Archaeopedological analyses around a Neolithic hearth and the beginning of Sabaean irrigation in the oasis of Ma'rib (Ramlat as-Sab'atayn,Yemen)

Archaeopedological analyses in the oasis of Ma'rib (Yemen) yield new information of Neolithic land use, Bronze Age soil formation, and Sabaean irrigation. The AMS radiocarbon age of a Neolithic fireplace buried under Sabaean irrigation sediments in the Southern oasis indicates Pre-Sabaean human activities in Wadi Dhana about 5600 years ago. The associated Mid-Holocene palaeosol, developed in fluvial sediments of Wadi Dhana and also in the filling of the hearth, marks the Bronze Age-land surface before it was covered with irrigation sediments. Based on AMS radiocarbon data from charcoal in reservoir sediments of the “Great Dam” and an estimated time span of pedogenesis of the Mid-Holocene palaeosol in this region, we propose the beginning of the irrigation in Ma'rib in the period of 2500–1000 cal yr BC.     

Historical Perspectives on Pre-Colonial Irrigation in Southern Africa

Abstract

One of the basic areas of interaction between water as natural resource and human societies as agents of cultural transformation is the technology of irrigation. In Africa at least 66 per cent of the available water is used for purposes of irrigation. For more than 4 000 years irrigation has secured food supplies for humans on a continent that is noted for its relative shortage of sufficient natural water supplies.

There is a remarkable hidden power of water in the history of southern Africa. This is particularly the case when we consider the development of early irrigation technologies of Iron Age farmers. The small irrigation furrow of the subsistence farmer was just as important to an insular community of Bantu-speaking people in pre-colonial times, as is the sophisticated irrigation technology in present-day South Africa. Currently there is a paucity of information about pre-colonial indigenous irrigation technology. This can be ascribed to a number of factors of which the invasion of modern Western traditions in the nineteenth century is perhaps the most important. A number of other factors for the apparent blind-spot is also presented in this study.

In southern Africa there are traces of indigenous pre-colonial irrigation works at sites such as Nyanga in Zimbabwe; the Limpopo River Valley; Mpumalanga; and South Africa's eastern Highveld. Reference is also made in this article to specific strategies of irrigation used by Iron Age communities, prior to the advent of a colonial presence. Finally, attention is also drawn to pre-colonial land tenure and state formation against the backdrop of Wittfogel's theories on hydraulic society.     

Landesque capital as an alternative to food storage in Melanesia: Irrigated taro terraces in New Georgia,Solomon Islands

Abstract

In the Pacific islands, subsistence diversity made possible continuous production of food while well-developed exchange networks redistributed these foodstuffs as well as items within the prestige economy. All these were aspects of the ‘storage structures’ that enabled social and nutritional value to be saved, accumulated and later mobilised. In addition, there were investments in the land, landesque capital, which secured future food surpluses and so provided an alternative to food storage, in a region where the staple foods were mostly perishable, yams excepted, and food preservation was difficult. Landesque capital included such long-term improvements to productivity as terraces, mounds, irrigation channels, drainage ditches, soil structural changes and tree planting. These investments provided an effective alternative to food storage and made possible surplus production for exchange purposes. As an example, in the New Georgia group of the western Solomon Islands irrigated terraces, termed ruta, were constructed for growing the root crop taro (Colocasia esculenta). Surplus taro from ruta enabled inland groups to participate in regional exchange networks and so obtain the shell valuables that were produced by coastal groups. In this paper, we reconstruct how this exchange system worked in New Georgia using ethno-archaeological evidence, we chart its prehistoric rise and post-colonial fall, and we outline the factors that constrained its long-term expansion.     

水利秩序与蒙旗社会——以清代以来黄河河套万家沟小流域变迁史为例

黄河河套万家沟小流域的变迁史呈现了水利秩序构建与蒙旗社会演变之间的关系.清代以来,在"走西口"的历史进程中,河套地区逐渐从游牧社会向农耕社会过渡,农田水利渐次开发,定居村落大量形成.在共同的地域空间中,围绕着万家沟清洪水的开发和利用,蒙汉民众交往愈加频繁.地方社会自发地形成了以"村落"为中心的用水秩序.中华人民共和国成...     

