals and irrigation ditches to reclaim marshland. By 2500 BCE, a system of dikes, canals and sluices had been constructed. Irrigation system was communal.
[1]
[2]
[1]: (Angelakis et al. 2012, 128) [2]: (Angelakis et al. 2012, 130) |
||||||
|
Sluice gates used for irrigation.
[1]
"Vilanova de Castelló (Valencia) borrowed heavily over several generations between 1587 and 1645 to build and maintain an irrigation canal."
[2]
However, there was not systemic nationwide irrigation: "The positive plans (among many fantasies) advocated by the arbitristas included the drastic cutting of government expenditure, the reform of the tax system, the encouragement of immigration into Castile, systematic and extensive irrigation, protection of industry, improvement of transport, and, finally, the sharing of the cost of empire among the constituent kingdoms of the monarchy. These were reasonable proposals, not unlike those put forward by mercantilist writers in the rest of Europe who treated economic activity as a means of increasing the power of the state. But time would show that the Castilian ruling classes would be neither capable nor willing to act on them."
[3]
[1]: (Casey 2002, 32) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT [2]: (Casey 2002, 42) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT [3]: -- “Spain | Facts, Culture, History, & Points of Interest.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed May 4, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/place/Spain/Spain-in-1600. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/Q2FI5HX5 |
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|
"It is clear that cultivation did appear in the Jomon period, but it is equally clear that it remained a minor activity that did not contribute significantly to the growth of social complexity (Rowley-Conwy 2002:62). In fact, Hudson (1997) has that the of full-scale rejection agriculture was one characteristic shared by argued Jomon societies."
[1]
.
[1]: (Pearson 2007, 363) |
||||||
|
Aksum depended on highland agriculture.
[1]
"the heartland of the Aksumite state lay in an area with a strong agricultural resource base in cereals, other crops, and livestock."
[2]
"the peasants who used the irrigation and terraced agricultural land had to pay for it."
[3]
Aksum "had people with skills in tropical agriculture, as well as skills in terracing and irrigating desert land. Many farmers exploited the fertile foothills and valleys of Tigre and Amhara."
[3]
"The mountain slopes were terraced and irrigated by the water of mountain streams channelled into the fields."
[4]
"In the foot-hills and on the plains, cisterns and dams were constructed as reservoirs for rainwater and irrigation canals were dug."
[4]
[1]: (Hatke 2013) George Hatke. 2013. Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World). New York University Press. [2]: (Connah 2016, 147) Graham Connah. 2016. African Civilizations: An Archaeological Perspective. Third Edition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [3]: (Falola 2002, 60) Toyin Falola. 2002. Key Events in African History: A Reference Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. Westport. [4]: (Kobishanov 1981, 383) Y M. Kobishanov. Aksum: political system, economics and culture, first to fourth century. Muḥammad Jamal al-Din Mokhtar. ed. 1981. UNESCO General History of Africa. Volume II. Heinemann. UNESCO. California. |
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Traditionally, swidden farming was the norm: ’In the past, swidden gardens with dry taro, turmeric, and sugar cane were few and small. Breadfruit, supplemented by wet taro, was the staple. Being seasonal, breadfruit was preserved by fermenting in pits. Copra has become the only export. Fishing was important.’
[1]
[1]: Goodenough, Ward and Skoggard 1999) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5IETI75E. |
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|
Traditionally, swidden farming was the norm: ’In the past, swidden gardens with dry taro, turmeric, and sugar cane were few and small. Breadfruit, supplemented by wet taro, was the staple. Being seasonal, breadfruit was preserved by fermenting in pits. Copra has become the only export. Fishing was important.’
[1]
The following seems to suggest that plantations were more common on other islands: ’Some of the more capable and ambitious students eventually came to recognize these advantages of a Japanese education for themselves. In addition, some of the more adventurous boys in the higher elementary school cherished the hope of getting to visit distant places by their school work. They hoped good studying might lead to their acceptance in the Carpentry School at Palau, or to a job as labor foreman in a mine or plantation on some far island.’
[2]
[1]: Goodenough, Ward H. and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Chuuk [2]: Fischer, John L. 1961. “Japanese Schools For The Natives Of Truk, Caroline Islands”, 86 |
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previous code: inferred present | primitive irrigation system known from Beaker culture. "Silo" present during this time period. [1] Does this refer to food storage? Surplus production might also indicate irrigation systems. DH: is there evidence or reason to believe Beaker irrigation, if existed, remained? [1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#) |
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|
previous code: inferred present | primitive irrigation system known from Beaker culture. "Silo" present during this time period. [1] Does this refer to food storage? Surplus production might also indicate irrigation systems. [1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#) |
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|
previous code: inferred present | primitive irrigation system known from Beaker culture. "Silo" present during this time period. [1] Does this refer to food storage? Surplus production might also indicate irrigation systems. [1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#) |
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Bishops dug irrigation canals.
[1]
The king was Christian and many bishops owed their position to the king. If bishops dug irrigation canals then they are partly working on behalf of the king.
[1]: (http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/thierry-the-historical-essays-and-narratives-of-the-merovingian-era) |
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|
Bishops dug irrigation canals.
[1]
The king was Christian and many bishops owed their position to the king. If bishops dug irrigation canals then they are partly working on behalf of the king.
[1]: (http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/thierry-the-historical-essays-and-narratives-of-the-merovingian-era) |
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|
previous code: inferred present | primitive irrigation system known from Beaker culture. "Silo" present during this time period. [1] Does this refer to food storage? Surplus production might also indicate irrigation systems. DH: is there evidence or reason to believe Beaker irrigation, if existed, remained? [1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#) |
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|
previous code: inferred present | primitive irrigation system known from Beaker culture. "Silo" present during this time period. [1] Does this refer to food storage? Surplus production might also indicate irrigation systems. DH: is there evidence or reason to believe Beaker irrigation, if existed, remained? [1]: (http://www.chronocarto.ens.fr/gcserver/atlas#) |
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|
Irrigation infrastructure was extensive, including water-diversion walls for dryland agriculture
[1]
and pondfields for taro
[2]
. Irrigation was utilized in Kohala and Hāmākua valleys on the Big Island
[3]
. These irrigation systems were certainly “public” as only a chief commanded the labor necessary to construct such large works.
[1]: Kirch, P. V. 1985. Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pp. 171-5. [2]: Kirch, P. V. 1985. Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pg. 218. [3]: Kirch, P. V. 1985. Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pg. 220. |
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At the onset of the next period: "Like Sanjaya, initially the Sailendra leaders were rakrayan, or regional leaders, rulers of a watak that integrated village clusters (wanua) participating in a regional irrigation and/or otherwise networked society. As rakrayan, these earliest Sailendra rulers provided the political stability necessary to maintain the local irrigation and marketing networks, and through their patronage of Indic religion they constructed sacred cults to legitimize the regional integration of wanua into watak."
[1]
[1]: (Hall 2011, 123) |
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|
[1]
Majapahit rulers encouraged irrigation projects with tax incentives. They possessed a network of dams and irrigation canals.
[2]
[3]
[1]: (Miksic 2000, 116) [2]: (Kieven 2013, 100) Lydia Kieven. 2013. Following the Cap-Figure in Majapahit Temple Reliefs: A New Look at the Religious Function of East Javanese Temples, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. BRILL. Leiden. [3]: Kestity Pringgocharjono. Soewito Santoso trans. 2006. The Centhini Story. The Javanese Journey of Life. Marshall Cavendish Editions. Singapore. p. 39 |
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"As the emphasis on agriculture grew [during the Middle Bronze Age], hydraulic technologies were increasingly employed in order to boost production. Climactic conditions in areas such as the Huleh Valley were probably not sufficient for dry-farming, and feeding the growing population living in and around Hazor required the use of irrigation technology. Sealed, stone-built channels that diverted runoff water to exterior channels and moats were in use in cities such as Dan, Tel el-Ajjul, Tel Beit Mirsim, and Gezer. The stone-roofed canals found in the fields surrounding Hazor ran for several hundred meters in some instances."
[1]
[1]: Golden (2004:84). |
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|
"[I]t is clear that water retention techniques began to be practised in a variety of settings during the Iron Age [...]. In addition, the development of water management technology during this period generally coincided with the introduction of new cultigens - including rice cultivation - suggesting that water retaining features became increasingly important to agricultural production by the end of the first millennium BCE"
[1]
.
[1]: A. Bauer, K. Morrison, Water Management and Reservoirs in India and Sri Lanka, in H. Selin (ed), Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures (2008), pp. 2207-2214 |
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"The political and economic development in the post-Mauryan period progressed further under the Sadas, a regional dynasty which ruled the larger part of coastal Andhra for at least a century ... Although the historical evidence on this recently-found dynasty is still meagre, a few epigraphic records indicate the presence of a regular administrative structure indicated by titles such as an irrigation officer (?) (paniyagharika) and a scribe (lekhaka).
[1]
[1]: (Shimada 2012, 125) Shimada, Akira. 2012. Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 BCE-300 CE). BRILL. |
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e.g. cisterns
[1]
Firuz Shah Tughlaq "created the biggest network of canals known in pre-modern India"
[2]
[1]: Siddiqui, I. H. (1986). Water works and irrigation system in India during pre-Mughal times. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient/Journal de l’histoire economique et sociale de l’Orient, 52-77. [2]: (Ahmed 2011, 102) Ahmed, Farooqui Salma. 2011. A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century. Pearson Education India. |
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|
"Ruins of reservoirs have been discovered along with water intakes, spillways and outlets and even the sewerage systems dating as far back as the Pre-Archaemenid and Assyrian (1500-600 BC) periods."
[1]
Measures undertaken to improve irrigation, for example in Syria.
[2]
[1]: (Mahmoudian and Mahmoudian 2012, 97) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012.Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. [2]: (Radler 2014) |
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|
’The Garos may be roughly divided into Hill Garos and Plains Garos, and both classes inhabit the district which owes its name to the tribe.’
[1]
The primary subsistence strategy of the hill country was slash-and-burn/dry cultivation, whereas wet cultivation was practiced in the plains. Wet cultivation was only expanded in the post-independence period. ‘Hill farmers seem to have had little opposition to the clearing of some land for wet rice, even though this has meant that it could no longer be used for dry cultivation. In most villages the areas in which wet cultivation is possible are more or less limited, it never yet having occurred to a Garo that hillsides might be terraced; and the threat of alienation of the land has not yet seemed particularly serious. Strangers, and sometimes even non-Garos, have been allowed to settle and clear new land. At the present time the laws passed by the Garo Hills District Council in an effort to encourage wet rice cultivation provide that if local villagers do not take advantage of suitable land, others will have the right to convert it to paddy fields. In some cases new settlers have probably paid the nokma or even the a’king owners (title-holders) a fee to permit its use and alienation. Some might interpret this as a’wil, the fee that is traditionally paid to the a’king owner by non-villagers who wish to use dry fields, though ordinarily a’wil confers only a temporary right. Others might interpret it as purchase price for the land; or, finally, it might be considered a bribe, since no such purchase is recognized as legal by the government. However regarded, such a fee might help to smooth over any antagonism toward the new arrival, though in practice it appears that the villagers have often failed to appreciate the value of potential paddy land and have let it go with little or no opposition.’
[2]
The code reflects dry rather than wet cultivation.
[1]: Playfair, Alan 1909. “Garos”, 4 [2]: Burling, Robbins 1963. “Rengsanggri: Family And Kinship In A Garo Village”, 304 |
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"The Rig-Veda contains much information about farming in general. There are references to ploughs and plough teams drawn by a number of oxen; to the cutting, bundling and threshing of grain; to irrigation canals and wells; and to such foods as milk, butter, rice cakes, cereals, lentils and vegetables....there is no reference to any transaction of land that can be carried out by an individual. Most probably, therefore, there was some form of common ownership of land."
[1]
[1]: Avari, B. (2007) India: The Ancient Past: A history of the India sub-continent from c. 7,000 BC to AD 1200. Routledge: London and New York. p70 |
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One of the best surviving examples of water infrastructure is an unnamed dam constructed from the period.
[1]
Kautilya in the Arthashastra makes reference to irrigation tanks.
[2]
[1]: Higham, Charles. Encyclopedia of ancient Asian civilizations, p. 161 [2]: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Arthashastra/ |
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|
[1]
In India open channels and pipes were widely used from the fifteenth century in urban settlements. The palace at Vijayanagara was fed this way by monsoon water. Other residents used wells, roadside wells, and also rainwater which was collected in tanks.
[2]
[3]
[4]
[1]: Burton Stein, The New Cambridge History of India: Vijayanagara (1990), p. 34 [2]: Dominic J. Davison-Jenkins. 1997. The Irrigation and Water Supply Systems of Vijayanagara. Manohar. p.88 [3]: Burton Stein, The New Cambridge History of India: Vijayanagara (1990), p. 34, 36 [4]: Carla M Sinopoli. 1999. Levels of Complexity: Ceramic Variability at Vijayanagara. James M Skibo. Gary M Feinmann. eds. Pottery and People. The University of Utah Press. Salt Lake City. p. 119 |
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The foundation of new cities like Samarra led to an expansion of irrigation networks. Further evidence is provided by the large number of manuals on irrigation and land management that survive from the period. Iraq’s new cities were supported by a vast network of new water works.
[1]
[1]: Young, M. J. L., John Derek Latham, and Robert Bertram Serjeant, eds. Religion, learning and science in the ’abbasid period p. 159 |
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|
[1]
"The countryside of Akkad was extensively irrigated so that barley and wheat were grown as winter crops, with a second, smaller, summer crop."
