Abstract
Mesopotamia is in the east side of the region named “fertile crescent”, were agriculture flourished and the earliest civilizations were born more than eight thousand years ago. In the alluvial plain of Lower Mesopotamia agriculture based on irrigation developed, in contrast to the Upper Mesopotamia, where dry-farming was possible. A complex system of canals and waterworks developed, with the dual function to ensure irrigation and to be used as waterways. Control of water was decisive as a way to guarantee economic prosperity, but also was a source of inter-state conflicts and a political tool. Water technology was not limited to irrigation, Mesopotamians also pioneered in sanitary engineering, with many cities presenting networks of wastewater and stormwater drainage systems. Overexploitation of land and water resources for agriculture affected the environment, resulting in silting and soil salinisation, matter that has been recorded since the earliest cuneiform writings.
ú-um inim-ma-àm
a inim-ma-àm
Food is the matter
water is the matter
Sumerian Proverb
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Notes
- 1.
1 gur = 0.3 m3, 1 iku = 3600 m2 (0.36 ha).
- 2.
Law 53: If a man neglect to strengthen his dyke and do not strengthen it, and a break be made in his dyke and the water carry away the farm-land, the man in whose dyke the break has been made shall restore the grain which he has damaged.
Law 55: If a man open his canal for irrigation and neglect it and the water carry away an adjacent field, he shall measure out grain on the basis of the adjacent fields.
Law 56: If a man open up the water and the water carry away the improvements of an adjacent field, he shall measure out ten gur of grain per gan. (1 gan = 27,000 m2 = 2.7 ha).
- 3.
When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
An the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
And chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both, –
Their waters were mingled together, (King, 1902).
- 4.
From a soil mechanics point of view, to reach the water table when lying the foundations of a building is the right solution for saline soils. Dry saline soils have a load capacity much higher than if they are wet. Thus, a soil that goes through dry – wet cycles has a variable load capacity, inducing differential settlements and damaging the structure. If foundations reach the water table, they lie in a soil where salt dilution is maximum, with a more demanding construction condition. This analysis is valid when baked bricks are used in the foundation.
- 5.
The cites from Atra-Hasis epic are from Lambert and Millard (1999)
- 6.
Tablets first published by King (1900) Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum 9, and analysed by Nemet-Nejat (1993), pp. 70–72.
- 7.
‘… To dig the canals, to dredge the irrigation dredges, to irrigate with the shadouf the vast campaigns, to use abundant water to wet the meadows and fields, (An and Enlil) put at disposal of the people the spade, the hoe, the bucket, the plough that give life to the land …’ (Translated from Glassner, 1993, p. 152)
- 8.
Igirû: Heron. A swamp bird, but exclude the stork. (Oriental Institute 2004).
- 9.
King of the “Country of the Sea” who was challenging the power of Babylon. The “Country of the Sea”, as it is called in the Babylonian Chronicles was in the shores of the Persian Gulf and probably included Uruk.
- 10.
Years were named after some important event or action happened during the reign of the king.
- 11.
1 kùš = 0.5 m.
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Acknowledgments
The author acknowledges permission to publish or reprint the following figures: Figure 2.2 Dr. Bron Lipkin, London, UK. Figure 2.5, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Figure 2.6, Field Museum Press. Figure 2.14, University of Illinois Press. From Sumerian and Akkadian Cuneiform Texts in the Collection of the World Heritage Museum of the University of Illinois. Copyright 1973 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Figure 2.16, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
The author also acknowledges Ms. Mirella Biancardi, Librarian of the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Chile, who helped to get some of the references here cited.
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Tamburrino, A. (2010). Water Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia. In: Mays, L. (eds) Ancient Water Technologies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8632-7_2
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