How geoarchaeology and landscape archaeology contribute to niche construction theory (NCT)
2015-09-21 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
In this paper a review is given of examples of geoarchaeological and landscape archaeological research from four locations throughout Europe. Case-studies from the North Sea coastal zone in the Netherlands and the Eastern Mediterranean are presented to illustrate the potential contribution of geoarchaeology and landscape archaeology to niche construction theory (NCT) studies. Typical landscapes as coast lines, lake shores and rivers as example of small and large scale use of the natural landscape and/or topography are discussed with implications for NCT, mainly over the Holocene period. Through environmental reconstruction, we provide relative dates for starting points when humans (a) were altering their own selective environment as an inceptive change, or (b) responded to a (deteriorated) selective environment in a counteractive change. Geoarchaeology and landscape archaeology valuable contribution to NCT studies is the focus of the disciplines on landscape gradients. NCT phase transitions from inceptive to counteractive changes are proposed as useful alternative in the debate about the onset of the Anthropocene.The control of water in the kingdom of Qatabān (Yemen): from local to central management of the irrigation systems during antiquity
2015-09-08 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
Wādī Bayḥān is located on the edge of the Ramlat as Sab’atayn desert (Yemen) and constituted the core of the preislamic kingdom of Qatabān. During the 1st millennium B.C., floodwaters caused by summer rainfall were diverted into the fields. Several irrigation systems of this kind were spread all along the valley. The aim of the present paper is to show the tension between political body and local populations for the control of water in Wādī Bayḥān. I will argue that water was generally managed at a local scale but the kings of Qatabān have tried to take the reins of the irrigation system when their power strengthened. They issued decrees regulating the use of water and space or the maintenance of hydraulic structures and fields. The kings also got involved in the construction of irrigation structures. To support my arguments, I have used antique inscriptions, engraved on rocks or stone blocks, which make reference to water management.Europe’s Rhine power: connections, borders, and flows
2015-09-05 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
This article explores the pivotal position of the river Rhine in the gradual development of a European electricity system. Although the general image of the Rhine is one of a inland transport corridor, it also acted as a backbone of electricity supply systems since the dawn of the 20th century. By relying on insights from both water history and history of technology, the article argues for a transnational approach to better grasp the dynamics of river use and related electricity generation, which often went below, as well as above and beyond nation-state affairs.Long term effects of climate on human adaptation in the middle Gila River Valley, Arizona, America
2015-09-03 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
The Hohokam, an irrigation-based society in the American South West, used the river valleys of the Salt and Gila Rivers between 500 and 1500 AD to grow their crops. Such irrigated crops are linking human agency, water sources and the general natural environment. In order to grow crops, water available through rain and river flows needs to be diverted to land where the plants are grown. With a focus on the Gila River, this paper uses the potential harvest of maize (a main Hohokam crop) as a proxy for evaluating the influence of natural water availability and climatic changes on irrigation options for maize. Available climate variables derived from tree-ring proxies are downscaled. These downscaled data are used as input for a crop growth model for the entire sequence of Hohokam occupation along the Gila River. The results of the crop model are used to discuss the potential influence of climatic variability on Hohokam irrigation and society. The results will show that climatic change alone cannot be used as an explanation for developments in Hohokam irrigation. Societal development resulting in growing population and extensive irrigation systems increasing pressure on water sources over time would have been a key factor to include to understand Hohokam society between 500 and 1500 AD.Editorial
2015-09-01 03:00:00 AM
Vincent Lemire: La Soif de Jérusalem: Essai d’hydrohistoire (1840–1948)
2015-09-01 03:00:00 AM
Erogationes extra urbem in Iberian aqueducts: additional evidence for irrigation in Roman Hispania?