[2]
"The only public waterworks that the Akkadian kings boasted of were in Sumer, not Akkad, suggesting that the Akkadian Empire depended upon Sumer as its main agricultural base".
[3]
[1]: Barjamović 2012, 130 [2]: (Foster 2016, 34) Foster, Benjamin R. 2016. The Age of Agade. Inventing Empire In Ancient Mesopotamia. Routledge. London. [3]: (Foster 2016, 35) Foster, Benjamin R. 2016. The Age of Agade. Inventing Empire In Ancient Mesopotamia. Routledge. London. |
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|
"It is possible that, within the land, the traditional duties of the ‘governors’ were taking care of irrigation systems and temple architecture."
[1]
[1]: (Liverani 2014, 462-463) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7DRZQS5Q/q/liverani. |
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|
"Maintenance of canals and irrigation works were crucially important for the well-being of the state."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 85) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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|
"From the earliest times, the flow of water was controlled for agricultural purposes by an elaborate system of canals, sluices, dams, embankments, and dikes."
[1]
1000 miles of irrigation canals.
[2]
Qanat technology. Subterranean irrigation canals.
[3]
Royal control over most of the irrigation systems and canals.
[4]
Egyptians called Darius the Great a Pharaoh "since by digging qanats and other initiatives he had supplied the south of Egypt with irrigation water."
[5]
"Iranians were the inventors of qanats ... during the Archaemenid era there appeared an extensive system of underground networks known as qanats"
[6]
[1]: (Neusner 2008, 1-2) Neusner, Jacob. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene. [2]: (Farazmand 2002) [4]: (Wiesehofer 2009, 80) [5]: (Angelakis, Mays and Koutsoyiannis 2012, 94) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012.Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. [6]: (Angelakis, Mays and Koutsoyiannis 2012, 97) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012. Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. |
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|
"The fact that neither Tappe Tule’i nor Coga Bonut was located close to any detectable canal or source of water may be an indication of sufficient precipitation for dry farming. Faunal, floral, and phytolith (fossilized pollen) evidence from Coga Bonut indicated the presence of marshes in upper Susiana during this phase (Redding and Rosen in Alizadeh, pp. 129-49)."
[1]
Earliest irrigation techniques practised not far away, however, at Eridu.
[2]
[1]: (Alizadeh 2009, Encyclopedia Iranica Online, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/coga-bonut-archaeological-site) [2]: (Leverani 2014, 41) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
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|
"the Sumerian civilisation which flourished before 3500 BC. This was an advanced civilisation building cities and supporting the people with irrigation systems, a legal system, administration, and even a postal service. Writing developed and counting was based on a sexagesimal system, that is to say base 60."
[1]
[1]: J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html |
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|
A dam was built near Shīrāz which diverted the water from the rive Kūr for agricultural use.
[1]
Muizz al-Dawla restored irrigation ditches.
[2]
Adud al-Dawla "invested heavily in irrigation projects, one of which, a great dam known as the Band-i Amir, remains to this day as a testimony to his activities."
[3]
Qanats.
[1]: Busse, H. 1975. Iran under the Būyids. In Frye, R. N. (ed.) The Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 4. The period from the Arab Invasion to the Saljuq’s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.282 [2]: (Kennedy 2004, 222) Kennedy, Hugh N. 2004. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. Second edition. Pearson Longman. Harlow. [3]: (Kennedy 2004, 230) Kennedy, Hugh N. 2004. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. Second edition. Pearson Longman. Harlow. |
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"The causes and characteristics of the crisis were both old and new. The long-term causes (the salinisation of agricultural fields, the collapse of the network of irrigation canals, and the decline of the local administrative systems) were combined with the effects of the more recent wars, the political instability, and the invasions. The latter eventually led to famines and epidemics, a drastic reduction of the population, and low birth rates."
[1]
"Ruins of reservoirs have been discovered along with water intakes, spillways and outlets and even the sewerage systems dating as far back as the Pre-Archaemenid and Assyrian (1500-600 BC) periods."
[2]
Possible expert disagreement, although the later quote does not seem to be time-specific.
[1]: (Liverani 2014, 469) [2]: (Mahmoudian and Mahmoudian 2012, 97) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012.Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. |
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|
"Regarding investments in irrigation systems, land reclamation, and intensification of agricultural production, the 1973 data suggest that the Elymean period was a particularly expansive era. Complex irrigation systems were constructed in the area of Susa"
[1]
"The Elymeans even invested heavily in diverting the perennial streams on the eastern edge of the plain and channelling their waters through long dendritic canals, some of whose banks still rise two meters above the plain surface."
[1]
[1]: (Wenke 1981, 313) Wenke, Robert J. 1981. Elymeans, Parthians, and the Evolution of Empires in Southwestern Iran. Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 101. No. 3. Jul-Sep. American Oriental Society. pp. 303-315. http://www.jstor.org/stable/602592 |
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|
qanats in Persia and irrigation canals in Iraq. however, under the Mongols many fell into disrepair and disuse.
[1]
Arch dams were constructed e.g. at Kibar (Kivar): "the dam is 85 ft. high and 180 ft. long at the crest, the thickness of which is between 15 and 16 1/2 ft."
[2]
A gravity dam was built at Sawa.
[2]
[1]: (Morgan 2015, 79-80) Morgan, David. 2015. Medieval Persia 1040-1797. Routledge. [2]: (Bosworth et al. 1983, 868) Bosworth, CE. van Donzel, E. Lewis, B. Pellat, Ch. 1983. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. E.J. Brill |
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|
Rebuilt Egyptian irrigation systems.
[1]
Maintained Egyptian irrigation systems with wood brought from Anatolia.
[2]
[1]: (Lapidus 2002, 294) [2]: (http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_interdisciplinary_history/v043/43.1.greene.html) |
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|
"If the earliest inhabitants of Eridu were Sumerians ... then it must be accepted that they made their homes in the plain only after having mastered irrigation techniques in their former abodes at the foot of the Zagros mountains, probably in Khuzistan."
[1]
"The quality of its ware, which was of the same quality as the best pottery from Samarra or Halaf, indicates that Eridu must have had a formative stage that remains unknown to us. This is either because it is still buried in situ, or because it developed elsewhere (Khuzistan?), and was subsequently brought to Eridu by groups already in possession of core production techniques. The latter, such as irrigated agriculture, are fully Neolithic in character, and were practised alongside fishing, which was prominent due to the settlement’s location."
[2]
"Although irrigation is implied beginning in the Early Village Period in some regions and possibly only in the Middle Village Period, if at all in others, it is obvious that not all sites are located with primary concern for surface water." According to periodization table Early Village period is 6000 BCE, Middle Village Period c4600 BCE.
[3]
[1]: (Mellaart 1970, 287-288) Mellaart, J. in Edwards, I E S. Gadd, C J. Hammond, N G L. eds. 1970. The Cambridge Ancient History. Volumes 1-2. Cambridge University Press. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 49) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [3]: (Frank 1987, 84 + 17) Frank ed. 1987. The Archaeology of Western Iran. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C. |
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|
"If the earliest inhabitants of Eridu were Sumerians ... then it must be accepted that they made their homes in the plain only after having mastered irrigation techniques in their former abodes at the foot of the Zagros mountains, probably in Khuzistan."
[1]
"The quality of its ware, which was of the same quality as the best pottery from Samarra or Halaf, indicates that Eridu must have had a formative stage that remains unknown to us. This is either because it is still buried in situ, or because it developed elsewhere (Khuzistan?), and was subsequently brought to Eridu by groups already in possession of core production techniques. The latter, such as irrigated agriculture, are fully Neolithic in character, and were practised alongside fishing, which was prominent due to the settlement’s location."
[2]
"Although irrigation is implied beginning in the Early Village Period in some regions and possibly only in the Middle Village Period, if at all in others, it is obvious that not all sites are located with primary concern for surface water." According to periodization table Early Village period is 6000 BCE, Middle Village Period c4600 BCE.
[3]
[1]: (Mellaart 1970, 287-288) Mellaart, J. in Edwards, I E S. Gadd, C J. Hammond, N G L. eds. 1970. The Cambridge Ancient History. Volumes 1-2. Cambridge University Press. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 49) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [3]: (Frank 1987, 84 + 17) Frank ed. 1987. The Archaeology of Western Iran. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C. |
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|
Hajji Muhammad culture ca. 5800-5100 BCE "facilitated the irrigated cultivation of grains and cattle farming"
[1]
"If the earliest inhabitants of Eridu were Sumerians ... then it must be accepted that they made their homes in the plain only after having mastered irrigation techniques in their former abodes at the foot of the Zagros mountains, probably in Khuzistan."
[2]
"Although irrigation is implied beginning in the Early Village Period in some regions and possibly only in the Middle Village Period, if at all in others, it is obvious that not all sites are located with primary concern for surface water." According to periodization table Early Village period is 6000 BCE, Middle Village Period c4600 BCE.
[3]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 49) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Mellaart 1970, 289) Mellaart, J. in Edwards, I E S. Gadd, C J. Hammond, N G L. eds. 1970. The Cambridge Ancient History. Volumes 1-2. Cambridge University Press. [3]: (Frank 1987, 84 + 17) Frank ed. 1987. The Archaeology of Western Iran. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C. |
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|
Hajji Muhammad culture ca. 5800-5100 BCE "facilitated the irrigated cultivation of grains and cattle farming"
[1]
Ubaid culture 5100-4000 BCE: "The inhabitants of the Mesopotamian lowlands were the first to master, yet still on a local level, the construction of canals for the irrigation of areas which were not arable otherwise, and the drainage of excess water from marshes to drainage basins. As a result, the first fully-fledged agricultural settlements began to appear along irrigation canals."
[2]
"Although irrigation is implied beginning in the Early Village Period in some regions and possibly only in the Middle Village Period, if at all in others, it is obvious that not all sites are located with primary concern for surface water." According to periodization table Early Village period is 6000 BCE, Middle Village Period c4600 BCE.
[3]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 49) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Leverani 2014, 53) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [3]: (Frank 1987, 84 + 17) Frank ed. 1987. The Archaeology of Western Iran. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C. |
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|
Hajji Muhammad culture ca. 5800-5100 BCE "facilitated the irrigated cultivation of grains and cattle farming"
[1]
"Although irrigation is implied beginning in the Early Village Period in some regions and possibly only in the Middle Village Period, if at all in others, it is obvious that not all sites are located with primary concern for surface water." According to periodization table Early Village period is 6000 BCE, Middle Village Period c4600 BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 49) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: (Frank 1987, 84 + 17) Frank ed. 1987. The Archaeology of Western Iran. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C. |
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|
Commercialization of rural hinterland began 1050-1100 CE. "This was the date of similar signs of agrarian development in eastern Lombardy, too, the hinterlands of Bergamo, Brescia, and Cremona. Here, François Menant points to the late eleventh and twelfth centuries as the moment of take-off for systematic irrigation, the development of vineyards on cleared land, the development of transhumant pastoralism, and, later in the twelfth century in the Cremonese, linen."
[1]
[1]: (Wickham 2015, 107-108) Wickham, C. 2015. Medieval Rome: Stability and Crisis of a City, 900-1150. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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|
"Like most of Mesopotamia, during its most stylistically unified period in the Ubaid 1-3 periods (5300-4600 BC), Susiana was occupied by small villages (2 hectares or less). Presumably, these villagers subsisted through irrigation agriculture and animal husbandry (Dollfus 1985; Hole 1985). Not until the middle of this period did one site, Choga Mish, increase rapidly in size to 11 hectares. The site for which the area is named, Susa, had not been founded yet."
[1]
Hajji Muhammad culture ca. 5800-5100 BCE "facilitated the irrigated cultivation of grains and cattle farming"
[2]
"Although irrigation is implied beginning in the Early Village Period in some regions and possibly only in the Middle Village Period, if at all in others, it is obvious that not all sites are located with primary concern for surface water." According to periodization table Early Village period is 6000 BCE, Middle Village Period c4600 BCE.
[3]
[1]: (Rothman 2001, 11-12) [2]: (Leverani 2014, 49) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [3]: (Frank 1987, 84 + 17) Frank ed. 1987. The Archaeology of Western Iran. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C. |
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|
"Ruins of reservoirs have been discovered along with water intakes, spillways and outlets and even the sewerage systems dating as far back as the Pre-Archaemenid and Assyrian (1500-600 BC) periods."
[1]
[1]: (Mahmoudian and Mahmoudian 2012, 97) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012.Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. |
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|
"Ruins of reservoirs have been discovered along with water intakes, spillways and outlets and even the sewerage systems dating as far back as the Pre-Archaemenid and Assyrian (1500-600 BC) periods."
[1]
"Other major administrative achievements of the Elamites included ... the development and management of a gigantic system of underground canals (Qanat) for irrigation"
[2]
[1]: (Mahmoudian and Mahmoudian 2012, 97) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012.Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. [2]: (Farazmand 2009, 22) Farazmand, Ali. 2009. Bureaucracy and Administration. CRC Press. Boca Raton. |
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|
"From the earliest times, the flow of water was controlled for agricultural purposes by an elaborate system of canals, sluices, dams, embankments, and dikes."
[1]
"Iranians were the inventors of qanats ... during the Archaemenid era there appeared an extensive system of underground networks known as qanats".
