Thirst: For Water and Power in the Ancient World

382 Pages·2012·0.44 MB·English

by  Steven Mithen

THIRST
water and power
in the ancient world
STEVEN M ITHEN
THIRST

THIRST
water and power
ancient world
in the
STEVEN M ITHEN
with SUE MITHEN
harvard university press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
2012
Copyright © Steven Mithen, 2012
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
First Harvard University Press edition, 2012
Typeset by Input Data Services Ltd, Bridgwater, Somerset
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mithen, Steven J.
Thirst : water and power in the ancient world / Steven Mithen.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-06693-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Water supply—History. 2. Water use—History. 3. Water consumption—
History. 4. Civilization, Ancient. I. Title.
TD345.M644 2012
333.91009—dc23 2012027504
For Heather Mithen, with love and thanks

CONTENTS
List of fi gures ix
List of photographs x
Acknowledgements xv
1. Thirst 1

For knowledge of the past and lessons for the future
2. The water revolution 12
Th e origins of water management in the Levant,
1.5 million years ago to 700 bc
3. ‘The black fields became white/the broad plain 4 4

was choked with salt’
Water management and the rise and fall of Sumerian
civilisation, 5000–1600 bc
4. ‘Water is the best thing of all’ - Pindar of 7 5

Thebes 476 BC
Water management by the Minoans, Mycenaeans,
and Ancient Greeks 2100–146 bc
5. A watery paradise in Petra 104
Th e Nabataeans, masters of the desert, 300 bc–ad 106
6. Building rivers and taking baths 125

Rome and Constantinople, 400 bc–ad 800

vii
7. A million men with teaspoons 150
Hydraulic engineering in Ancient China, 900 bc–ad 907
8. The hydraulic city 176
Water management by the kings of Angkor, ad 802–1327
9. Almost a civilisation 200
Hohokam irrigation in the American South-West,
ad 1–1450
10. Life and death of the water lily monster 223
Water and the rise and fall of Mayan civilisation,
2000 bc–ad 1000
11. Water poetry in the Sacred Valley 256

Hydraulic engineering by the Incas, ad 1200–1572
12. An unquenched thirst 280
For water and for knowledge of the past
Notes 300
Bibliography 319
Index 339

viii
LIST OF FIGURES
1.1 Societies of the ancient world visited within this book 9
2.1 Map of the Levant showing archaeological sites and localities referred
to in the text 14
2.2 Th e Neolithic barrage at Wadi Abu Tulayha, Jafr Basin (aft er Fujii
2007a) 33
2.3 Section through the Neolithic well at Sha`ar Hagolan, Jordan Valley,
Israel (aft er Garfi nkel et al. 2006) 36
2.4 Schematic diagram of the water storage system at Bronze Age Jawa
(aft er Whitehead et al. 2008) 38
2.5 Siloam’s Tunnel at Jerusalem 42
3.1 Archaeological sites and locations referred to in Chapter 3 46
3.2 Hypothetical layout of an agricultural complex in Southern
Mesopotamia (aft er Postgate 1994) 60
4.1 Map of Greece showing archaeological sites referred to in
Chapter 4 77
4.2 Th e Bronze Age settlement of Myrtos–Pyrgos, Crete, showing
location of the two cisterns (aft er Cadogan 2007) 84
4.3 Th e original course of the Manessi River, its new course during the
Late Mycenaean period around the northern side of Tiryns, and the
Mycenaean dam and canal built to divert the river (aft er Zangger
1994) 92
4.4 Eupalinos’ tunnel on the Island of Samos (aft er Apostol 2004) 96
5.1 Nabataean settlements referred to in Chapter 5 106
6.1 Th e aqueducts of Rome 130
6.2 Th e long-distance aqueduct from Vize to Constantinople, showing
location of the Kurşunlugerme aqueduct bridge (aft er Crow et al.
2008) 142
7.1 Archaeological sites and hydraulic engineering projects referred to in
Chapter 7 154

ix