2015-09-01 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
The use of irrigation in Roman times has been analysed in different parts of the Empire and evidence for irrigation has been found in Rome and other cities in Italy, France, North Africa and the Near East. Although there is increasing archaeological evidence for the use of irrigation in the Iberian Peninsula during the Roman period, the full extent of irrigation in Hispania is only now coming to be appreciated, as a result of work like Beltran Lloris on the Lex Rivi Hiberiensis irrigation inscription. This paper will focus on one particular phenomenon that can be used to prove the use of this practice in these western provinces, the extra urbem use (use outside cities) of the water from urban aqueducts.An investigation into the age and origin of Suranga in the foothills of the Western Ghats of India
2015-09-01 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
This paper presents the evidence for determining the age and origin of suranga irrigation found mainly in southern Karnataka and northern Kerala in the foothills of the Western Ghats of south India. It draws on on-going research that has attempted to use an interdisciplinary approach to date the system using Indian Archives, British and Portuguese colonial archives, etymology, oral testimony archaeology, phenology and palaeo dating techniques. The results from this study put the origins of the system at around 1900–1940 CE. These results are compared with the current academic discourse that supports the view that the system originates from ancient Persia and qanat technology, because of the long established trade links with Persia and the Arabian Peninsula in the Malabar region. We argue that a new ‘origin discourse’ should be framed around these much more recent dates. The methodological constraints behind both theories are discussed throughout to enable the reader to appreciate the limitations of both arguments.Water pollution control history in Japan, effluent standards, and central–local government relations
2015-09-01 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
Water pollution is a significant environmental problem. Success or failure of water pollution control policy depends primarily on effluent standards, monitoring systems, and central–local government relations. This paper focuses on the relationship between the central government and the Kanagawa Prefecture government in Japan concerning the history of water pollution control policy from the 1950s to the early 1970s. Kanagawa Prefecture is next to Tokyo, and the Kanagawa Prefecture government has been a leader regarding environmental policy at the local level in Japan. This paper examines two aspects of water pollution control history in Japan. The first is the reason behind the implementation of a unique water pollution control policy by the Kanagawa Prefecture government against the central government, although two of its governors were conservatives. In other words, this paper examines what other historical factors exist to promote or formulate water pollution control policy, other than ideology. The second aspect involves examining what central–local government relations mean, how they change, when and how national policy change affects local policy change, and vice versa.Water and landscape dynamics in southern Burgundy: two and a half centuries of water management in an agricultural landscape
2015-09-01 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
This interdisciplinary research project investigates changing patterns of water use in rural Burgundy, France over a 250-year timeframe. This rural landscape is undergoing rapid and major changes, partly driven by European Union policies that govern the environmental impacts of human activities. These policies reflect the power of governments to directly influence local landscapes, and many traditional water mills and ponds have disappeared while others have been repurposed. We seek to document these endangered features on the landscape and analyze their changing function. An integrated research design incorporating humanities, social sciences, and Earth sciences seeks to illuminate the factors involved in the changing use of local water resources, including mills and ponds. Advanced techniques including geographic information systems and geochemical analysis are combined with historical research including analysis of historical documents, cadastral records and oral history interviews of current land owners and farmers.Children’s books as a historical source: flooding in 20th century dutch children’s books
2015-09-01 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
In this paper 89 Dutch 20th century children’s books on flooding are analysed to show how children’s books can be used as a historical source of cultural values and perceptions concerning water and what results such an analysis can yield. Using a form of discourse analysis, three categories of books are identified: conventional, religious, and progressive books. The conventional and religious books are typical of the period until 1970. They describe the Dutch “fight against the water”, are positive about modern technology, and show respect towards authorities such as mayors and the Queen. The main difference is that the religious books interpret floods in religious terms and the conventional books do not, but the practical implications of this difference are limited. The progressive books have nearly all been published after 1970. They are critical about technology, authority and social conditions, and approach nature not only as something that should be controlled, but also as something that should be protected. Their increase in popularity can be linked to trends in Dutch children’s literature, which in turn reflect broader trends in Dutch society. The paper concludes with a few methodological observations and with recommendations for future international-comparative research.The operation of ancient reclamation works at Lake Copais in Greece
2015-09-01 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
Water has played a vital role in life in Greece during its long history. Ancient Greek societies were very active in the field of water management, resulting in an impressive variety of hydraulic works. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the operation of one of the most ancient and extended hydraulic works, the drainage project of Lake Copais in Central Greece. The project was developed and operated by the Minyans, a powerful Mycenaean group. The Minyans partially diverted two large rivers which fed the lake. The water was conveyed towards labyrinthine natural sinkholes, which were formed in limestone terrain. Through the sinkholes, water slowly discharged to the sea. This impressive ancient water management system has gained the attention of many scientists and has been extensively studied by archaeologists and engineers. Still, important questions remain about the way the hydro-system worked. Trying to provide some reliable answers, we have studied the Minyans’ interventions from a hydraulic engineering perspective. Available archeological, hydrological and geological data of the area were used to evaluate the operation of the system. The main elements of the hydro-system are presented and their purposes examined. For this, (i) a water balance model was developed and (ii) the hydro-system was simulated using synthetic time series of the hydrological processes. Several operational cases were examined in order to define critical parameters of the system, such as water level variation and water accumulation in the sinkholes. The analysis reveals some significant factors, which could be related to archaeological findings and the hydro-system’s performance.A niche construction approach on the central Netherlands covering the last 220,000 years