[2]
"sites from the Parthian period together with irrigation canals have been found at Qala-i Sam, Kuh-i Khawaja, Sultan Baba Ziyarat"
[3]
"From the earliest times, the flow of water was controlled for agricultural purposes by an elaborate system of canals, sluices, dams, embankments, and dikes."
[1]
The use of qanats likely brought irrigation and possibly even drinking water from higher areas. This technology starts to be used in the Iron Age and continues into later periods as it spreads through the Near East and into Central Asia.
[4]
[1]: (Neusner 2008, 1-2) Neusner, Jacob. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene. [2]: (Angelakis, Mays and Koutsoyiannis 2012, 97) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012. Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. [3]: (Raschke 1976, 833) Raschke, Manfred G. in Haase, Wolfgang ed. 1976. Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Mesopotamien, Armenien, Iran, Südarabien, Rom und der Ferne Osten). Walter de Gruyter. [4]: (Miksic, John. Personal Communication to Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. April 2020. Email) |
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|
"From the earliest times, the flow of water was controlled for agricultural purposes by an elaborate system of canals, sluices, dams, embankments, and dikes."
[1]
"Iranians were the inventors of qanats ... during the Archaemenid era there appeared an extensive system of underground networks known as qanats".
[2]
"sites from the Parthian period together with irrigation canals have been found at Qala-i Sam, Kuh-i Khawaja, Sultan Baba Ziyarat"
[3]
"From the earliest times, the flow of water was controlled for agricultural purposes by an elaborate system of canals, sluices, dams, embankments, and dikes."
[1]
[1]: (Neusner 2008, 1-2) Neusner, Jacob. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene. [2]: (Angelakis, Mays and Koutsoyiannis 2012, 97) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012. Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. [3]: (Raschke 1976, 833) Raschke, Manfred G. in Haase, Wolfgang ed. 1976. Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Mesopotamien, Armenien, Iran, Südarabien, Rom und der Ferne Osten). Walter de Gruyter. |
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|
" In this phase, the early settlers of the Susiana plain chose to settle on top of a low natural hill surrounded by shallow marshes at an elevation where dry farming was possible. Even today, when the region is much drier than it was in early Neolithic times, dry agriculture is still practiced as supplement."
[1]
[1]: (Alizadeh 2009, Encyclopedia Iranica Online, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/coga-bonut-archaeological-site) |
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|
- a "double dam" was built by the ghulam Allah Verdi Khan in the Shiraz area
[1]
Expanded qanat system started in the Iron Age that brought irrigation and likely drinking water from higher areas. This technology spread through the Near East and into Central Asia, as far as China and some parts of Eurasia.
[2]
[1]: Sholeh A. Quinn, ‘Iran under Safavid Rule’, in David O. Morgan and Anthony Reid (eds), The New Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 3. The Eastern Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 227. [2]: (Miksic, John. Personal Communication to Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. April 2020. Email) |
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|
"the Sumerian civilisation which flourished before 3500 BC. This was an advanced civilisation building cities and supporting the people with irrigation systems, a legal system, administration, and even a postal service. Writing developed and counting was based on a sexagesimal system, that is to say base 60."
[1]
[1]: J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html |
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|
e.g. Nahravan canal. In later Sassanid period extensive areas brought into cultivation by Khusrau I.
[1]
"From the earliest times [in Babylonia], the flow of water was controlled for agricultural purposes by an elaborate system of canals, sluices, dams, embankments, and dikes."
[2]
Irrigation canals.
[3]
"Dam construction and qanat or tunnel excavation are among the inventions of Iranians. It is written of Shapur I in the necropolis tabloid that Shapur constructed dams over rivers using funds from his treasury to save farmers from drought. Shapur has said, ’In Susa (modern day Khuzestan) I built so many dams to relieve farmers of a need for water."
[4]
[1]: (Chegini 1996, 48) Chegini, N. N. Political History, Economy and Society. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.40-58. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf [2]: (Neusner 2008, 1-2) Neusner, Jacob. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene. [3]: (Nikitin 1996, 65) Nikitin, A. V. Customs, Arts and Crafts. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.59-80. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf [4]: (Mahmoudian and Mahmoudian 2012, 95) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012.Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. |
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|
"From the earliest times [in Babylonia], the flow of water was controlled for agricultural purposes by an elaborate system of canals, sluices, dams, embankments, and dikes."
[1]
Irrigation canals.
[2]
"Dam construction and qanat or tunnel excavation are among the inventions of Iranians. It is written of Shapur I in the necropolis tabloid that Shapur constructed dams over rivers using funds from his treasury to save farmers from drought. Shapur has said, ’In Susa (modern day Khuzestan) I built so many dams to relieve farmers of a need for water." [3] [1]: (Neusner 2008, 1-2) Neusner, Jacob. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene. [2]: (Nikitin 1996, 65) Nikitin, A. V. Customs, Arts and Crafts. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.59-80. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf [3]: (Mahmoudian and Mahmoudian 2012, 95) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012.Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. |
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|
"From the earliest times [in Babylonia], the flow of water was controlled for agricultural purposes by an elaborate system of canals, sluices, dams, embankments, and dikes."
[1]
Irrigation farming formed part of the base of Seleucid economy (along with dry-subsistence farming along the Mediterranean seaboard). Irrigation was used along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and their tributaries.
[2]
"Iranians were the inventors of qanats ... during the Archaemenid era there appeared an extensive system of underground networks known as qanats"
[3]
[1]: (Neusner 2008, 1-2) Neusner, Jacob. 2008. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 1. The Parthian Period. Wipf & Stock. Eugene. [2]: Aperghis, G. G. 2004. The Seleukid Royal Economy: The Finances and Financial Administration of the Seleukid Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p59 [3]: (Mahmoudian and Mahmoudian 2012, 97) Angelakis A N, Mays L W, Koutsoyiannis, D. 2012. Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia. IWA Publishing. |
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Present in Central Asia from about 800 BCE - 1200 CE: "the major Central Asian hydraulic systems appear to have been maintained with few serious interruptions for over two millenniums, extending down to the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century."
[1]
Nishapur: "The agricultural basis of the region was the qanat system of irrigation through underground canals."
[2]
Merv (for which the cotton industry was "essential to the town’s prosperity"): "The city’s survival relied on a complex irrigation system, both to bring water of the Murghab River to the city and to allow cultivation of the surrounding oasis. In the tenth century, the only mediaeval period for which we have information, maintenance of the irrigation works required a workforce of 10,000 men."
[2]
Merv (for which the cotton industry was "essential to the town’s prosperity"): "The city’s survival relied on a complex irrigation system, both to bring water of the Murghab River to the city and to allow cultivation of the surrounding oasis. In the tenth century, the only mediaeval period for which we have information, maintenance of the irrigation works required a workforce of 10,000 men."
[2]
"rulers and elites financed dams, canals, and irrigation works".
[3]
[1]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. [2]: (Peacock 2015) Peacock, A C S. 2015. The Great Seljuk Empire. Edinburgh University Press. [3]: (Darling 2013, 95) Darling, Linda T. 2013. A History of Social Justice and Political Power in the Middle East: The Circle of Justice from Mesopotamia to Globalization. Routledge. |
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|
"Other major administrative achievements of the Elamites included the development and use of a binary weight system, which had a major influence on the fraction systems of the whole Mesopotamia; a massive number of administrative and business documents; major architectural works; the development and management of a gigantic system of underground canals (Qanat) for irrigation, an Iranian invention that turned the arid land into an agricultural land; the construction and maintenance of numerous public works and enterprises, such as roads, bridges, cities and towns, communication centers, and economic and commercial centers..."
[1]
-- which period?
[1]: (Farazmand 2009, 22) Farazmand, Ali. 2009. Bureaucracy and Administration. CRC Press. Boca Raton. |
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|
"Other major administrative achievements of the Elamites included ... the development and management of a gigantic system of underground canals (Qanat) for irrigation, an Iranian invention that turned the arid land into an agricultural land; the construction and maintenance of numerous public works and enterprises, such as roads, bridges, cities and towns, communication centers, and economic and commercial centers..."
[1]
Kaftari culture, irrigation agriculture practised using water from Kur River and nearby springs.
[2]
[1]: (Farazmand 2009, 22) Farazmand, Ali. 2009. Bureaucracy and Administration. CRC Press. Boca Raton. [2]: (Potts 2016, 144) Potts, D T. 2016. The Archaeology of Elam Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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|
Commercialization of rural hinterland began 1050-1100 CE. "This was the date of similar signs of agrarian development in eastern Lombardy, too, the hinterlands of Bergamo, Brescia, and Cremona. Here, François Menant points to the late eleventh and twelfth centuries as the moment of take-off for systematic irrigation, the development of vineyards on cleared land, the development of transhumant pastoralism, and, later in the twelfth century in the Cremonese, linen."
[1]
[1]: (Wickham 2015, 107-108) Wickham, C. 2015. Medieval Rome: Stability and Crisis of a City, 900-1150. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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|
1509-1630 CE: "Grain needs and profit opportunities driven by demographic increase - the price revolution - stimulated extension of the acreage tilled through drainage of marshy areas and cultivation of marginal land, much more than higher productivity via better agronomic practice - irrigation, water-meadows and fodder crops, high-yielding rice fields, stock-raising to balance agriculture etc."
[1]
1509-1630 CE: "Action concerning watercourses and marshes brought diversion of rivers to avoid silting up the Venetian lagoon, attempts to prevent them flooding, authorization and support for sometimes massive land drainage schemes, and concession of irrigation rights. Policy toward woodland aimed to reserve much timber for state arsenal use and to counter deforestation."
[2]
[1]: (Knapton 2014, 102) Michael Knapton. The Terraferma State. Eric Dursteler. ed. 2014. A Companion to Venetian History, 1400-1797. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Knapton 2014, 101) Michael Knapton. The Terraferma State. Eric Dursteler. ed. 2014. A Companion to Venetian History, 1400-1797. BRILL. Leiden. |
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|
1509-1630 CE: "Grain needs and profit opportunities driven by demographic increase - the price revolution - stimulated extension of the acreage tilled through drainage of marshy areas and cultivation of marginal land, much more than higher productivity via better agronomic practice - irrigation, water-meadows and fodder crops, high-yielding rice fields, stock-raising to balance agriculture etc."
[1]
1509-1630 CE: "Action concerning watercourses and marshes brought diversion of rivers to avoid silting up the Venetian lagoon, attempts to prevent them flooding, authorization and support for sometimes massive land drainage schemes, and concession of irrigation rights. Policy toward woodland aimed to reserve much timber for state arsenal use and to counter deforestation."
[2]
[1]: (Knapton 2014, 102) Michael Knapton. The Terraferma State. Eric Dursteler. ed. 2014. A Companion to Venetian History, 1400-1797. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Knapton 2014, 101) Michael Knapton. The Terraferma State. Eric Dursteler. ed. 2014. A Companion to Venetian History, 1400-1797. BRILL. Leiden. |
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|
’During the early medieval period, the shoen proprietor (or his administrator) normally coordinated present corvee and constructed and maintained irrigation facilities, built reservoirs, dammed rivers or streams, and constructed ditches or canals. Peasants using the water were required to pay the proprietor an iryo or water charge on the theory that "every drop of water belonged to the proprietor". by the late medieval period, such was not the case. The construction and maintenance of reservoirs and irrigation ditches was undertaken collectively by peasants either from a single village community of from several village communities banded together as a unit for the task.’
[1]
[1]: Hall, John Whitney, and Takeshi Toyoda, (eds.) 1977. Japan in the Muromachi age. University of California Press.p.113 |
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|
‘by the late medieval period... The construction and maintenance of reservoirs and irrigation ditches was undertaken collectively by peasants either from a single village community of from several village communities banded together as a unit for the task.’
[1]
[1]: Hall, John Whitney, and Takeshi Toyoda, (eds.) 1977. Japan in the Muromachi age. University of California Press.p.113 |
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|
"It is clear that cultivation did appear in the Jomon period, but it is equally clear that it remained a minor activity that did not contribute significantly to the growth of social complexity (Rowley-Conwy 2002:62). In fact, Hudson (1997) has that the of full-scale rejection agriculture was one characteristic shared by argued Jomon societies."
[1]
.
[1]: (Pearson 2007, 363) |
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|
"It is clear that cultivation did appear in the Jomon period, but it is equally clear that it remained a minor activity that did not contribute significantly to the growth of social complexity (Rowley-Conwy 2002:62). In fact, Hudson (1997) has that the of full-scale rejection agriculture was one characteristic shared by argued Jomon societies."
[1]
.
[1]: (Pearson 2007, 363) |
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|
"It is clear that cultivation did appear in the Jomon period, but it is equally clear that it remained a minor activity that did not contribute significantly to the growth of social complexity (Rowley-Conwy 2002:62). In fact, Hudson (1997) has that the of full-scale rejection agriculture was one characteristic shared by argued Jomon societies."
[1]
.
[1]: (Pearson 2007, 363) |
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|
’the production of rice required drainage and irrigation systems that could not be built or maintained by individuals operating independently. Later land laws were certainly affected by ah ancient practice of having irrigation systems managed by the community as a whole. Although state ownership of water was not written into law, its existence and nature can be deduced from extant historical sources.’
