Water and Early Civilization

in Mesopotamia
Jason Ur
John L. Loeb Associate Professor
of the Social Sciences
Department of Anthropology
Harvard University

Wa t e r i n C o n t ex t : E x p l o r i n g w a t e r i n t h e M i d d l e E a s t r e g i o n t h r o u g h G I S
m a p p i n g a n d c r o s s - d i s c i p l i n a r y p e r s p e c ti v e s – 2 8 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 2
 Foci

• “Greater Mesopotamia”
• Water at a Regional Scale
 Modern
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia: Geography
Rainfall in the Middle East
Seasonality of Temperature & Rainfall
(Mosul, Northern Mesopotamia)
 Assyria

Northern Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia
April 2003 (MODIS Image)
Red = Vegetation (agriculture) Uruk

Southern Mesopotamia
Northern Mesopotamia: Zagros Foothills
Northern Mesopotamia: Rain-Fed Agriculture
Mesopotamia
3 Nov 2003
 )
e es
Lev
t
elic
(R

Topography of
Southern Mesopotamia
Marshes of southern Mesopotamia
Water and Mesopotamian Origins
ca. 3000-1500 BC
 Head of the Gulf?

Uruk
 Irrigation in
Southern
Mesopotamia
 Why irrigate?
• Quantity of water
• Timing of water
• Higher and more reliable yields
Water Transport
Mesopotamian
Cities

City of Ur, ca. 1700 BC

Salinization through Over-Irrigation
Mesopotamia as
a Riverine
Civilization

Settlement and
Watercourses
ca. 2000 BC
Water and
Kings

Hammurabi and
Shamash, the Sun God
The Dynamic Environment
Small Fluctuations: Oxbows
Levee Formation
Dramatic Shifts: River Avulsions
Abandonment
of the Central
Floodplain
 Northern Mesopotamia

Assyria

Water in Northern
Mesopotamia
Uruk
Upper Tigris River Valley
 Sennacherib
(704-681 BC)

Capitals of the
Neo-Assyrian Empire
ca. 900-600 BC
 The Assyrian Empire,
900-700 BC

MEDIA

SOUTHERN
MESOPOTAMIA

From Wilkinson et al. 2005, based on Roaf 1990

Assyrian Forced Migration of
Conquered Peoples

From Layard, Monuments of Nineveh vol. I

 Nimrud
(ancient Kalkhu)
 Water for
Nimrud?
Local
Conforming
Negub Tunnel
Irrigation
to
Topography
Nineveh (ca. 700 BC)
The Cross-Watershed Earthwork near Bandwai
Sennacherib’s “Northern System”
Maltai Canal

Faida Canal

Bandwai Canal

Uskof Canal

h
il a
Kh
M

os
i
ad

rR
W

i ve
r
Khorsabad

Kisiri Canal
Cross-
Watershed Dam at
Earthwork al-Shallalat

Nineveh

Cross-
Watershed
Earthwork
Canalhead at
Khinis

Aqueduct
at Jerwan

Dam at
al-Shallalat

Nineveh
Ancient Canals near Bahrka
Satellite Image (1967)

View on Ground (2012)

The Collapse of Assyria
Qanat/Karez Irrigation
Ancient Karez
Satellite Image (1967)

View on Ground (2012)

 Concluding Points

• Water was always a critical element

for early civilizations
• …but with human ingenuity
• Various levels of social organization
 FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

DR. JASON UR
jasonur@fas.harvard.edu
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~anthro/ur/