Ancient Irrigation Systems Research Articles

SOME NOTES ON THE KARUN RIVER AND THE SHATT EL ARAB. (INCLUDES PLATES AND APPENDIX).

Synopsis. The first part of the Paper describes the major rivers of Khuzistan, the ancient irrigation systems, and the possibilities of reviving irrigation on a large scale in the province without deteriment to navigation on the Karun. Used in conjunction with the Ab-i-Diz, a tributary of the Karun, and the River Karkeh, the potentialities of a suggested impounding reservoir on the Upper Karun for irrigation, and for hydro-electricity and flood control in the province are described in general terms. The silt problem is also discussed. The second part of the Paper describes certain deductions made on the regime of the Shatt el Arab. The rise and fall of the water-level in the inland delta of South Iraq is influenced by the obstruction to the flow of the Shatt el Arab caused by the discharge of the Karun, and the suggested impounding reservoir on the Upper Karun offers possibilities for flood control and land reclamation in South Iraq.

Irrigation and Permanent Agriculture

One of the earliest great civilizations was built in the valley of the Eu phrates and Tigris rivers in Asia Minor. Today, Baghdad, in the heart of these once productive plains, is located in a barren and desolate waste. In the valley are the remains of two of the largest irrigation canals of ancient times. (Olin, 1913; Kinney, 1912). One of them, the Nahrwan Canal, was 250 miles long; it had an average depth of 30 to 50 feet, and it averaged 400 feet in width. Engineers estimate that this canal carried a volume of water equal to 10 times that of the river Thames in England. There is no general agreement on the causes of irrigation abandonment in Mesopotamia. Huntington (1924) favors a theory of increasing aridity. According to his studies, rainfall is considerably less in this area in modern times than in the days of Babylon. He believes present water resources could not possibly supply all the 2,000,000 acres under irrigation in ancient times. Huntington's theory of increasing aridity is opposed by Willcocks (1911) and Russell (1941). Willcocks concludes from a study of canal levels that the whole valley between the Tigris and Euphrates was never under irrigation at one time, and that the present water supply is sufficient to irrigate as much land as was ever irrigated at once. The maintenance of an extensive irrigation system requires a sympa thetic and cooperative central government. It seems, therefore, that the destruction of government was more important than any other factor in breaking down the irrigation systems of Mesopotamia. The country was overrun by one warlike nation after another. In 1258 the invasion of the Mongols destroyed all the ancient irrigation systems and left Mesopotamia a desert.

An Exploration in the Hadhramaut and Journey to the Coast

T3EF0RE saying anything about southern Arabia to-night I should like -L?to express my deep thanks to your Society. It was your generosity together with that of Viscount Wakefield, of Mr. Louis Clarke in Cambridge, and of the Ashmolean Museum, which alone made excavation possible in the Hadhramaut. And I should like to add a word of grateful thanks to all the British authonties in Aden and Mukalla, who assisted us in every way You have been told of the scientific results of this expedition, a subject on which I will therefore not touch, beyond reminding you that this was the second efiort at antiquarian research in the Hadhramaut?an expedition had been sent from Egypt to south Arabia under Dr. Huzayyin the year before? and the first attempt at settled excavation there. You have heard how Miss Caton-Thompson laid bare a small temple to the Moon God, a house and two caves used by pre-Islamic people for their burials; how Miss Gardner mapped and examined the ancient irrigation system, discovered the fossilized remnants of palaeolithic vegetation in tufa deposits of the high ravines that drained into our wadi, and examined the geology of the district, investigating facts interesting and relevant to the early history of mankind in this region. 1 his was the important work of our expedition, and has already been described to you.