[1]
[1]: Brown, Delmer M. 1993. The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 1: Ancient Japan. Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press.p.416 |
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|
"In the oasis of Otrar to the northwest, the origin of new methods of irrigation implemented in the 6th century should most likely be sought in the old agricultural civilizations of the south, in Sogdiana or Khorezm. These improvements were linked to the presence of the Türk Empire, which unified these areas and made such a diffusion possible by establishing at Otrar the tudun in charge of Cac.84 The empire simultaneously increased the need for greater food production, and thus set in motion a cycle in which irrigated areas were extended and population and urbanization increased, thanks to techniques brought from the south.85 "
[1]
[1]: (de la Vaissière 2005, 113) |
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|
’Recent work at Angkor by the EFEO and the Greater Angkor Project has mapped a vast water management network extending across approximately 1000 sq km. From the new map an outline can be provide of the development of the network between the 8th-9th and the 14th centuries. Each large extension of the network tapped water from a succession of natural rivers flowing from NE to SW. Each river was further north and was tapped further to the west. The network had five major components - E-W embankments that trapped water flowing from the north and northeast; N-S channels that eventually delivered water to large reservoirs (baray); the baray and the large temple moats; embankments and channels oriented from NW to SE that could distribute water back from west to east across the slope of the land; and channels oriented towards the southwest which could dispose of water rapidly to the lake, the Tonle Sap. Significantly the later major channels, such as the Angkor Wat canal and the canal that pre-dated the current Siem Reap river, were drains that served to dispose of water into the lake.’
[1]
’[T]he Khmer practised water management on a scale dwarfing that of the Maya and most other regions of the world. Angkor’s surrounds were converted into an artificial landscape criss-crossed with canals, embankments, reservoirs, dams and other massive engineering works to redirect river flows, store water for the dry season and avert floods by disposing of excess water during monsoons. The Khmer struggled for centuries to maintain their hydraulic landscape until it became overwhelmed by climate change, producing floods that broke embankments and canals filled with sediments from eroded terrains’
[2]
[3]
‘Retention and storage of surplus water during the rainy and flood seasons for use during the rest of the year was, along with the buildings of religious monuments, the major preoccupation of Khmer engineers throughout the long history of the empire.’
[4]
’Aside from the destructive effects of recurrent wars, Khmer kings constructively made it a priority to build reservoirs and canals, all necessary for collective irrigation. Some kings built rest houses along roads; others built hospitals.’
[5]
’Tikal featured constructed reservoirs in the centre among the main monuments and around the periphery of the central area that could hold about 568,000 m^3 of water at one time and more than 900,000 m^3 during the course of a year (Scarborough and Galloping 1991:661). By contrast, the West Baray at Angkor could hold more than 50 million m^3 of water at one time and covered 16 km^2 (Fletcher et al. 2008).’
[6]
[1]: (Fletcher et al. 2008, p. 57) [2]: (Diamond 2009, p.480). [3]: (Fletcher et al 2008, 658) [4]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.22) [5]: (Mannikka 1996, p.4) [6]: (Fletcher 2012, p.300) |
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|
“Even before they sacked Angkor in 1431, the Siamese had occupied large parts of the empire, carrying off Khmers as slaves and possibly sabotaging the irrigation system according to some writers. »
[1]
« The irrigation system organized by the weakened central machin- ery, also began to crumble; with reservoirs filled with silt and canals clogged, farmers were deprived of life-giving irrigation water."
[2]
[1]: (Tully 2006, 49) [2]: (Dutt 1996, 225) |
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|
’While there is no evidence of large-scale irrigation projects during this period, ’what may have represented small-scale irrigation was carried out at the level of the local communities, under the leadership of local upon and other chiefs. [...] [N]o remains of large hydraulic works have been discovered for the period between Funan and Angkor. Evidence that some organized digging occurred for water management or fish capture, is in the numerous references to trapan, artificial ponds.’
[1]
’These [reservoirs] were probably multi-purpose, involving supplying the moats, religious foundations and urban populace with water, and for irrigating rice fields.’
[2]
[1]: (Vickery 1998, 306) [2]: (Higham 2014b, 291) |
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|
’There is evidence that the major step during the Funan period toward the integration of the small, dry-rice-growing and root-cultivating principalities, whose people worshipped Siva, with hunting and gathering societies inland from Oc-Eco was the introduction, perhaps as late as 500, of systematic irrigation; drainage probably came earlier.’
[1]
’Ruins here [in Angkor Borei] cover 300 hectares (660 acres). It has been estimated that 9.5 million bricks were used in constructing its walls, weighing 142,500 metric tons (130,000 tons). The walls, irregular in shape, average 6 kilometers (3.5 miles) in diameter, 4.5 meters (14 feet) high, and 2.4 meters (8 feet) wide. In some places a road and structures were built atop it. It is flanked by inner and outer moats and encloses a baray, smaller pools, canals, unexcavated mounds, and at least 15 ancient structures, few of which have been dated. Given the lack of bastions, guardhouses, or gateways, it is thought that the wall was not built for defensive purposes. Instead it was probably intended to provide dry land during that part of the year when the waters of the Mekong, swollen with melted snow from the Himalayas, turn the region into a giant swamp.’
[2]
’By the end of the fifth century, Funan was losing ground to its northern neighbor Linyi (the future Champa), the sailors who had provided Funan’s navy had turned to piracy, and the Malay entrepoˆts had begun sending their own embassies to China. In this same period, as noted earlier, Funan’s canal and irrigation networks were expanding rapidly in the Mekong Delta, as part of its transition to a more intensive agricultural economy. However, Funan’s decline continued, as midway through the sixth century its Khmer vassals to the north broke away, and by the seventh century Funan was no more. Its irrigation networks in the Mekong Delta were reclaimed by jungle as the farmers moved northwest to the new Khmer-ruled centers in the central Cambodia Tonle Sap area.’
[3]
The latest archaeological survey work by Evans using LiDAR attests to the large extent of irrigation systems from the fifth century onward
[4]
[1]: (Chandler 2008, p. 21) [2]: (Miksic 2007, pp. 19-20) [3]: (Hall 2010, pp. 60-61) [4]: (Evans 2016) |
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|
"It was Andronovo communities that we saw moving southwards into the desert zone and adopting irrigation agriculture in favourable places like the delta of the Amu Darya and the Zeravshan region."
[1]
[1]: (Cunliffe 2015, 142) Cunliffe, Barry. 2015. By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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|
50-400 CE West African rice (Oryza glaberrima) domesticated.
[1]
While, "Archaeological evidence affirms that the building of terraces and irrigation canals in sub-Saharan Africa pre-dates external influence..."
[2]
in this time period they are unlikely, and in the Inland Delta region unnecessary due to the annual inundation of the Niger river. Domesticated rice planted before the flood grows high enough to sprout above the flood waters.
[1]: (McIntosh and McIntosh 1981, 16) [2]: (Reader 1998, 248 cite: Adams 1989) |
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|
50-400 CE West African rice (Oryza glaberrima) domesticated.
[1]
In the Inland Delta region irrigation systems are unnecessary due to the annual inundation of the Niger river. Domesticated rice planted before the flood grows high enough to sprout above the flood waters. However, "Archaeological evidence affirms that the building of terraces and irrigation canals in sub-Saharan Africa pre-dates external influence..."
[2]
which suggests that irrigation systems are present in the archaeological sub-tradition.
[1]: (McIntosh and McIntosh 1981, 16) [2]: (Reader 1998, 248 cite: Adams 1989) |
||||||
|
50-400 CE West African rice (Oryza glaberrima) domesticated.
[1]
In the Inland Delta region irrigation systems are unnecessary due to the annual inundation of the Niger river. Domesticated rice planted before the flood grows high enough to sprout above the flood waters. However, "Archaeological evidence affirms that the building of terraces and irrigation canals in sub-Saharan Africa pre-dates external influence..."
[2]
which suggests that irrigation systems are present in the archaeological sub-tradition.
[1]: (McIntosh and McIntosh 1981, 16) [2]: (Reader 1998, 248 cite: Adams 1989) |
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|
"In northwestern Mongolia irrigation systems existed with channels and even simple aqueducts made of hollow logs (onggocha/ongots). Many of these irrigation systems were ancient, dating back to the military farms created under the Mongol Empire (see CHINQAI; QARA-QORUM; SIBERIA AND THE MON- GOL EMPIRE)."
[1]
[1]: (Atwood 2004, 175) |
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|
c500 CE and after: "It may be assumed that by then some of the Juan-juan already lived a settled life and practised agriculture. The original sources repeatedly mention that their khagans obtained ‘seed millet’ from China (some 10,000 shi each time). This shows that the Juan-juan society and state had gradually developed from nomadic herding to a settled agricultural way of life, from yurts to the building of houses and monumental architecture, from the nomadic district to towns. They had invented their own system of writing and developed their own local culture and Buddhist learning flourished."
[1]
[1]: (Kyzlasov 1996, 317) |
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|
"Tamim’s claim that the Uighurs practised agriculture has been strikingly confirmed by the discoveries of archeologists, who have found signs that the Uighurs used millstones, pestles and irrigation canals, and even evidence that grain, such as millet, was buried together with corpses of certain Uighurs."
[1]
[1]: (Mackerras 1990, 337) |
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|
"Tsewang Rabdan and Galdan Tseren also developed agricultural produc- tion at Ili, the Irtysh River, and Ürümchi by bringing in Turkic oasis dwellers, called Taranchi, who knew the special skills of high-yielding irrigated agriculture. A Qing soldier captured by Tsewang in 1731 reported seeing wide fields and gardens, and even some Zunghars themselves began to take up agriculture, in the form of military colonies, imitating Qing prac- tice.10"
[1]
"In northwestern Mongolia irrigation systems existed with channels and even simple aqueducts made of hollow logs (onggocha/ongots). Many of these irrigation systems were ancient, dating back to the military farms created under the Mongol Empire (see CHINQAI; QARA-QORUM; SIBERIA AND THE MON- GOL EMPIRE)."
[2]
[1]: (Perdue 2005, 306) [2]: (Atwood 2004, 175) |
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|
The use of small scale canal irrigation systems is inferred from the presence of settlements in the piedmont area (which would require some water control), but direct evidence for irrigation is found in the later periods. Any irrigation that was present would have been very small in extent and therefore not centrally controlled.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[1]: Kirkby (1973) The use of land and water resources in past and present Valley of Oaxaca. Muesum of Anthropology, Memoirs No.5. An Arbor, University of Michigan. p117 [2]: Nicholas, L. M (1989) Land use in prehispanic Oaxaca. In, Kowalewski, S. A., Feiman, G.M., Finsten, L., Blanton, R. E. and Nicholas, L. M. Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: the prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacoula, Etla and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor: 449-505. p458 [3]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. p147 |
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|
There is some evidence for the use of irrigation systems during this period (for example, at Hierve el Agua), but the evidence suggests that the irrigation systems were constructed at a small scale, serving the land of only one or two communities.
[1]
[2]
[3]
However, an irrigation system has been uncovered at La Coyotera in the Cuicatlan Canada during the Lomas phase (equivalent to MA Late I and II) which was likely constructed to fulfil Zapotec demands.
[4]
[1]: Kirkby (1973) The use of land and water resources in past and present Valley of Oaxaca. Muesum of Anthropology, Memoirs No.5. An Arbor, University of Michigan. p117 [2]: Nicholas, L. M (1989) Land use in prehispanic Oaxaca. In, Kowalewski, S. A., Feiman, G.M., Finsten, L., Blanton, R. E. and Nicholas, L. M. Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: the prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacoula, Etla and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor: 449-505. p458 [3]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. p146 [4]: Spencer, C. S. (1982) The Cuicatlán Cañada and Monte Albán: A study of primary state formation. Studies in Archaeology. Academic Press, New York. p224-6 |
||||||
|
There is some evidence for the use of irrigation systems during this period (for example, at Hierve el Agua), but the evidence suggests that the irrigation systems were constructed at a small scale, serving the land of only one or two communities.
[1]
[2]
[3]
However, an irrigation system has been uncovered at La Coyotera in the Cuicatlan Canada during the Lomas phase (equivalent to MA Late I and II) which was likely constructed to fulfil Zapotec demands.
[4]
[1]: Kirkby (1973) The use of land and water resources in past and present Valley of Oaxaca. Muesum of Anthropology, Memoirs No.5. An Arbor, University of Michigan. p117 [2]: Nicholas, L. M (1989) Land use in prehispanic Oaxaca. In, Kowalewski, S. A., Feiman, G.M., Finsten, L., Blanton, R. E. and Nicholas, L. M. Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: the prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacoula, Etla and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor: 449-505. p458 [3]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. p146 [4]: Spencer, C. S. (1982) The Cuicatlán Cañada and Monte Albán: A study of primary state formation. Studies in Archaeology. Academic Press, New York. p224-6 |
||||||
|
There is some evidence for the use of irrigation systems during this period, but the evidence suggests that the irrigation systems were constructed at a small scale.
[1]
[2]
How much was polity owned is therefore difficult to determine. Gary Feinman (pers. comm.) writes that small-scale irrigation, such as check-dams and small canals were in use.
[3]
[1]: Kirkby (1973) The use of land and water resources in past and present Valley of Oaxaca. Muesum of Anthropology, Memoirs No.5. An Arbor, University of Michigan. p117 [2]: Nicholas, L. M (1989) Land use in prehispanic Oaxaca. In, Kowalewski, S. A., Feiman, G.M., Finsten, L., Blanton, R. E. and Nicholas, L. M. Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: the prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacoula, Etla and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor: 449-505. p458 [3]: (Feinman, Gary. Personal Communication with Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. Email. April 2020) |
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|
The following suggests that perhaps "community-focus structures" developed later. A Middle Archaic example of open-air site is Gheo-Shih [Oaxaca Valley], which is a field marked by boulders and kept clean. This is considered to be one of Mesoamerica’s earliest example of a community-focus structure, such as the plaza, temple-pyramid, and palace, all of which developed in the Formative and later periods.
