Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present: Resilience, decline and revival

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
Preface
Water and society: Introduction
	Serendipity, predictability and the relevance of water
	Historical, comparative analysis: the long-term view
	Resilience, decline and revival
	Water histories
	Conclusions
	References
Part I
	Chapter 1 Sustaining freshwater security and community wealth: Diversity and change in the pre-Columbian Maya lowlands
		The archaeology of freshwater security
		Theoretical baseline
		The Maya lowlands
		Freshwater security and community wealth in the Maya lowlands
		Concluding discussion
		Acknowledgements
		References
	Chapter 2 Archaeological identification of human sensitivity to drought
		Climate sensitivity assessment: A new archaeological approach
		Case study: American Southwest, Central Arizona
		Climate–human behaviour model and expectations
		Data and methods
		Population movement
		Spatial and temporal units of analysis
		Climate proxy selection
		Identifying droughts and characterising severity
		Assessing relationships between drought severity and residential abandonment
		Results
		Vulnerable people and places
		Resilient people and places
		Explaining inter-watershed variation
		Implications and conclusions
		References
	Chapter 3 Water and risks in marginal landscapes of Anatolia
		Introduction
		Anatolia and the marginal landscapes
		Changes in social organisation as adaptation
		Case study: Arslantepe, Malatya Plain
		The relationship between water and society at Arslantepe
		The implications of climate change for water–society relationships at Arslantepe
		Conclusions
		Acknowledgements
		References
	Chapter 4 Water management and irrigation systems in the medieval Mediterranean
		Introduction
		Historical irrigation systems: meaning and characteristics
		Why irrigation?
		The question of the origins and expansion
		Medieval irrigation systems
		MEMOLA project: knowledge and preservation for a sustainable future
		Conclusions
		Notes
		References
	Chapter 5 The tale the river tells: Floodplains, climate change and archaeology in West Africa
		Introduction
		Agency and scale
		Archaeology as climate science
		Tales the river tells
		What the African past can teach us
		Acknowledgements
		References
	Chapter 6 Water and large-scale societies in southern Zambezia, 900–1900 CE
		Introduction
		Physiographic and cultural frameworks
		Socio-political centralisation in the middle Limpopo floodplain
		Water management in Zimbabwe’s southern plateau
		Water management in the Zambezi catchment
		Societies on the margins of the larger states
		Water: a critical overview
		Conclusions
		References
	Chapter 7 Traditions of water in the northern Horn of Africa
		Introduction
		Water in the past
		The traditions of water
		Reservoirs of life
		The human scale
		Acknowledgements
		References
Part II
	Chapter 8 Managing water and land at the Amazon River estuary: From pre-Columbian times to the present
		Introduction
		Managing water for fish farming
		Changing subsistence systems – from fishing to cattle ranching
		Conflicts over the fisheries
		The Quilombolas of the Gurupá  River
		Ecological management and artisanal fishing
		The aç aí  problem
		Final remarks
		References
	Chapter 9 Ancient water management in southern Arabia: Creativity, resilience and sustainability in Yemen and Oman
		Introduction
		Archaeological water histories of Yemen
		Archaeological water histories of Oman
		Comparing creativity, resilience and sustainability in southern Arabia
		Concluding remarks
		Acknowledgements
		References
	Chapter 10 Qanāts of Iran: Sustainable water supply systems
		Introduction
		Physiography of Iran
		A short history of qanā t development
		Distribution of qanā ts in Iran
		Important qanā ts of Iran
		Contribution of qanā t systems to the existing agricultural system
		Qanā t and groundwater drawdown
		Qanā t and sustainability
		Conclusions
		Notes
		References
	Chapter 11 Angkor, food production, water management and climate change: The trajectory of urbanism in SE Asia to the mid-second millennium CE
		Context
		The development of Greater Angkor, 9th to 13th century
		The water network
		Demise
		Review
		Conclusions
		Notes
		References
	Chapter 12 Hydraulic complexities: Collapse and resilience in Sri Lanka
		Introduction
		The Rajarata: A marginal environment
		The Chola conquest
		The South Asian State
		The hydraulic landscape
		The collapse
		The failure of complexity
		References
	Chapter 13 Historic water systems in India: Relevance for sustainable development of significant cultural landscapes
		Introduction
		Historic water systems and cultural landscapes in India
		Water systems in the Deccan – understanding the qanā t system in India
		Decline and revival of historic water systems
		The relevance of historic water systems for sustainable development and regeneration of cultural landscapes today
		Conclusions
		Acknowledgements
		Bibliography
	Chapter 14 Historic water systems, urban growth and resilience in American cities
		Introduction
		Before citywide systems
		The public water utility, 1830–1920
		Further expansion of water supply systems, 1920–1945
		Metropolitan growth and the demands on water supplies, 1945– 1970
		From infrastructure crisis to privatisation since 1970
		Privatisation and remuniciplisation
		Can water governance remain local?
		What about safety?
		Conclusions
		Notes
		Bibliography
	Concluding essay 1: Resource gain and complexity: Water past and future
		Resource gain
		Gradients and resource gain
		Studies in resource gain and organisation
		Resource gain and organisation among fungus-farming ants
		Resource gain and Maya water control
		Resource gain and organisation
		Implications of resource gain
		Concluding assessment
		Acknowledgments
		References
	Concluding essay 2: Historical water socioecological systems: Sustainability, resilience and transformability
		Introduction
		Sustainability, resilience, adaptability and transformability
		Socioecological dynamics of water management
		Water management paradigms
		Water management – A transformational history
		Water–food nexus: Toward a new management paradigm
		References
Index