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Irrigation practice in lower Mesopotamia Field studies have shown that the urbanization of the Inrd millennium BC developed along watercourses, whether they were natural river branches or artificial canals. Notable among these studies are those of the American archaeologist Robert McAdams (Figure 2.3). However, it seems likely that at the time of the independent city-states, […]

The triangle of land framed by the Tigris and Euphrates delta, Armenia, and the Syrian coast saw the development of the earliest large-scale techniques for water exploitation. From the IVth millennium BC through the conquest by Alexander the Great (in 331 AD), truly exceptional development occurred in this area. The most important Sumerian city-states of […]

We complete this overview of the very first hydraulic works with a brief look at early navigation, which has prehistorical origins. The migrations that accompanied the Neolithic spread toward the western Mediterranean are thought to have been by sea. The island of Cyprus, already populated in the IXth millennium BC from Palestine or from southeast […]

Another dimension of hydraulics appears in the early cities: that of wastewater drainage. Many medieval and modern civilizations will come to treat this problem casually, and as a result endow their cities with an atmosphere of filth. Yet the early civilizations of the East were precocious in their concern for urban drainage. Evidence of the […]

A flood in an alluvial valley is two-faced. It is always a threat when it is more severe than usual. But when well synchronized with the cycles of agriculture, the flood can be used to fertilize and water the soil before plowing and planting. This is the case with the Figure 1.4 The deity “Nile” […]

Agriculture developed in Egypt about 5000 BC, perhaps under the influence of Mesopotamia and Syria. Subsequently, the need to take maximum advantage of the flood for land fertilization and irrigation led naturally to the organization of human resources for this purpose. Flood risk on the Nile is less than on the Euphrates and Yellow Rivers. […]

In China, agriculture first appears about 6000 BC along the Yellow River. Omnipresent in the beginnings of the Chinese civilization is the legend of its founding hero, Yu the Great. In about 2000 BC Yu was apparently “master of River Control.” “In ancient times Emperor Уй deepened the rivers and saved the empire from flood, […]

It is somewhat frustrating to write of the great civilization of the Indus Valley. Its ori­gins, near the beginning of the IIIrd millennium BC, are unknown; and the reasons for its demise, a thousand years later, hardly less so. What is known results from archaeo­logical digs at the two large sites of the twin cities […]

The Euphrates River, although less capricious than the great rivers of China, is subject to major floods and changes in course. The Flood is a common myth in all of Mesopotamia, existing in several versions. The oldest written version, written in Sumerian and discovered at Nippur, is unfortunately in very poor condition.[12] The most well-known […]

All of the great early civilizations were born in alluvial valleys — notably the Tigris — Euphrates delta, then the valleys of the Nile, the Indus, and the Yellow River (Figure 1.2). The soil in those valleys is fertile, but must be irrigated and drained, and this requires the establishment of coordinated water management. But […]