[1]
[1]: (Evans 2004: 92) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/EWW3Q2TA. |
||||||
|
Irrigation systems were present in the Cuautitlan region, as well as at early Teotihuacan, Cuicuilco, and numerous other sites across the Basin of Mexico.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[1]: Plunket, P., & Uruñuela, G. (2012). Where east meets west: the Formative in Mexico’s central highlands. Journal of Archaeological Research, 20(1), 1-51. [2]: Carballo, David M. (2016). Urbanization and Religion in Ancient Central Mexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.73-84, 125-134. [3]: Nichols, Deborah L. (1987). "Risk and Agricultural Intensification during the Formative Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico." American Anthropologist 89(3): 596-616. [4]: Sanders, William T., Jeffrey R. Parsons, and Robert S. Santley. (1979) The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York, pg. 96-7. [5]: Nichols, Deborah L. (2015). "Intensive Agriculture and Early Complex Societies of the Basin of Mexico: The Formative Period." Ancient Mesoamerica 26(2): 407-21. |
||||||
|
The irrigation canals excavated at Santa Clara Coatitlan, dating to approx. 900 BC is the earliest documented floodwater irrigation system in the Basin of Mexico NGA,
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
although admittedly there were likely earlier systems that have not yet been discovered. They were discovered during a salvage excavation just north of Mexico City, with only several cuts of them being exposed, so their full extent is poorly understood. These channels run from a former incised seasonal torrent (barranca, which may itself have been modified) at approx 90 degrees, fanning out into to individual fields. It is unclear whether these are smaller channels that emanate from a larger canal, or whether each of them directly directly siphoned the barranca. Prior to construction, the area may have been exposed to erosive sheet flow from the barranca during heavy rain, which may suggest that the system was primarily aimed at mitigating the damaging effects of natural inundation. Since the ancient barranca was not excavated, it is unclear whether dams were used to control/manage flow, or whether they only funneled excess runoff.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Nichols, Deborah L. (1982) "A Middle Formative Irrigation System near Santa Clara Coatitlan in the Basin of Mexico." American Antiquity, 47(1): 133-144. [2]: Doolittle, William E. (1990) Canal Irrigation in Prehistoric Mexico: The Sequence of Technological Change. Austin: University of Texas Press, p.22-5. [3]: Nichols, Deborah L. (1987). "Risk and Agricultural Intensification during the Formative Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico." American Anthropologist 89(3): 596-616. [4]: Nichols, Deborah L. (2015). "Intensive Agriculture and Early Complex Societies of the Basin of Mexico: The Formative Period." Ancient Mesoamerica 26(2): 407-21. |
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|
"At an unknown date, but well before the end of the century, farmers also began to practice irrigation here and there, notably along the upper and middle Nyabarongo in Budaha and Ndiza, as well as north of Lake Muhazi. The beginnings of the earthworks found around 1900 in the whole northwest of present-day Rwanda also probably date to the nineteenth century."
[1]
[1]: (Vansina 2004: 128) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264 |
||||||
|
Irrigation systems were present in the Cuautitlan region, as well as at early Teotihuacan, Cuicuilco, and numerous other sites across the Basin of Mexico.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[1]: Plunket, P., & Uruñuela, G. (2012). Where east meets west: the Formative in Mexico’s central highlands. Journal of Archaeological Research, 20(1), 1-51. [2]: Carballo, David M. (2016). Urbanization and Religion in Ancient Central Mexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.73-84, 125-134. [3]: Nichols, Deborah L. (1987). "Risk and Agricultural Intensification during the Formative Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico." American Anthropologist 89(3): 596-616. [4]: Sanders, William T., Jeffrey R. Parsons, and Robert S. Santley. (1979) The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York, pg. 96-7. [5]: Nichols, Deborah L. (2015). "Intensive Agriculture and Early Complex Societies of the Basin of Mexico: The Formative Period." Ancient Mesoamerica 26(2): 407-21. |
||||||
|
There is very little evidence for irrigation systems during this period. Most settlements were located on the high alluvium and so would not have needed irrigation to supply the crops (only in later periods, when settlements were established on the piedmont, did irrigation become more prevalent).
[1]
[2]
[3]
[1]: Kirkby (1973) The use of land and water resources in past and present Valley of Oaxaca. Muesum of Anthropology, Memoirs No.5. An Arbor, University of Michigan. p117 [2]: Nicholas, L. M (1989) Land use in prehispanic Oaxaca. In, Kowalewski, S. A., Feiman, G.M., Finsten, L., Blanton, R. E. and Nicholas, L. M. Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: the prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacoula, Etla and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor: 449-505. p458 [3]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p93 |
||||||
|
There is very little evidence for irrigation systems during this period. Most settlements were located on the high alluvium and so would not have needed irrigation to supply the crops (only in later periods, when settlements were established on the piedmont, did irrigation become more prevalent).
[1]
[2]
[3]
[1]: Kirkby (1973) The use of land and water resources in past and present Valley of Oaxaca. Muesum of Anthropology, Memoirs No.5. An Arbor, University of Michigan. p117 [2]: Nicholas, L. M (1989) Land use in prehispanic Oaxaca. In, Kowalewski, S. A., Feiman, G.M., Finsten, L., Blanton, R. E. and Nicholas, L. M. Monte Albán’s Hinterland, Part II: the prehispanic settlement patterns in Tlacoula, Etla and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 23. Ann Arbor: 449-505. p458 [3]: Coe, M. D., Koontz, R. (2013) Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th ed.) Thames and Hudson, London, p93 |
||||||
|
Irrigation canals constructed.
[1]
"It is likely that the Lucre Basin polities continued to use irrigation canals and improved lands developed by Wari colonists, although this inference remains speculative in the absence of systematic survey data."
[2]
Canals are documented amongst other hydraulic works (fountains) in the architecture at Choquepukio. "Por último, varios de ellos presentan obras hidráulicas elaboradas que consisten en canales y fuentes, en algunos casos con agua que es canalizada sobre afloramientos rocosos que, probablemente, eran piedras-huaca."
[3]
[1]: (Covey 2006, 91) [2]: (Covey 2006b, 118) [3]: (McEwan et al 2005, 263) |
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|
Irrigated lands created by the Chacan canal system. Inka Roq’a improved irrigation and these resources "were passed down to his descendants, an innovation linked to the establishment of a royal estate system and the reorganization of Cusco’s moieties in the new state."
[1]
"The incorporation of some groups to the north of the Vilcanota River occurred around A.D. 1300, allowing the state to begin the development of hundreds of hectares of irrigated maize lands in the Vilcanota Valley."
[2]
[1]: (Covey 2003, 351) [2]: (Covey 2003, 353) |
||||||
|
Irrigation canals and agricultural terraces.
[1]
Wari were "the first to transform the highland Andean landscapes of the Pacific watersheds through terraced irrigation agriculture."
[2]
Wari constructed at least 7 irrigation canals in the Lucre Basin with total length of 48 km. The final 5 km of Canal A averaged 0.07 percent grade - "a true feat of engineering skill" since most ancient societies could manage only 0.5-1.5 percent grade. Also aqueducts at Cambayoq and Rumicolca.
[2]
[1]: (Covey 2006, 73) [2]: (McEwan and Williams in Bergh 2012, 74) |
||||||
|
The Orokaiva practiced no irrigation: ’Very full data on the size of these gardens have been provided by Crocombe and Hogbin (1963) and Rimoldi (1966). A household tends to establish something like one and a half to two acres of garden per year. A garden is never used for more than one taro season, but as planting and consumption of the taro each tend to be stretched over most of a year, almost two years elapse between the clearing and final abandonment. This gives time for the bananas and sugar-cane to reach maturity too. Once a garden is abandoned, it is not used again for at least eight years or so. The usual swidden agriculture techniques are used, burning, clearing, careful removal of ‘rubbish’ remaining after the burning process, planting with a digging stick, periodic attention to weeding and heaping up of earth around growing taro, removal of corm-bearing bases of petioles of mature taro for removal and planting in a new garden. The Orokaiva practise no irrigation, no form of terracing or drainage, no manuring, no measures against parasites. Sometimes a fence is made out of tree trunks to keep pigs from breaking in. This is usually done only after a pig has made its first expedition, and only on the side where the pig entered.’
[1]
[1]: Schwimmer, Eric G. 1973. “Exchange In The Social Structure Of The Orokaiva: Traditional And Emergent Ideologies In The Northern District Of Papua”, 20 |
||||||
|
Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
According to Haussig (1971) "a highly developed use of land, particularly by means of irrigation, as in Egypt and Syria, was unknown to the Byzantine economy, where no progress had been made in working and cultivating the soil"
[2]
Territory of Egypt and Syria not held in this period. However Harvey (2008): "Landowners had the resources to make improvements to their properties, in particular the construction of irrigation systems, and to specialize in cash crops like vines and olives."
[3]
Vines and olives are typically grown in Greece and Turkey.
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haussig 1971, 175-176) Haussig, H W.trans Hussey, J M. 1971. History of Byzantine Civilization. Thames and Hudson. [3]: (Harvey 2008, 634) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
||||||
|
The Orokaiva practiced no irrigation: ’Very full data on the size of these gardens have been provided by Crocombe and Hogbin (1963) and Rimoldi (1966). A household tends to establish something like one and a half to two acres of garden per year. A garden is never used for more than one taro season, but as planting and consumption of the taro each tend to be stretched over most of a year, almost two years elapse between the clearing and final abandonment. This gives time for the bananas and sugar-cane to reach maturity too. Once a garden is abandoned, it is not used again for at least eight years or so. The usual swidden agriculture techniques are used, burning, clearing, careful removal of ‘rubbish’ remaining after the burning process, planting with a digging stick, periodic attention to weeding and heaping up of earth around growing taro, removal of corm-bearing bases of petioles of mature taro for removal and planting in a new garden. The Orokaiva practise no irrigation, no form of terracing or drainage, no manuring, no measures against parasites. Sometimes a fence is made out of tree trunks to keep pigs from breaking in. This is usually done only after a pig has made its first expedition, and only on the side where the pig entered.’
[1]
[Even in colonial settlements, services were of a makeshift character.]
[1]: Schwimmer, Eric G. 1973. “Exchange In The Social Structure Of The Orokaiva: Traditional And Emergent Ideologies In The Northern District Of Papua”, 20 |
||||||
|
According to Ahmed, the variety of barley used "could be grown only in the irrigated fields, it implies and improved method of farming in the Kachi plains."
[1]
However, according to Akhund and Haroon, evidence for irrigation does not precede the Chalcolithic
[2]
.
[1]: (Ahmed 2014, 321) [2]: (Akhund and Haroon 1995: XII) Hameed Akhun and Hameed Haroon. 1995. ’Preface’ in Mehrgarh, edited by Catherine Jarrige, Jean-Francois Jarrige, Richard H. Meadow, and Gonzague Quivron. Karachi: Dept. of Culture and Tourism, Govt. of Sindh ; in collaboration with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |
||||||
|
According to Ahmed, the variety of barley used "could be grown only in the irrigated fields, it implies and improved method of farming in the Kachi plains."
[1]
However, according to Akhund and Haroon, evidence for irrigation does not precede the Chalcolithic
[2]
.
[1]: (Ahmed 2014, 321) [2]: (Akhund and Haroon 1995: XII) Hameed Akhun and Hameed Haroon. 1995. ’Preface’ in Mehrgarh, edited by Catherine Jarrige, Jean-Francois Jarrige, Richard H. Meadow, and Gonzague Quivron. Karachi: Dept. of Culture and Tourism, Govt. of Sindh ; in collaboration with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |
||||||
|
Period II: variety of barley used "could be grown only in the irrigated fields, it implies and improved method of farming in the Kachi plains."
[1]
In the broader Harappan context, water control technology began during the Amri-Nal period. This included the use of small shallow ditches to guide water onto a flat area, and investment in some kind of bunding - a low earthen wall or a gabarband.
[2]
[1]: (Ahmed 2014, 321) [2]: Gregory L. Possehl. Indus Age: The Beginnings. New Delhi, 1999, p.619 |
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|
Irrigation systems were present, but were not state owned. “…the main economic activity of the site was the cultivation of rice, Oryza sativa. There is evidence of rice-growing right from the beginning of the occupation and impressions of rice have been found in all the excavated areas… Only by the use of a system of dams… could it have been possible to fill the channels that were necessary to water the paddy-fields. We cannot doubt the ability of the inhabitants of Pirak to build such structures; since we have reported the discovery of a large channel running along the western side of the site, at the beginning of period IA.”
[1]
[2]
[1]: Jarrige, J-F. (1979) Fouilles de Pirak. Paris : Diffusion de Boccard. p402 [2]: Jarrige, J-F. (2000) Continuity and Change in the North Kachi Plain (Baluchistan, Pakistan) at the beginning of the Second Millennium BC. In, Lahiri, N. The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Permanent Black, Delhi., pp345-362. p347 |
||||||
|
Period II: variety of barley used "could be grown only in the irrigated fields, it implies and improved method of farming in the Kachi plains."
[1]
In the broader Harappan context, water control technology began during the Amri-Nal period. This included the use of small shallow ditches to guide water onto a flat area, and investment in some kind of bunding - a low earthen wall or a gabarband.
