关于极端干旱地区人地关系历史演变的初步研究——以塔里木盆地为例

纵观极端干旱地区生态环境与人类活动关系的全过程,可以看出:在气候环境自然演化的背景下,人地关系存在着时间与空间上的两种变迁。从历史时期看,从原始社会、农业社会到工业社会,人地关系大致经历了依附自然、干预顺应自然、干预自然、回归自然四个阶段。从空间上看,表现出人类"逐水而徙","依水而居"的相互关系。各个阶段以气候环境变化为背景,以水资源为主线,表现出人地关系演变的时空特征。塔里木水系的瓦解和塔里木盆地的沙漠化以及胡杨林植被面积的缩小,说明近100年来人类活动对人地关系的演化逐步起主导作用     

基于遥感信息的绿洲城镇群空间发展研究——以乌鲁木齐都市圈为例

以乌鲁木齐都市圈为研究区域,在分析遥感信息的基础上,探讨干旱区绿洲城镇群的空间发展过程与未来的空间发展模式。首先,对1989年的TM和2002年的ETM+影像进行解译,提取研究区的主要用地信息。然后,基于解译信息分析农业用地、城镇用地与农村居民点的变化情况,揭示绿洲城镇群的动态演化过程。再次,探讨了研究区发展过程中出现的行政界限束缚城镇发展、城镇间无序化的分散发展以及绿洲基底景观的破脆性增强等空间问题。最后,在分析动态变化的基础上,针对现有的空间发展问题,提出了一些空间发展构想,以期对本区今后空间的合理发展提供借鉴。     

Experiencing Waterholes in an Arid Environment,with Particular Reference to the Lake Eyre Basin,Australia: a Review

The distribution and permanence of waterholes have dictated human activity and settlement patterns in the arid zone for millennia. At a fundamental level, waterholes are vital to survival in a harsh climate. The recreational value and use of waterholes are widely recognised; however, the less tangible aspects of ‘waterhole experience’ have received scant attention. This review, written whilst compiling an inventory of permanent waterbodies across the Lake Eyre Basin of Queensland and South Australia, aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the interaction of humans with water in an arid land, primarily from a settler perspective. A large body of literature pertaining to waterholes was reviewed, including Aboriginal histories, explorer journals, accounts of early settlers, and numerous fictional and factual accounts of life in inland Australia. It becomes apparent that human appreciation of arid-zone waterholes runs deeper than the survival imperative, and can be enriched by considering landscape aesthetics and psychology. This attraction has spawned a rich mythology centred on waterholes – permanent features in an otherwise harsh and variable environment.     

Nabataean or not? The ancient necropolis of Dumat. First stage: a reassessment of al‐Dayel's excavations

Two reports on excavations carried out in 1985–1986 by archaeologist Khaled Abdulaziz al‐Dayel and published in the journal Atlal (1988, 1986) have revealed the existence of ‘Hellenistic tombs’ in the Dūmat al‐Jandal oasis (ancient Adummatu/Dumat/Dumata) in northern Saudi Arabia. Although attributed more precisely to the Nabataeans by Khalil al‐Muaikel (1994), these tombs nevertheless appear not to have interested specialists of this historical period in the least. Moreover, a re‐examination of the architectural data and of the grave‐goods indicates the difficulty of establishing a link between the unearthed remains and a purely ‘Nabataean’ cultural sphere (i.e. of the Petra type). This study therefore attempts to reassess published archaeological data, formulate questions on the Nabataean presence in the oasis, and also to demonstrate the relations connecting Dumat to the great Levantine and Mesopotamian cultural spheres between the first century BC and the second century AD.     

Exploitation of groundwater in the oasis of Masāfī (UAE): A diachronic perspective

In order to understand the role of water resources in the establishment and long-term evolution of settlements investigated by the French Archaeological Mission in the UAE in the oasis of Masāfī, wells and springs of all periods, identified at the surface and in stratified contexts, were mapped and studied thanks to a multidisciplinary approach combining archaeology, geomorphology, geoarchaeology and ethnography. Our study demonstrates that:

• – The Masāfī oasis was located in a specific geological setting entailing the accumulation of groundwater resources at reachable depth.
• – The groundwater resources remained rather stable from the mid-second millennium BC to the second half of the twentieth century AD. In this respect, the apparent abandonment of the oasis during some periods cannot be explained by water depletion.
• – The groundwater resources have decreased sharply since the second half of the twentieth century AD, due to the introduction of new water extraction technologies, motor pumps and then drillings, as a result of the modernisation and industrialisation of UAE economy.

Our study also stresses the importance of well and spring irrigation in the development of the sedentary settlements in south-eastern Arabia, technologies that have often been neglected in the regional archaeological literature in favour of the qanāt.