Les irrigations antiques à Shabwa

Hydrology, Ideology, and the Origins of Irrigation in Ancient Southwest Arabia

“…Though Southwest Arabia remains one of the least archaeologically known areas of the Near East, a comparative wealth of research documents the importance of irrigation among ancient states and their precursors (e.g., Brunner 1997Brunner , 2000Brunner and Haefner 1986;Coque-Delhuille 1998;Francaviglia 2002;Gentelle 1991;Gentelle and Coque-Delhuille 1998;Hehmeyer 1989;Mouton 2004;Vogt 2004;Vogt, Buffa, and Brunner 2002), and recent investigations have begun to establish the tandem beginnings of crop agriculture and irrigation during the fourth millennium BC 1 (see Edens 2005; Edens and Wilkinson 1998). Italian research in Khawlan identified ceramic impressions that include wheat, barley, and sorghum dated to the latter half of the third millennium (Costantini 1990).…”

Is the hydraulic hypothesis dead yet? Irrigation and social change in ancient Yemen

“…An area of at least 6800ha was once irrigated (though probably not simultaneously) and canals carried water for as far as 30km from neighboring Wadi Hammam (Brunner 1997b: 75). Investigations in the Jawf (Francaviglia 2002), along Wadi Beihan (Bowen 1958;Coque-Delhuille 1998) and at Shabwa (Gentelle 1991) show that similarly extensive systems of barrages, canals, sluices and earthen banked fields supported kingdoms of Ma' ın, Qatab an and Hadramawt respectively. With the exception of the Wadi Madhab watershed, catchments feeding these systems are substantially smaller than the Wadi Dhana watershed that feeds Ma'rib, and the catchment of ancient Raybun where the watersheds of Wadi Da'wan and Wadi al-Ayn combine is significantly larger than those of ancient state capitals (Table 1).…”

Makaynûn and its territory: the formation of an urban centre during the South Arabian period in the Hadramawt

“…At the confluence of the wadis ‘Arda, Sukhura, Thawba, Jibb and Sabya, the land of Makaynûn benefited from the flood waters flowing from these five valleys. In antiquity, irrigation in southern Arabia was based on techniques of seasonal flood‐water management which had been perfectly mastered at the time which we are concerned with here (on South Arabian irrigation techniques see Brunner 1983; Hehmeyer & Schmidt 1991; Gentelle 1991; Coque & Gentelle 1998). Rain in the Hadramawt falls infrequently but extremely heavily on the plateau and runs down the many gullies into the valleys where it concentrates into flows.…”