Irrigated taro (Colocasia esculenta) farming in North Kohala,Hawai‘i: sedimentology and soil nutrient analyses

How did traditional farming transform the natural environment in the Hawaiian Islands? This question is one that has largely been addressed for rainfed farming of crops like sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), but evidence is lacking for irrigated farming of the critical staple crop taro (Colocasia esculenta). We describe the results of soil nutrient and sedimentological analyses of deeply-stratified pondfield deposits representing a 600-year-long record of irrigated taro farming in the North Kohala District, Hawai‘i Island. Soil is categorized by particle size to determine modes of transport and deposition, and concurrent soil nutrient analyses were conducted to infer shifts in the source of sediments and changes associated with taro harvesting. The advent of farming is clearly detectable in sedimentology, the presence of charcoal found within sediments, and soil chemistry. However, diminished nutrient concentrations can be attributed largely to deposition of a mixture of upstream sediments. Overall, there is no clear evidence for nutrient draw-down by taro harvesting, but we cannot yet rule it out as a factor. This study demonstrates the inherent difficulty of correlating changes in soil nutrients evident in irrigated pondfields with the long term history of soil nutrient cycling.     

Precarial grants: approaches of the clergy and lay aristocracy to landholding and time

Throughout the middle ages, the possession and ownership of land was not only the primary source of wealth and power, but of disputes and violence as well. In this regard, one of the least obvious but nonetheless fundamental elements was the attitude that the two dominant groups in society — the clergy and the aristocracy — had about time. The different ways that these two classes regarded time helps to account both for their approach to acquiring land and, in the event of a dispute, whether it would be settled by compromise or violence.     

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) hydrological modeling in archaeology: an example from the origins of irrigation in Southwest Arabia (Yemen)

From small bands of foragers, pastoralists, and village agriculturists, to states and civilizations water accessibility and management played a crucial role in sustenance and social life throughout the ancient world. Recent advances in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related remote sensing technologies offer powerful means of analyzing water flow that are well-suited to clarify design and operational requirements of different irrigation and water management systems. Ancient Southwest Arabian irrigation technologies developed over thousands of years culminating in some the ancient world's most advanced flashflood water systems. This paper describes satellite imagery Digital Elevation Model (DEM) extraction and GIS hydrological modeling procedures conducted for the Wadi Sana watershed of Hadramawt Governate, Yemen. Results help illustrate one of the local contexts in which small-scale irrigation originated in Southwest Arabia and additionally serve as an example for those interested in applying similar methods in other regions.     

Bio-archaeological evidence of olive tree (Olea europaea L.) irrigation during the Middle Ages in Southern France and North Eastern Spain

Quantitative eco-anatomical analyses were carried out on charred wood from modern olive trees (Olea europaea L.) in order to quantify influence of irrigation on wood characters and to detect irrigated olive specimens among charcoal assemblages dating back to the Middle Ages.     

Precarious foundations: irrigation,environment, and social change in the Canadian Pacific Railway's Eastern Section, 1900–1930

This paper analyzes the introduction and development of irrigation agriculture in the lower Bow River region, Alberta, Canada. Sponsored by the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) and the Canadian federal government, irrigation promised to transform semi-arid prairie into a densely settled countryside. After 1900, a mixture of policies and practices pioneered elsewhere were deployed to create the largest irrigation project of its kind in North America. Settlers faced difficult economic conditions, however, and fell into conflict with the CPR. The system as a whole experienced a range of environmental changes as irrigation water altered the land and produced new conditions for flora and fauna. By 1930, the irrigation project experienced high levels of settler abandonment and deep fiscal problems. The circumstances of the Bow River case suggest the particular qualities of social and environmental changes initiated by irrigation agriculture in the Canadian prairies, but they also provide the basis to consider comparatively the processes and difficulties attending irrigation expansion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century world.     

Airborne lidar survey of irrigated agricultural landscapes: an application of the slope contrast method

Irrigated agriculture was central to the economies of many of the world’s best known complex societies. New high-resolution digital elevation models (DEM) derived from remotely sensed lidar data give archaeologists the opportunity to study field systems at a scale not previously possible. Here we describe a method called slope contrast mapping that takes advantage of the dissimilarity between artificial and natural slopes to identify and map discrete features. We use this relatively simple method in our own research to identify complexes of agricultural terraces in the North Kohala district, Hawai’i Island. It has also proved useful for mapping the natural landscape, specifically the extent of flat land between valleys suited for irrigated agriculture.