The use of water in arid southwestern Asia

From Neolithic wells to historical water systems

干旱的亚洲西南水资源利用:从新石器的水井到历史时期的水利系统

Ofer Bar-Yosef 奥菲•巴尔约瑟夫
Harvard University 哈佛大学人类学系

Abstract

Southwest Asia was the arena of the origins of agriculture that commenced due to demographic pressures among hunting and gathering groups and contemporary climatic fluctuations during the Terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene (ca. 14,000 – 8,500 cal BC). This region, located at the northern edge of the Sahara belt is encircled by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Sinai Desert in the south and the Syro-Arabian Desert in the east, was vulnerable to minor and a few major climatic fluctuations that impacted the early sedentary communities. Digging wells since the early Neolithic age and the use of water channels were among the early reactions to the natural reduction of winter rains. Digging wells during the Chalcolithic period and the development of water system during the Bronze and Iron ages were among the techniques human developed while facing short water supplies for humans and animals, and in particular during times of social conflicts and wars. The knowledge of how to reach the water aquifer in various tomographic and geological situations resulted curing the late Holocene in the digging of numerous Qanats. These are underground tunnels, assisted by a series of dug-up wells, originating in underground springs, channeling water for irrigation along distances of many kilometers. Although this technique is better known from Persian history, additional innovating archaeological research techniques will demonstrate its prehistoric roots. It is not different from building dams and constructing water reservoirs known at least from the Fifth Millennium BC. Adequate water supplies for drinking and irrigation remained even today a critical problem for humans and animals survival in semi-arid regions such as Southwestern Asia.

更新世末期至早全新世时期(约公元前14000~前8500年),人口增长和气候变化的双重压力,刺激了农业在西南亚狩猎采集部落中的起源与发展。西南亚地区位于撒哈拉沙漠北缘,西面为地中海所环绕,东、南两面分别为叙利亚沙漠和西奈沙漠,独特的地理环境,使得其对大大小小的气候波动十分敏感,影响到早期定居部落的生活。早在新石器时代早期,人们便通过开挖水井和水渠的方式来应对冬季雨量的不足。铜石并用时代的人们依然打井,到青铜和铁器时代,水利系统发展起来,以解决水资源短缺(尤其是在社会动荡和战争期间)的问题。在掌握了不同地层和地质条件下到达含水层的丰富经验之后,人们修建了大量的暗渠,以地下潜水为水源,配以一系列竖井,为绵延数公里的农田提供灌溉。虽然学界对这一技术的了解更多源自波斯时期,但新的考古成果将揭示它的史前源头,它与至少自公元前第五千纪时修建水坝和蓄水池的做法并无二异。对于像西南亚这样的半干旱地区而言,充足的饮用和灌溉水源一直到今天都是人畜生存需要解决的首要问题。

Biographical Sketch

Received his Ph.D. in 1970, taught 1968 -1987 at Hebrew University, (from 1979 as Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology) and later in the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University 1988-2013, retired (continue to serve as ‘research professor). He was the joint excavator of Lower though late Paleolithic and early Neolithic open-air sites and caves in Israel, Sinai (Egypt), Czech Republic, Republic of Georgia, and China. He participated in three excavations in Turkey (University of Ankara 1990-2016). His field work is focused on early and late dispersals from Africa, Neanderthals and modern humans, and the transition from foraging to farming. Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (since 2001) and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (since 2005). He co-edited 20 volumes, and authored or co-authored some 400 papers and book chapters.

奥菲•巴尔约瑟夫于1970年获得博士学位,1968-1987年任教于希伯来大学(自1979年起任史前考古学教授),1988-2013年任教于哈佛大学人类学系,退休后续聘为研究教授。曾参与以色列、西奈半岛、捷克、格鲁吉亚和中国等地旧石器时代晚期至新石器时代早期露天及岩洞遗址的发掘,及安卡拉大学在土耳其组织的三次发掘(1990-2016)。其田野工作聚焦于走出非洲的人类始祖、尼安德特人和现代人的分布与扩散,及狩猎采集向农业的过渡。现为美国国家科学院院士和英国科学院通讯院士,与人合作编撰著作20部,独撰或合撰论文及章节近400篇。