Рубрика: Water Engineering in Ancient Civilizations. 5,000 Years of History

Chronological Table

[1] Sanlaville (1996). [2] For a recent synthesis of the birth of agriculture and the Neolithic revolution, see the book of the pre­historian and archaeologist Jacques Cauvin, Naissance des divinites, naissance de l’agriculture, la revo­lution des symbols au Neolithique, revised in 1996. [3] Some have proposed that population pressure explains the exodus which clearly accompanied […]

To design, and then to maintain

Planning for the maintenance of an engineering structure as an integral part of its design has become routine in modern practice. Yet, by necessity, this preoccupation was also present in numerous ancient projects. For example planning of the irrigation system of Sechuan, with its intake at Dujiangyang, obviously took into account the need to clean […]

The early technologies

One may be skeptical of the overall contribution of Hellenistic science — its relative dis­connection with practical application, or its failure to document the significant revolu­tion represented by hydraulic energy. But the incontestable fact remains that in the study of the science and techniques of Antiquity preceding the Middle Ages, one cannot avoid marking pre […]

The dawn of the 14th century, from the era of abbeys to the era of cities, and the rebirth of central power

We have seen that the role of the abbeys, and in particular the Cistercians, was quite important in the conquest of new agricultural lands in the 12th and 13th centuries. However an assessment of the social success of these monk-hydraulicians is not as clear as it might be. Unless supported by a powerful lord or […]

Land development and management

The minor lay lords of the middle ages were all too often uninterested in the manage­ment of the land, or sometimes were simply incapable of applying techniques that went beyond their competence. So it was the monks, and in particular the Benedictines and Cistercians, who became the custodians of land development during the demographic expansion […]