[2]
[1]: (Ahmed 2014, 321) [2]: Gregory L. Possehl. Indus Age: The Beginnings. New Delhi, 1999, p.619 |
||||||
|
The river Indus shifted its course three times during the period, substantially altering the areas irrigated for cultivation. This is detailed in a ground water map. Irrigation was the primary responsibility of the state
[1]
[1]: Panhwar, M.H, An illustrated Historical Atlas of Soomra Kingdom of the Sindh pp.121-134 |
||||||
|
The river Indus remained stable for the majority of the period. Irrigation was the primary responsibility of the state
[1]
[1]: Panhwar, M.H, An illustrated Historical Atlas of Soomra Kingdom of the Sindh pp.121-134; Lakho, Ghulam Muhammad, The Samma Kingdom of Sindh, (institute of Sindhology, 2006) pp.183 |
||||||
|
"[T]here is no evidence from the Indus period either of large-scale irrigation or of salinization there: The annual river floods and limited rainfall seem to have been adequate to support agriculture in the plains."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2008, 24) Jane McIntosh. 2008. The Ancient Indus Valley. Santa Barbara; Denver; Oxford: ABC-CLIO. |
||||||
|
Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
According to Haussig (1971) "a highly developed use of land, particularly by means of irrigation, as in Egypt and Syria, was unknown to the Byzantine economy, where no progress had been made in working and cultivating the soil"
[2]
Territory of Egypt and Syria not held in this period. However Harvey (2008): "Landowners had the resources to make improvements to their properties, in particular the construction of irrigation systems, and to specialize in cash crops like vines and olives."
[3]
Vines and olives are typically grown in Greece and Turkey.
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haussig 1971, 175-176) Haussig, H W.trans Hussey, J M. 1971. History of Byzantine Civilization. Thames and Hudson. [3]: (Harvey 2008, 634) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
||||||
|
In the pre-Russian period, the Sakha were transhumant pastoralists rather than farmers. Even in the early Russian period, settlements were built in close proximity to freshwater streams and lakes: ’It is watered [Page 327] from an ice-hole at the nearest river or lake. In spring it is often necessary to cut deep pathways in the ice, towards the old, exhausted ice-holes in order to secure the cattle access to the water. The cattle frequently kneel as they drink, while calves and horses drink out of buckets filled with water. The water in such old ice holes is nauseatingk putrid, and smells of hydrogen sulfide and of swamp. In order to diminish the freezing of the ice-holes during the night, the Yakut frequently cover them with straw covers and with snow. In this connection I may note that the ice on the lakes with ice-holes freezes apparently in a thicker layer than on the lakes on which no ice-holes are cut. In spring, [Page 328] when the nearest watering places are exhausted or have been frozen up, it becomes necessary on occasions to drive the cattle to a watering place about two viersts away, which is very inconvenient. That is why the selection of a place of settlement is strongly influenced by the nearness of the winter watering place. In hard frost, the watered cattle, shaking from cold, is driven into [Page 329] the warm cattle sheds where some feed is prepared for them in the mangers. In spring they have a little hay of a worse sort right in the enclosures. The calves, which all through the winter are kept in human dwellings, are fed and watered there, with the water on many occasions warmed up before the calves receive it. The cows that have just given birth to calves are also fed in the cattle sheds. Such cows are not taken 158 to water for 3-4 days and are instead given warm water to drink.’
[1]
Tokarev’s material suggests that irrigation systems did not become common prior to the Soviet period: ’Many farms use water wheels and pumps to water their gardens. In 1952, more than 300,000 hectares of land, chiefly green meadows and pastureland, were irrigated by means of both permanent and temporary installations. The first specialized meadow-reclamation station had been set up in the Gorniy Rayon.’
[2]
[1]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 326pp [2]: Tokarev, S. A., and Gurvich I. S. 1964. “Yakuts”, 291 |
||||||
|
Settlements were built in close proximity to freshwater streams and lakes: ’It is watered [Page 327] from an ice-hole at the nearest river or lake. In spring it is often necessary to cut deep pathways in the ice, towards the old, exhausted ice-holes in order to secure the cattle access to the water. The cattle frequently kneel as they drink, while calves and horses drink out of buckets filled with water. The water in such old ice holes is nauseatingk putrid, and smells of hydrogen sulfide and of swamp. In order to diminish the freezing of the ice-holes during the night, the Yakut frequently cover them with straw covers and with snow. In this connection I may note that the ice on the lakes with ice-holes freezes apparently in a thicker layer than on the lakes on which no ice-holes are cut. In spring, [Page 328] when the nearest watering places are exhausted or have been frozen up, it becomes necessary on occasions to drive the cattle to a watering place about two viersts away, which is very inconvenient. That is why the selection of a place of settlement is strongly influenced by the nearness of the winter watering place. In hard frost, the watered cattle, shaking from cold, is driven into [Page 329] the warm cattle sheds where some feed is prepared for them in the mangers. In spring they have a little hay of a worse sort right in the enclosures. The calves, which all through the winter are kept in human dwellings, are fed and watered there, with the water on many occasions warmed up before the calves receive it. The cows that have just given birth to calves are also fed in the cattle sheds. Such cows are not taken 158 to water for 3-4 days and are instead given warm water to drink.’
[1]
Tokarev’s material suggests that irrigation systems did not become common prior to the Soviet period: ’Many farms use water wheels and pumps to water their gardens. In 1952, more than 300,000 hectares of land, chiefly green meadows and pastureland, were irrigated by means of both permanent and temporary installations. The first specialized meadow-reclamation station had been set up in the Gorniy Rayon.’
[2]
[1]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 326pp [2]: Tokarev, S. A., and Gurvich I. S. 1964. “Yakuts”, 291 |
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|
"The muang fai irrigation system was used on fast flowing streams up to twenty metres in width, across which weirs elevated water by up to two or more metres. The fai held back water which was directed to major and minor canals known as muang in which gates, tang, controlled flow rates. Where a muang could be constructed by diverting water from a river, no fai was needed. Constructed from bamboo and woodern stakes driven into the river bed against which rocks, poles and sand were placed, the fai allowed water to pass through and over the barrier while restricting the rate of flow and thus raising the water level."
[1]
[1]: (Falvey 2000, p. 113) |
||||||
|
"The muang fai irrigation system was used on fast flowing streams up to twenty metres in width, across which weirs elevated water by up to two or more metres. The fai held back water which was directed to major and minor canals known as muang in which gates, tang, controlled flow rates. Where a muang could be constructed by diverting water from a river, no fai was needed. Constructed from bamboo and woodern stakes driven into the river bed against which rocks, poles and sand were placed, the fai allowed water to pass through and over the barrier while restricting the rate of flow and thus raising the water level."
[1]
[1]: (Falvey 2000, p. 113) |
||||||
|
"This centre of settlement, one of the oldest in Central Asia, is situated between a mountainous region suitable for cattle rearing by nomadic pastoralists, and a large valley conducive to the development of agriculture and irrigation by the first settled populations in the region."
[1]
"perhaps at other settlements, eating bread made from wheat grown in irrigated fields (Isakov 1994, Isakov et al. 1987, Lyonnet 1996)."
[2]
[1]: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1141 [2]: (Anthony and Brown 2014, 63) Anthony, David W. Brown, Dorcas R. Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes. in Mair, Victor H. Hickman, Jane. eds. 2014. Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity. University of Pennsylvanian Press. |
||||||
|
Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
According to Haussig (1971) "a highly developed use of land, particularly by means of irrigation, as in Egypt and Syria, was unknown to the Byzantine economy, where no progress had been made in working and cultivating the soil"
[2]
Territory of Egypt and Syria not held in this period. However Harvey (2008): "Landowners had the resources to make improvements to their properties, in particular the construction of irrigation systems, and to specialize in cash crops like vines and olives."
[3]
Vines and olives are typically grown in Greece and Turkey.
[1]: (Johannes Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haussig 1971, 175-176) Haussig, H W.trans Hussey, J M. 1971. History of Byzantine Civilization. Thames and Hudson. [3]: (Harvey 2008, 634) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
||||||
|
much damage to irrigation systems in Mongol conquest but not entirely destroyed.
|
||||||
|
Rebuilt Egyptian irrigation systems.
[1]
Maintained Egyptian irrigation systems with wood brought from Anatolia.
[2]
[1]: (Lapidus 2002, 294) [2]: (http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_interdisciplinary_history/v043/43.1.greene.html) |
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|
Not mentioned in the literature, probably not necessary in this geographic region? Inference confirmed by Peter Peregrine.
|
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|
Iroquois communities relied on natural rivers and springs for their water supply: ’Water was naturally the most common beverage. The sites of villages everywhere are found to be in proximity to some sort of water supply. Sometimes this was in the form of springs, or spring creeks, rivers, or even pondholes or ditches, sources which are still more or less in favour in many localities.’
[1]
’A boundary line would seem at first to be a difficult problem in Indian geography. But a peculiar custom of our predecessors has divested this subject of much of its embarrassment, and enabled us to ascertain with considerable certainty the territorial limits of the nations of the League. The Iroquois rejected all natural boundaries, and substituted longitudinal lines. This appears to have resulted from the custom of establishing themselves upon both banks of the streams upon which they resided. Having no knowledge of the use of wells, they were accustomed to fix their habitations upon the banks of creeks, and easily forded rivers, or in the vicinity of copious springs. Inland lakes were never divided by a boundary line; but the line itself was deflected, that the entire circuit of each lake might be possessed by a single nation. The natural limits which rivers and lakes might furnish having thus been disregarded, and straight lines substituted, the inquiry is freed from some of its difficulties, and greater certainty is given to their boundaries, when certain points upon them are decisively ascertained.’
[2]
[1]: Waugh, Frederick W. 1916. “Iroquois Foods And Food Preparation”, 144 [2]: Morgan, Lewis Henry, and Herbert M. Lloyd 1901. “League Of The Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee Or Iroquois. Vol. I”, 38 |
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Iroquois communities relied on natural rivers and springs for their water supply: ’Water was naturally the most common beverage. The sites of villages everywhere are found to be in proximity to some sort of water supply. Sometimes this was in the form of springs, or spring creeks, rivers, or even pondholes or ditches, sources which are still more or less in favour in many localities.’
[1]
’A boundary line would seem at first to be a difficult problem in Indian geography. But a peculiar custom of our predecessors has divested this subject of much of its embarrassment, and enabled us to ascertain with considerable certainty the territorial limits of the nations of the League. The Iroquois rejected all natural boundaries, and substituted longitudinal lines. This appears to have resulted from the custom of establishing themselves upon both banks of the streams upon which they resided. Having no knowledge of the use of wells, they were accustomed to fix their habitations upon the banks of creeks, and easily forded rivers, or in the vicinity of copious springs. Inland lakes were never divided by a boundary line; but the line itself was deflected, that the entire circuit of each lake might be possessed by a single nation. The natural limits which rivers and lakes might furnish having thus been disregarded, and straight lines substituted, the inquiry is freed from some of its difficulties, and greater certainty is given to their boundaries, when certain points upon them are decisively ascertained.’
[2]
[1]: Waugh, Frederick W. 1916. “Iroquois Foods And Food Preparation”, 144 [2]: Morgan, Lewis Henry, and Herbert M. Lloyd 1901. “League Of The Ho-De’-No-Sau-Nee Or Iroquois. Vol. I”, 38 |
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Irrigation infrastructure was extensive, including water-diversion walls for dryland agriculture
[1]
and pondfields for taro
[2]
. Irrigation was utilized in Kohala and Hāmākua valleys on the Big Island
[3]
.
[1]: Kirch, P. V. 1985. Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pp. 171-5. [2]: Kirch, P. V. 1985. Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pg. 218. [3]: Kirch, P. V. 1985. Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An Introduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pg. 220. |
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Not mentioned in the literature, probably not necessary in this geographic region. Inference approved by Peter Peregrine.
|
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"As early as the sixth century BC, the people of Khwarazm had become masters of hydraulic engineering, diverting whole rivers into freshly dug channels to serve major centers tens of miles away, and dividing them again into canals to provide water to more remote towns. Nowhere on earth were irrigation technologies more highly developed than here."
[1]
"Archaeologists, however, consider that in Chorasmia proper substantial progress in the development of irrigated agriculture may be observed only in the sixth century b.c., while in the eighth and seventh centuries b.c. the country had neither a numerous population nor an advanced irrigation system.
[2]
"As distinct from other steppe cultures, Khorezm’s economy was based on irrigation farming. The 150-200m long canals would irrigate small rectangular fields (Adrianov 1969)."
[3]
[1]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. [2]: (Dandamayev 1994, 43) [3]: (Kuzima 2007, 238) Kuzmina, Elena Efimovna. 2007. The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. BRILL. |
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"Le developpement economique repose alors encore sur une agriculture seche qui pourrait avoir ete periodiquement secondee par les eaux d’un torrent de montagne (communications orales de B. Rondelli et M. Isamiddinov)."
[1]
During its first phase, Kok Tepe relied on dryland farming, occasionally receiving natural irrigation from a mountain stream. "it can be provisionally assumed that the two earlier Iron Age phases distinguished at Koktepe could represent the first manifestations of local agricultural development. Maurizio Tosi has proposed that for the southern slopes of the Zerafshan valley, along the Dargom canal, this economic system could have developed from an earlier period, when irrigation was limited to the natural flows of water from the foothills (Koktepe I period), to a later irrigation system, mainly exemplified by the excavation of the great canals deriving from the Zerafshan, the Bulungur and the Dargom (Koktepe II period)."
