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The kingdom of Urartu, in the south of Armenia, was a powerful rival of Assyria during the period from about 850 BC to 600 BC. Its capital was Tushpa, on the shores of the lake Van, whose water is too salty to be potable. Therefore this capital city’s thirst led to the development of a […]

The sovereigns of Assyria begin development of their land on the upper course of Figure 2.15 Irrigation and water supply works in Assyria in the 9th and 8th centuries BC (after Jacobsen and Lloyd, 1935; Roaf, 1990; Schnitter, 1994; Bagg, 2000) the Tigris in about 900 BC. This date marks the flowering of an Assyrian […]

Elam, in the Susa region, is a very ancient civilization that developed expertise in hydraulic works starting in the IIIrd millennium BC. Three abundantly flowing rivers descend from the Zagros mountains and cross the region: the Kherka, the Ab-e Diz, and the Karan. Elam knew a brief period of glory when, between 1260 and 1160 […]

The city of Ugarit, on the northern Syrian coast (several kilometers to the north of the present-day Lattaquieh), has been occupied since very early times. It served as a mar­itime port for trade with Cyprus and Crete in the context of commerce among Mesopotamia, Mari, Aleppo, Ebla and the Mediterranean, and then as a port […]

At the Khanouqa gap on the Euphrates some 80 km upstream of its confluence with the Khabur, are the remains of hydraulic works.[69] This includes a rock weir, built of loose natural basalt blocks, damming the Euphrates so as to provide all-season water to a canal whose offtake is immediately upstream of the dam (Figure […]

Another project in the Mari region has left us with considerable evidence of its existence. This is the canal whose traces today are called nahr Daourin, with a width of 8 to 11 m, and a reconstituted length of some 120 km. Rising at Khabur, it joins the Euphrates downstream of Mari on the left […]

About 2800 or 2900 BC, the Sumerians — or perhaps a people already established some­what to the north at Terqa — founded Mari, on the middle course of the Euphrates. The site is at the intersection of routes to the Syrian coast, near the outlet of the fertile valley of Khabur. This is not a […]

The mysteries of Jawa: the oldest known dams, on the slopes of Kjebel Druze (Djebel el Arab) — end of the IVth millennium BC The site of Jawa, a hundred kilometers to the northeast of Amman in Jordan, is an enig­ma. It is an arid zone, in a desert of rough black basalt. The only […]

Hydraulic development involved not only the digging of canals, but also the restoration or maintenance of river courses. During the domination of Larsa in lower Mesopotamia (1932 to 1763 BC), it became necessary to rehabilitate the river system. The king Sin — Iddinam reestablishes the course of the Tigris, around 1845 BC, using paid labor: […]

The importance of navigable waterways to the economy of Mesopotamia cannot be overestimated. The code of Hammurabi, from which we have already cited several extracts, includes laws that regulate navigation on the rivers and canals. It sets compen­satory payments for shipwrecks or breakdowns, and establishes right-of-way rules: “If a boat traveling upstream collides with and […]