A Remote Sensing Approach for Mapping the Development of Ancient Water Management in the Near East

Louise Rayne,Daniel Donoghue

doi:10.3390/rs10122042

Abstract

We present a novel approach that uses remote sensing to record and reconstruct traces of ancient water management throughout the whole region of Northern Mesopotamia, an area where modern agriculture and warfare has had a severe impact on the survival of archaeological remains and their visibility in modern satellite imagery. However, analysis and interpretation of declassified stereoscopic spy satellite data from the 1960s and early 1970s revealed traces of ancient water management systems. We processed satellite imagery to facilitate image interpretation and used photogrammetry to reconstruct hydraulic pathways. Our results represent the first comprehensive map of water management features across the entirety of Northern Mesopotamia for the period ca. 1200 BC to AD 1500. In particular, this shows that irrigation was widespread throughout the region in the Early Islamic period, including within the zone traditionally regarded as “rain-fed”. However, we found that a high proportion of the ancient canal systems had been damaged or destroyed by 20th century changes to agricultural practices and land use. Given this, there is an urgent need to record these rapidly vanishing water management systems that were an integral part of the ancient agricultural landscape and that underpinned powerful states.

Highlights

This research used satellite remote sensing to examine the spread, scale, and distribution of ancient water management systems throughout Northern Mesopotamia, an area of approximately 100,000 km2 between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers in northern Syria and Iraq
Features that could be recognised as pre-1970s water management channels through interpretation of the CORONA imagery were recorded based on selected criteria that we describe here
Historical accounts and archaeological excavations have indicated that Raqqa was temporarily the centre of the Abbasid empire and a significant industrial town, which may offer an explanation for the intensification of water management features at this time

Summary

Introduction

This research used satellite remote sensing to examine the spread, scale, and distribution of ancient water management systems throughout Northern Mesopotamia, an area of approximately 100,000 km between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers in northern Syria and Iraq (see Figure 1). Wilkinson and Rayne [1] have hypothesised that powerful ancient empires transformed the environment using irrigation systems and created “hydraulic landscapes” structured around water management. To test this hypothesis, we aimed to (1) measure the extent to which the density of water management features increased at the time of the later territorial empires Many ancient irrigation systems can be large-scale features flowing over significant extents. If we mapped these across their full reaches, it was possible to understand how they functioned and how they were designed, revealing information about past agricultural practices

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