[2]
[1]: (Rapin and Isamiddinov 2013, 124-125) [2]: (Rapin 2007, 35) Rapin, Claude. "Nomads and the Shaping of Central Asia: from the Early Iron Age to the Kushan Period." in Cribb, Joe. Herrmann, Georgina. 2007. After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam. British Academy. |
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|
Present in region.
[1]
"it can be provisionally assumed that the two earlier Iron Age phases distinguished at Koktepe could represent the first manifestations of local agricultural development. Maurizio Tosi has proposed that for the southern slopes of the Zerafshan valley, along the Dargom canal, this economic system could have developed from an earlier period, when irrigation was limited to the natural flows of water from the foothills (Koktepe I period), to a later irrigation system, mainly exemplified by the excavation of the great canals deriving from the Zerafshan, the Bulungur and the Dargom (Koktepe II period)."
[2]
[1]: (Francfort 1982) Francfort, Henri-Paul. The economy, society and culture of Central Asia in Achaemenid times. in Boardman, John. Hammond, N. G. L. Lewis, D. M. Ostwald, M. 1988. The Cambridge Ancient History. Second edition. Volume 10. Cambridge University Press. [2]: (Rapin 2007, 35) Rapin, Claude. "Nomads and the Shaping of Central Asia: from the Early Iron Age to the Kushan Period." in Cribb, Joe. Herrmann, Georgina. 2007. After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam. British Academy. |
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"Abu Said (1424-1469) proved serious and competent, winning popular support by attending to the restoration of irrigation and agriculture."
[1]
Spanish ambassador Clavijo observed irrigation water channels outside Kesh.
[2]
[1]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. [2]: (Marozzi 2004, 25) Marozzi, J. 2004. Tamerlane. HarperCollinsPublishers. London. |
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"The Kingdom of Himyar rose to power in the highlands supported by some large dams, valleywide barrages and other impressive agricultural constructions, but most crops grown in the highlands were undoubtedly rainfed and roughly 75 percent of crops in Yemen today are grown without irrigation."
[1]
[1]: (Harrower 2016, 151) Michael J Harrower. 2016. Water Histories and Spatial Archaeology. Ancient Yemen and the American West. Cambridge University Press. New York. |
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"The Kingdom of Himyar rose to power in the highlands supported by some large dams, valleywide barrages and other impressive agricultural constructions, but most crops grown in the highlands were undoubtedly rainfed and roughly 75 percent of crops in Yemen today are grown without irrigation."
[1]
[1]: (Harrower 2016, 151) Michael J Harrower. 2016. Water Histories and Spatial Archaeology. Ancient Yemen and the American West. Cambridge University Press. New York. |
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According to Ethnographic Atlas variable 28 ’Intensity of Agriculture’, the Yemenis practice ’Intensive irrigated agriculture.’ Yemen has a long tradition of irrigated terraced agriculture, although most land was under dry cultivation: ’Yemen’s difficult terrain, limited soil, inconsistent water supply, and large number of microclimates have fostered some of the most highly sophisticated methods of water conservation and seed adaptation found anywhere in the world, making possible the cultivation of surprisingly diverse crops. The most common crops are cereals such as millet, corn (maize), wheat, barley, and sorghum; myriad vegetables from a burgeoning truck farm industry have appeared on the market in recent years. There has also been extensive cultivation of fruits-both tropical (mangoes, plantains, bananas, melons, papayas, and citrus) and temperate (pears, peaches, apples, and grapes).’
[1]
[1]: (Burrowes and Wenner 2020) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/RMZUSMFG. |
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"In the irrigated regions of the piedmont and in the cultivated lands of mountainous and highland areas, the numerous hydraulic and agricultural installations—dams, canals, sluice gates, wells, or terraced fields—testify to a high degree of technical skill associated with these settlements (2.19 and 2.27)."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 93) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www-oxfordscholarship-com.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.001.0001/acprof-9780199654529-chapter-3. |
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"In the irrigated regions of the piedmont and in the cultivated lands of mountainous and highland areas, the numerous hydraulic and agricultural installations—dams, canals, sluice gates, wells, or terraced fields—testify to a high degree of technical skill associated with these settlements (2.19 and 2.27)."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 93) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZMFH42PE. |
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|
"In the irrigated regions of the piedmont and in the cultivated lands of mountainous and highland areas, the numerous hydraulic and agricultural installations—dams, canals, sluice gates, wells, or terraced fields—testify to a high degree of technical skill associated with these settlements (2.19 and 2.27)."
[1]
[1]: (Robin 2015: 93) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www-oxfordscholarship-com.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.001.0001/acprof-9780199654529-chapter-3. |
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This is based on the codes for the Rasulids as ’Sultan ’Amir also appears to have been emulating the high period of Rasulid power a hundred years earlier’
[1]
. "Muslim dynasties followed each other including the Rasulids ... when Yemen excelled in the arts and sciences. However, millennia of deforestation and irrigation of crops had subjected the fertile lands to erosion and salinization."
[2]
"Agriculture flourished: special officials supervised irrigation and one of the princes even wrote a scientific treatise on the culture of cereals."
[3]
[1]: Porter, Venetia Ann (1992) The history and monuments of the Tahirid dynasty of the Yemen 858-923/1454-1517, Durham theses, Durham University, p. 4 Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/ [2]: (Stanton 2003, 159) William Stanton. 2003. The Rapid Growth of Human Populations, 1750-2000: Histories, Consequences, Issues, Nation by Nation. Multi-Science Publishing. [3]: (Bidwell 1983, 14) Robin Leonard Bidwell. 1983. The Two Yemens. Longman. |
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“Inscriptions reveal that irrigated agriculture grew steadily during the medieval dynasties of Madurai Pandya and Chola kings (c. 750 to 1300). Tanks multiplied, and by the thirteenth century there were thirty recorded nadus (agrarian territories) in Tirunelveli, many relying on tanks for irrigation. Meanwhile, in the western Tambraparni River valley and similar up-river tracts, dams were built to push water out of rivers to irrigate paddy fields. These dams fed relatively short systems of channels and watered directly, for the most part. Most dams, if not all, were temporary. Built on rock foundations, they required reconstruction after each flood season, a design that remains in use today. Fields were irrigated from channels leading from dams; fields drained one into the other down terraced slopes, and emptied back into the river. With such dam-and-channel systems, the up-river tracts became highly productive, but the Tambraparni region near Ambasamudram was the locus of the most dramatic agricultural and political development under the medieval dynasties.”
[1]
[1]: (Ludden 1979, 354) Ludden, David. 1979. ‘Patronage and Irrigation in Tamil Nadu: A Long-term View’. The Indian Economic & Social History Review. Vol 16: 3. Pp. 347-365. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/G7TWCIIW/collection |
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"Until the 13th century AD the economy of the dry zone depended on the system of irrigation developed by the past kings. Although the seat of administration shifted to the South-west with the establishment of the Dambadeniya kingdom economic conditions of the county did not undergo a radical change."
|
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“By the tenth century there was a vast array of irrigation works spread over a substantial part of the dry zone of the country. The monumental scale of the large tanks is positive evidence of a prosperous economy and a well-organised state which had so great an agricultural surplus to invest in these projects as well as on religious and public buildings designed on a lavish scale. By itself the irrigation network of ancient Sri Lanka was a tribute to the ingenuity of her engineers and craftsmen, and the organisational skills of her rulers. […] Proximity to the Mahaväli, the longest river in Sri Lanka, increased the economic potential of this region. Mahāsena had built the famous Minneriya tank there, and between the fourth and ninth centuries a number of smaller tanks in the region would have helped sustain a considerable population producing a substantial agricultural surplus. The economic importance of the region was further enhanced by the development of commercial relations with China and South-East Asia, in which the port of Gokonna (modern Trincomalee) would have played a prominent part. Thus the adoption of Polonnaruva as the capital of the Sinhalese kingdom by four kings of the period between the seventh and tenth centuries, and the final abandonment of Anurādhapura in its favour, were determined as much by considerations of economic advantage as by strategic and military factors.
[1]
[1]: (De Silva 1981, 31) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection |
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“The Polonnaruva kings were the heirs to several centuries of experience in irrigation technology. But they themselves—and especially Parākramabāhu I—made a distinctive contribution of their own in honing these techniques to cope with the special requirements of the immense irrigation projects constructed at this time. There was, for instance, the colossal size of the Parākrama Samudra (the sea of Parākrama) which, with an embankment rising to an average height of 40 feet and stretching over its entire length of 8 miles, was by far the largest irrigation tank constructed in ancient Sri Lanka…Refinement of irrigation technology, was demonstrated also in the three weirs built across the Däduru-Oya, the only river in the western part of the dry zone to provide anything like a perennial supply of water.”
[1]
[1]: (De Silva 1981, 68) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection |
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While not specifically referring to Great Zimbabwe, Pikirayi seems to rule out the idea of any polity-managed irrigation system within the traditional and historic societies of the region. “There is no evidence to suggest that precolonial societies, particularly major states in Zambezia, required large-scale irrigation works to manage their arid to semi-arid environments, such as those found in Asian and Central American civilisations.”
[1]
[1]: (Pikirayi , 149) Innocent Pikirayi, “Water and Large-Scale Societies in Southern Zambezia, 900-1900 CE,” in Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present (London: Routledge, 2018): 136-154. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/VP8NIACW/collection |
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"The arrival of the Dutch represented an absolute revolution for the local [Taiwanese] population. Besides several new crops such as sugar and indigo, the Dutch also introduced oxen to the island, using the animals mainly for transport and land clearance. The construction of irrigation works was stimulated by exemptions from taxation, and deer hunting was optimised by the sale of exclusive trading rights to the Taiwanese villages. All these interventions had considerable ecological consequences: in 1638, for example, no fewer than 151,400 deer were killed! Nonetheless, these effects should also not be exaggerated, because this was still a relatively small area in the south-west of the island."
[1]
Also in 18th-century Sri Lanka: "The construction of irrigation and drainage works and canals improved the infrastructure, made cinnamon production more self-sufficient, and gave a strong impetus to the cultivation of rice and other crops such as areca, pepper, coffee and cardamom."
[2]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 363) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection. [2]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 294) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection. |
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“The earliest projects were no doubt directed more at conserving than at diverting water on any large scale. But by the first century AD, large-scale irrigation works were being built. The construction of tanks, canals and channels which this involved exhibited an amazing knowledge of trigonometry, and the design of the tanks a thorough grasp of hydraulic principles. The tanks had broad bases which could withstand heavy pressures, and at suitable points in the embankment there were outlets for the discharge of water. The Sinhalese were the ‘first inventors of the valve pit’ (bisokotuva), counterpart of the sluice which regulated the flow of water from a modern reservoir or tank. The engineers of the third century BC or earlier who invented it had done their work with a sophistication and mastery that enabled their successors of later centuries merely to copy the original device with only minor adaptations or changes, if any. […] During the reign of Mahāsena (227-301 AD), the Älahära canal became the main source of water supply for the Minneriya tanks which he built, and which was by far the largest tank up to that time. Mahāsena is credited with the construction of sixteen tanks and canals, four of which are in the Anurādhapura area, and one in the Puttalam district. Three notable trends in the development of irrigation facilities during his reign were: a resolute endeavour to harness the waters of the Mahaväli and the Ambangaṅga, the most important project being the massive Minneriya tank; the improvement of facilities for water conservation in the north-western part of the island; and the attempt to develop the south-western part of the dry zone on the periphery of the wet zone. Together they accelerated agricultural development in the vicinity of Anurādhapura, and opened up new areas for cultivation in the east and southwest. All the major irrigation projects initiated by him were achieved by a prodigious investment of labour resources on an unprecedented scale, and they reflect, too, a notable advance in irrigation technology in the island.”
[1]
[1]: (De Silva, 1981, 28, 29). De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection |
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“Individual farmers sometimes take advantage of nearby streams to dig irrigation ditches, and in some hilly regions there is gullying and work on drainage, but this sort of work is done by groups of no more than four to five men.”
[1]
[1]: (Lewis 2001, 52) Lewis, Herbert S. 2001. Jimma Abba Jifar, an Oromo Monarchy: Ethiopia, 1830-1932. Lawrenceville, New Jersey: The Red Sea Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NRZVWSCD/collection |
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“In the 15th century, the Ajuran became increasingly authoritarian and oppressive. Their subjects were forced to dig kelis (canals) for irrigation, and bakars (storage pits) for cereals that were collected in tribute.”
[1]
[1]: (Mukhtar 2016, Encyclopedia of Empire) Mukhtar, Mohamed H. 2016. ‘Ajuran Sultanate.’ In J.Mackenzie Encyclopedia of Empire. Wiley. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5U3NQRMR/library |
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“At Vanagiri, there are remains of an artificial channel that drew water from the Kaveri into a reservoir for irrigation purposes, probably built in the early centuries CE.”
[1]
[1]: (Singh 2008, 402) Singh, Upinder. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. London: Pearson Education. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/UJG2G6MJ/collection |
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“After settling down at Thanjavur, Venkoji devoted his entire attention towards improvement of agriculture and the economic condition of his subjects by providing irrigation facilities, digging and widening of channels and constructing new tanks to obtain better yields.”
[1]
[1]: (Bhosle, 2017) Bhosle, Prince Pratap Sinh Serfoji Raje. 2017. Contributions of Thanjavur Maratha Kings. Second edition. Chennai: Notion Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/A9ABDVKX/collection |
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“Sangam texts refer to ulavar or toluvar as the tillers of menpulam. They knew the technique of harnessing the bullocks (erutu) at their necks with a cross-bar (nukam) to ploughshare (meli or nanjil) which was iron-tipped for furrowing buffaloes (erumai) were also used for ploughing. Tank irrigation (ayam) and minor dam (sirai) irrigation are mentioned.”