2015-08-29 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
This paper shows what a niche construction theory (NCT) approach can contribute to the long-term social and environmental history of an area when applied to both sedentary and non-sedentary communities. To understand how communities create and respond to environmental change, hominin presence of the central Netherlands within the last 220,000 years is used as a case study. For this case study we studied the interrelationship between hominins, water and landscape gradients for four periods of interest within this long-term hominin presence. During each of these periods the study area had a specific environmental setting and (possible) traces of hominin presence. These periods cover the (1) Middle to Late Saalian (~220–170 ka), (2) Late Glacial (~14.7–11.7 ka, (3) Mid-Holocene (6000–5400 BP) and (4) Late Holocene (1200–8 BP). This review shows that traces of niche construction behaviour related to water and landscape gradients in the central Netherlands can be shown for both sedentary and non-sedentary communities. Furthermore, in this review it is shown that the transition from inceptive to counteractive change in ecosystem management style in the central Netherlands took place between the Mid- and Late Holocene periods.Small-scale water systems in the Fertile Crescent. The role of cisterns-based water systems in an arid zone between rain-fed agriculture and stockbreeding during Roman times
2015-07-30 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
Mapping palaeoenvironmental data and manmade landscape developments are some of the best ways to estimate, measure and illustrate human ecological niche building. Describing and quantifying the case study of a cisterns system in Southern Syria during Roman times, we show how the development of a simple technique in the Leja arid area changes the living conditions and probably the pastoralist’s mobility for nearly a millennium and a half.A short history of the water and society in the region of Vélez Blanco, East Andalusia
2015-06-23 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
The network of irrigation canals and reservoirs in the Los Vélez region in Southern Spain has existed for centuries and is documented as tangible cultural heritage. But the region’s ‘water culture’ also has an intangible aspect that involves water-related management, conflicts and jurisdiction. This paper traces the water-related history of the city and region of Vélez Blanco from the Muslim period through the medieval era and later centuries until today, and embeds it in the development of legal history and the jurisdiction of water issues. We conclude with a reference to the twenty-first century and the value of historical and archival sources, as well as an appeal to found a museum and add the region to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.Representing water: travel accounts, water and the constructions of difference
2015-06-01 03:00:00 AM
Swamps, lakes, rivers and elephants: a preliminary attempt towards an environmental history of the Red River Delta, C. 600–1400
2015-06-01 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
This article attempted to trace the waters and animals that once existed but disappeared into the history of the Red River Delta, and how human and climate factors combined to make this happen between the sixth and fifteenth centuries. The human factor is crucial in understanding the water history of the Red River Delta. It contributed significantly to the disappearance of swamps, lakes, the building of the first state sponsored dike, the possible changes of the course of the Red River, and the plausible origin of the Thien Duc (Song Duong) river. It appears that human reclamation of the coast mainly happened after the independence of Dai Viet in the tenth century, which was marked by increasingly intensive human activities on the coast and this increased activity is testified to by the gradual retreat of the elephants from the delta. All these changes occurred in the eastern Red River Delta few centuries ahead of the western delta. The degradation of natural environment in the eastern delta seems to have caused an out-migration to the western delta between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, making it one of the most densely populated areas in the world.Introduction: approaches to a water history
2015-06-01 03:00:00 AM
Maritime Cochinchina in the European archives
2015-06-01 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
Maritime related events and activities like shipwrecks, naval battles, fishing, sea-swallow nest and trepang collecting, coastal transportation and inter-regional maritime trade were common episodes to the daily lives of the Cochinchinese. Yet they are seldom addressed in Vietnamese history. Since the sixteenth century, European merchants, travelers, envoys and missionaries, all arrived in the harbours of Cochinchina by sea and navigated along the coast on their way to China or back to Batavia, Malacca, and Europe. Many wrote diaries, travel logs or journals for memory’s sake but also reports and letters to send back to Europe and inform their directors, families and peers of the experiences they were living in the far east. As a result of browsing through various European archival depositories, this paper intends to introduce where information about maritime Cochinchina is concealed and how to categorize the various documents that could help to address the maritime conjuncture of the pre-colonial Cochinchina coast.Approaching a history of water
2015-06-01 03:00:00 AM
Abstract
This essay studies human engagement with water in all its forms by looking at transformative moments in human perception of waterscapes, most particularly regarding seas, rivers, estuaries and islands. In the process, the materiality and agency of water is emphasised and the essay looks at the ways by which waterscapes may be studied more comprehensively in the future.
Showing posts with label Water History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Water History. Show all posts
Friday, September 25, 2015
Water History
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