Water Histories and Spatial Archaeology
Ancient Yemen and the American West

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

Michael J. Harrower (Author)

9781316500682, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 December 2019

224 pages, 14 b/w illus. 4 colour illus. 2 tables
23 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.43 kg

'This book addresses the long-term environmental as well as economic history of the Yemen case study and contextualizes it within the wider discipline. Archaeohydrology as a discipline benefits from the approach taken in this book.' American Anthropologist

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.

1. Introduction: comparing water histories of America and Arabia
2. Comparison and juxtaposition in archaeology: water, agriculture and state formation in space and time
3. Water histories of ancient Yemen in global comparative perspective
4. Pastoralism, water and the beginning of agriculture in Southwest Arabia
5. Water histories of Southwest Arabian kingdoms (and the American West)
6. Conclusion: water histories, comparison, geopolitics and spatial archaeology.

Subject Areas: Drought & water supply [RNFD], Environmental archaeology [HDP], Landscape archaeology [HDL], Archaeological theory [HDA], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]