[1]
[1]: (Agnihotri 1988, 357) Agnihotri, V.K. 1988. Indian History. New Delhi: Allied Publishers Pvt. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/PNX9XBJQ/collection |
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“The Pallavan tanks and wells, several of which function even today, were the lifeline of the Pallavan villages. The village population was almost wholly dependent of them for irrigation. The rainwater, which increased the stored volume of water in these devices, made tanks and wells crucial when it came to irrigating agricultural fields during the long dry spells experienced by these regions.”
[1]
[1]: (Saghar 2015, 5) Saghar, Amol. 2015. ‘Irrigation Under the Pallavas’ Social Scientist. Vol. 43:5/6. Pp 3-10. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/ZHNKD5GI/collection |
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While not specifically referring to Mutapa, Pikirayi seems to rule out the idea of any polity-managed irrigation system within the traditional and historic societies of the region. “There is no evidence to suggest that precolonial societies, particularly major states in Zambezia, required large-scale irrigation works to manage their arid to semi-arid environments, such as those found in Asian and Central American civilisations.”
[1]
[1]: (Pikirayi , 149) Innocent Pikirayi, “Water and Large-Scale Societies in Southern Zambezia, 900-1900 CE,” in Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present (London: Routledge, 2018): 136-154. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/VP8NIACW/item-details |
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“The earliest projects were no doubt directed more at conserving than at diverting water on any large scale. But by the first century AD, large-scale irrigation works were being built. The construction of tanks, canals and channels which this involved exhibited an amazing knowledge of trigonometry, and the design of the tanks a thorough grasp of hydraulic principles. The tanks had broad bases which could withstand heavy pressures, and at suitable points in the embankment there were outlets for the discharge of water. The Sinhalese were the ‘first inventors of the valve pit’ (bisokotuva), counterpart of the sluice which regulated the flow of water from a modern reservoir or tank. The engineers of the third century BC or earlier who invented it had done their work with a sophistication and mastery that enabled their successors of later centuries merely to copy the original device with only minor adaptations or changes, if any.”
[1]
“The first mentions of large‐scale tanks date to the fifth and fourth centuries BCE and such references peak in the second century CE, paralleling the (peri)urban and religious development of Anuradhapura and its hinterland.”
[2]
[1]: (De Silva, 1981, 28). De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection [2]: (Abeywardana 2019,99) Abeywardana, Nuwan et al. 2019. ‘Evolution of the dry zone water harvesting and management systems in Sri Lanka during the Anuradhapura Kingdom; a study based on ancient chronicles and lithic inscriptions.’ Water History. Vol 11. Pp. 75–103. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/GE82D6DI/collection |
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The following quote suggests that irrigations systems might have been present during this period due to the presence of various water tanks around the temple complex of Pudu Mandapa. “Water may have been supplied by either the small octagonal tank that lies between the Pudu Mandapa and the Raya Gopura that is called the Vasanta Tank on Francis’ 1906 plan of the temple, or from the Elukakalkkulam (‘Seven Seas Tank’). This festival tank (teppakkulam) was built according to an inscription in c. 1516/7 as the gift of the Vijayanagara ruler Krishnadevaraya and was located about one hundred metres east of the Raya Gopura through it is now built over.”
[1]
[1]: (Branfoot 2001, 198) Branfoot, Crispin. 2001. ‘Tirumala Nayaka’s ‘New Hall’ and the European Study of the South Indian Temple. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol 11:2. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/FE5VZ76M/collection |
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"There are [...] no signs of communal construction activities, and no preserved facilities to store agricultural surplus. [...] It has to be considered that the preservation of features in Nok sites is generally poor and that the amount of data is not too large and regionally restricted to a rather small key study area."
[1]
[1]: (Breunig and Ruppe 2016: 253) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/ES4TRU7R. |
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The following suggests that the only identified buildings were houses, and that houses fulfilled multiple purposes ("economically generalized”). ”The community [of Kirikongo] was founded by a single house (Mound 4) c. ad 100 (Yellow I), as part of a regional expansion of farming peoples in small homesteads in western Burkina Faso. A true village emerged with the establishment of a second house (Mound 1) c. ad 450, and by the end of the first millennium ad the community had expanded to six houses. At first, these were economically generalized houses (potting, iron metallurgy, farming and herding) settled distantly apart with direct access to farming land that appear to have exercised some autonomy."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2015: 21-22) |
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"There are [...] no signs of communal construction activities, and no preserved facilities to store agricultural surplus. [...] It has to be considered that the preservation of features in Nok sites is generally poor and that the amount of data is not too large and regionally restricted to a rather small key study area."
[1]
[1]: (Breunig and Ruppe 2016: 253) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/ES4TRU7R. |
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"The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31) |
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Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31) |
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"The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31) |
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The near-absence of archaeologically identified settlements makes it particularly challenging to infer most building types. "While the historical sources provide a vague picture of the events of the first 500 years of the Kanem-Borno empire, archaeologically almost nothing is known. [...] Summing up, very little is known about the capitals or towns of the early Kanem- Borno empire. The locations of the earliest sites have been obscured under the southwardly protruding sands of the Sahara, and none of the later locations can be identified with certainty."
[1]
[1]: (Gronenborn 2002: 104-110) |
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"Contexts that could shed light on the dynamics of social structure and hierarchies in the metropolis, such as the royal burial site of Oyo monarchs and the residences of the elite population, have not been investigated. The mapping of the palace structures has not been followed by systematic excavations (Soper, 1992); and questions of the economy, military system, and ideology of the empire have not been addressed archaeologically, although their general patterns are known from historical studies (e.g, Johnson, 1921; Law, 1977)."
[1]
Regarding this period, however, one of the historical studies mentioned in this quote also notes: "Of the earliestperiod of Oyo history, before the sixteenth century, very little is known."
[2]
Law does not then go on to provide specific information directly relevant to this variable.
[1]: (Ogundiran 2005: 151-152) [2]: (Law 1977: 33) |
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“By 1910, Mexico possessed 20,000 km [of railroad] (Garner (1995) 341). Foreign funds played a major role, but the passage of the 1883 land law was crucial, since it allowed for the expropriation of private property for public works, including railroads, roads, canals, rechanneling of rivers, dikes and related facilities (Van Hoy (2008) 15). The completion of other major lines followed, especially to the northern border with the United States and in the south along the difficult Isthmus of Tehuantepec.”
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“At its peak, Tiwanaku held power over a large part of present-day eastern and southern Bolivia, northwestern Argentina, northern Chile, and southern Peru. Its influence was largely due to its impressive “raised-field system” of agriculture, which used elevated planting beds separated from each other by small irrigation canals. The canals were designed to keep the crops from freezing on cold nights by preserving the heat from the daytime sun and for growing algae and aquatic plants used as fertilizer.”
[1]
“One of the most remarkable characteristics of the lower Terrace Zone (TZ) is water availability. Water collection pockets, located much higher in the mountains, provide water year round, making it possible to irrigate the fields. There are numerous main that run through the lower terraces, suggesting that these broad surfaces may have been irrigated in the past.”
[2]
[1]: (Middleton 2015: 947) Middleton, John. 2015. World Monarchies and Dynasties. Volume 1-3, A-Z. London: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7N3PNVCB [2]: (Albarracin-Jordan 1999: 67) Albarracin-Jordan, Juan V. 1999. The Archeaology of Tiwanaku: The Myths, History, and Science of an Ancient Andean Civilization. Bolivia: Impresión P.A.P. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/P7MDWPAP |
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“Because the Chacoans were skilled builders, Gordon Vivian was sure that they must have had some way of collecting and distributing this water. He soon found evidence of an efficient irrigation system. Later, Gwinn expanded on his father’s work. The Chacoan irrigation system depended on dams and canals. After a rainstorm a dam at the mouth of each side canyon collected the water that fell from the cliff top. The water was then channeled into a stone-lined canal, which emptied into a head gate with narrow openings that could be blocked or left open to control the water’s flow into ditches. The ditches led to large plots of many individual gardens. In the summer of 1967, Gwinn Vivian excavated a dam that had been built across one of the main side canyons. It was a massive structure more than 120 feet long and 7 feet high. The water emptied into a canal through a gate near the middle of the dam. The long, curving, masonry-lined canal directed the water to 24 acres of bordered gardens that were laid out in neat rectangles. Gwinn Vivian calculated that a summer thunderstorm that produced 1 1/4 inches of rain in an hour would have provided the Penasco Blanco gardens with 540,000 gallons of water—half a gallon per square foot. The Chacoan genius for building and engineering allowed a large number of people to live in that otherwise dry and rugged canyon.”
[1]
[1]: (Gwinn and Anderson 2002: 30) Gwinn Vivian, R. and Anderson, Margaret. 2002. Chaco Canyon, Digging for the Past. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/996XW2NW |
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“Tikal is located in the Petén district, Guatemala, on top of an escarpment (250 m asl) surrounded by swampy areas to the west and east, earthworks to the north and south ( Jones et al. 1981), and large tracts of fertile land (Fedick and Ford 1990).1 It is one of the best-known and largest Maya centers (Figure 6.1). Since it is not near lakes or rivers, its inhabitants relied on several complex reservoir systems to offset seasonal water shortages (Scarborough and Gallopin 1991), which are found next to temples and royal palaces.”
[1]
[1]: (Lucero 2006: 162) Lucero, Lisa J. 2006. Water and Ritual: The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers. Austin: University of Texas Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NSX2SNWU |
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The famous traveller and geographer, Yaqut, wrote that Khwarazm infrastructure was prosperous and had canals and irrigation works.
[1]
Large areas of pasture were irrigated by channelling water from the canal, which was navigable.
[2]
[1]: Boyle 1968: 142. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CFW8EE6Q [2]: Buniyatov 2015: 85. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SAEVEJFH |
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At the palace at Meknes: “In the centre ran running water. Each animal had its stall and a shelter for its equipment. Opposite was a storehouse, the heri which supported a supplementary palace with twenty pavilions. Between the palace and the stables was the granary, forty feet high and big enough, it was said, to contain the whole harvest of Morocco. At the side was a pond for irrigation purposes and also subterranean reserves of water in case of a siege.”
[1]
[1]: (Bosworth 2007: 399) Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. 2007. ed., Historic Cities of the Islamic World. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/HGHDXVAC |
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Irrigation was already present in England and was developed throughout the Empire.
[1]
[1]: ( Porter 1999: 351) Porter, Andrew, ed. 1999. The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, vol. 3, 5 vols. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GTF9V4CG |
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“In field practice, the greatest forward step was the introduction of irrigation. Periods of drouth had been one of the un- predictable hazards of the business and in some years had caused serious losses. The first extensive use of irrigation was on the Lihue plantation on Kauai, where a ditch about ten miles long, with tunnels included, was dug in 1856 under the supervision of William H. Rice, manager of the plantation. In succeeding years, the ditch was lengthened, and the supply of water thus obtained saved the plantation from failure. A visitor to Maui in the spring of 1863 observed ditches ‘cut along the foot of the hills, for conveying the waters of the mountain streams’ to the sugar plantations in the vicinity of Wailuku. In 1866, a ‘broad and deep ditch, four miles long’ was dug to bring water onto the Waihee (or Lewers) plantation in the same district. Manager of this plantation was Samuel T. Alexander who, at a later time, with Henry P. Baldwin constructed the much greater Hamakua ditch on the same island. References to irrigation are not numerous, but it is evident that the practice was adopted on other plantations
[1]
[1]: (Kuykendall 1938: 144) Kuykendall, Ralph Simpson. 1938. The Hawaiian Kingdom. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. http://archive.org/details/hawaiiankingdom0002kuyk. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/QJ4Z7AAB |
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Irrigation was already present in the UK and was developed throughout the Empire.
[1]
[1]: ( Porter 1999: 351) Porter, Andrew, ed. 1999. The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, vol. 3, 5 vols. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GTF9V4CG |
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“With the development of medieval river navigation and timber rafting, mainly on the Vltava and Elbe, fairly intense water-engineering activity began in the Czech Lands (weirs were built, river-beds were adjusted). The first artificial reservoirs – ponds – were established by the damming of streams and smaller rivers, probably from as early as the 13th century.”
[1]
“The greatest and most important pond basins in the Bohemian crown lands were established in the areas of Pardubice, Poděbrady and Třeboň. In Pardubice, the level territory of the Pernštejn domain, kept extremely wet by the meandering Elbe, had good conditions for the construction of a pond system. The ponds were linked by two long artificial canals – the Opatovice canal, built from the end of the 15th century to 1513, and Počaply canal of the same period. Together with the Golden Canal and New River in Třeboň, and the Sány Canal and the New Canal in Poděbrady, these artificial canals were an index of how advanced water construction was. The important Czech pisciculturist and knight, Kunát of Dobřenice, worked in the service of the Pernštejns, and Štěpánek Netolický was one of his students. The Pardubice pond system was completed half way through the 15th century. Now there was hardly any further space to be found in the landscape for new water reservoirs. In the environs of Pardubice and the Mount Kunětice, there were about 230, of which the largest was some hundred hectares (the largest pond in Pardubice, Čeperka, measured about 1,000 hectares, constructed in 1491–1496, submerged several villages).”
[2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 41) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ [2]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 42) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ |
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