This book offers a new interpretation of the spatial-political-environmental dynamics of water and irrigation in long-term histories of arid regions. It compares ancient Southwest Arabia (3500 BC–AD 600) with the American West (2000 BC–AD 1950) in global context to illustrate similarities and differences among environmental, cultural, political, and religious dynamics of water. It combines archaeological exploration and field studies of farming in Yemen with social theory and spatial technologies, including satellite imagery, Global Positioning System (GPS), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping. In both ancient Yemen and the American West, agricultural production focused not where rain-fed agriculture was possible, but in hyper-arid areas where massive state-constructed irrigation schemes politically and ideologically validated state sovereignty. While shaped by profound differences and contingencies, ancient Yemen and the American West are mutually informative in clarifying human geographies of water that are important to understandings of America, Arabia, and contemporary conflicts between civilizations deemed East and West.

Compares ancient Southwest Arabia with the American West to illustrate revealing similarities and contrasts surrounding water usage.

In A History of Water Engineering and Management in Yemen, Ingrid Hehmeyer describes the three-way relationship between water, land, and humans from ancient to medieval and premodern times. Eight case studies address technical and managerial struggles, failures, and successes.

This book explores the interplay between African archaeology and geospatial methods from three broad perspectives. First, several contributors examine the technical possibilities and limits of using satellite imagery to detect archaeological sites and model their physical environs. A second perspective is the integration of new geospatial data and methods into site- and landscape-scale analyses to better address questions about social organization and subjective experience in African pasts. A final perspective considers the interplay between geospatial technologies and community archaeology in Africa. Recognizing that GIS and RS supersede traditional divisions in African archaeology, such as different periods, geographic regions, and theoretical orientations, the chapters aim to be widely applicable. Arranged by methodological emphasis, the case studies move from technical discussions of specific geospatial tools to general applications for addressing specific sociohistorical topics. Each chapter clearly explains the links between their archaeological questions and analytical methods, as well as how their results advance our understanding of African pasts and heritage resources. Many of the chapters can serve as learning models for archaeologists who are new to GIS or curious about its applications to their work. Others represent recent advances in geospatial applications of greater interest to more seasoned GIS practitioners, demonstrating the potential for African scholarship to contribute to methodological innovations. This book is of interest to students and researchers of African and historical archaeology and anthropology. Previously published in African Archaeological Review Volume 37, issue 1, March 2020

As water availability, management and conservation become global challenges, there is now wide consensus that historical knowledge can provide crucial information to address present crises, offering unique opportunities to appreciate the solutions and mechanisms societies have developed over time to deal with water in all its forms, from rainfall to groundwater. This unique collection explores how ancient water systems relate to present ideas of resilience and sustainability and can inform future strategy. Through an investigation of historic water management systems, along with the responses to, and impact of, various water-driven catastrophes, contributors to this volume present tenable solutions for the long-term use of water resources in different parts of the world. The discussion is not limited to issues of the past, seeking instead to address the resonance and legacy of water histories in the present and future. Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present speaks to an archaeological and non-archaeological scholarly audience and will be a useful primary reference text for researchers and graduate students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds including archaeology, anthropology, history, ecology, geography, geology, architecture and development studies.

Winner of AIA's 2022 Anna Marguerite McCann Award for Fieldwork Reports The rugged highlands of southern Yemen are one of the less archaeologically explored regions of the Near East. This final report of survey and excavations by the Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) Project addresses the development of food production and human landscapes, topics of enduring interest as scholarly conceptualizations of the Anthropocene take shape. Along with data from Manayzah, site of the earliest dated remains of clearly domesticated animals in Arabia, the volume also documents some of the earliest water management technologies in Arabia, thereby anchoring regional dates for the beginnings of pastoralism and of potential farming. The authors argue that the initial Holocene inhabitants of Wadi Sana were Arabian hunters who adopted limited pastoral stock in small social groups, then expanded their social collectives through sacrifice and feasts in a sustained pastoral landscape. This volume will be of interest to a wide audience of archaeologists including not only those working in Arabia, but more broadly those interested in the ancient Near East, Africa, South Asia, and in Holocene landscape histories generally.

Living with Water: Peoples, Lives and Livelihoods in Asia and Beyond examines the relation between water and human history through the prism of archaeology, ethnography, history, maritime anthropology, literature, sociology and musicology. Moving away from traditional themes of maritime history such as oceanic trade, migration, slavery, piracy, shipping and port-to-port linkages--and from the generic themes of maritime contacts and market exchanges, of cultural contacts and technology transfers, and of collaboration versus military conflict--the volume focusses instead on human-water interaction in history. We present different types of archives facilitating a history of water with the aim of widening the scope of water histories. Water histories have the potential of bringing remote, marginal histories to the centre of historical research. As Harlaftis (2010) and Grafe (2011) have noted, such histories provide atool for linking the local and the regional with the global, and also provide the possibility of comparing the various scales or levels of water's interaction and intervention with peoples' lives. The spatial extent of the volume is Russia, Bangladesh, India (Assam, Bengal, the Tamil country) and the Philippines. Moving away from traditional themes of maritime history such as oceanic trade, migration, slavery, piracy, shipping and port-to-port linkages--and from the generic themes of maritime contacts and market exchanges, of cultural contacts and technology transfers, and of collaboration versus military conflict--the volume focusses instead on human-water interaction in history. We present different types of archives facilitating a history of water with the aim of widening the scope of water histories. Water histories have the potential of bringing remote, marginal histories to the centre of historical research. As Harlaftis (2010) and Grafe (2011) have noted, such histories provide atool for linking the local and the regional with the global, and also provide the possibility of comparing the various scales or levels of water's interaction and intervention with peoples' lives. The spatial extent of the volume is Russia, Bangladesh, India (Assam, Bengal, the Tamil country) and the Philippines.