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Posted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: June 27, 2023, 02:04:20 am »

https://us.yahoo.com/lifestyle/1-000-old-wall-peru-171958063.html

Quote
An ancient desert wall in northern Peru was built to protect precious farmlands and canals from the ravages of El Niño floods, according to new research.
...
El Niño floods are thought to have occurred there for thousands of years, and they would have been a serious danger to the Chimú, Gabriel Prieto, an archaeologist at the University of Florida, told Live Science.

"The annual rainfall there in a regular year is very low — almost no rain at all," he said. "So when the rainfall was very high, that caused a lot of damage."
...
The wall is built across two dry riverbeds that flood during El Niño. Preventing flooding in the farmlands also would have protected Chan Chan, which was connected to them by a network of canals.

"I'd guess, to some degree, that the wall worked like a kind of a dam," Prieto said.
...
"The Chimú were the descendants of people who had lived in this region for 10,000 years — they knew exactly what was going on," he said.

Of course! In contrast:

Quote
Edward Swenson, an archaeologist at the University of Toronto who isn't involved in the research, told Live Science that Prieto's interpretation made sense.

"The idea at first struck me as incongruous, because I've not heard of walls against water before," he said.

Thank you for revealing your non-Aryan blood memory.

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/plebian-hubris/msg16715/#msg16715

Quote
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_empire

Quote
A hydraulic empire, also known as a hydraulic despotism, hydraulic society, hydraulic civilization, or water monopoly empire, is a social or government structure which maintains power and control through exclusive control over access to water. It arises through the need for flood control and irrigation, which requires central coordination and a specialized bureaucracy.[1]
...
A developed hydraulic civilization maintains control over its population by means of controlling the supply of water. The term was coined by the German-American historian Karl August Wittfogel (1896–1988), in his book Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power (1957). Wittfogel asserted that such "hydraulic civilizations"—although they were neither all located in the Orient nor characteristic of all Oriental societies—were essentially different from those of the Western world. According to Wittfogel, most of the first civilizations in history, such as Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Pre-Columbian Mexico and Peru, are believed to have been hydraulic empires.[2] Most hydraulic empires existed in arid or desert regions, but imperial China also had some such characteristics, due to the exacting needs of rice cultivation.

The Maurya Empire in India was classified by Wittfogel as a grandiose Hydraulic Economy.[3] Kautilya while referring to the udakabhaga (water-cess, cess being a term used in India, Scotland and Ireland for an additional tax) lists various kinds of irrigation, viz., irrigated by manual labour, by carrying water on the shoulder, by water lifts, and by raising water from lakes, rivers etc. Some scholars believe, there is a clear reference to canals for irrigation in the Arthashastra, in a sutra which points out that water was set in motion by digging (khatapravrittim) from a river-dam (nandinibhandayatana) or a tank.[4]

Apart from Ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush, the Ajuran Sultanate of the Horn of Africa was the only other hydraulic empire in Africa. Beginning in the 13th century, the Ajuran monopolized the water resources of the Jubba and Shebelle rivers. Through hydraulic engineering, they also constructed many of the state's limestone wells and cisterns that are still in use today. Its rulers developed new systems for agriculture and taxation, which continued to be used in parts of the Horn of Africa as late as the 19th century.[5]
...
The typical hydraulic empire government, in Wittfogel's thesis, is extremely centralized, with no trace of an independent aristocracy – in contrast to the decentralized feudalism of medieval Europe.
Posted by: 2ThaSun
« on: June 20, 2023, 04:37:13 pm »

Ancient Structure Along River Nile Is Oldest Hydraulics System of Its Kind
Quote
A smattering of ancient rock walls along the river Nile in Sudan appear to represent the oldest known hydraulics system of their kind.
Quote
New findings suggest people living in the ancient empire of Nubia in northern Sudan were manipulating the river to their advantage as far back as 3,000 years ago.

River 'groynes' are rigid structures, laid perpendicular to a shore or bank, that humans still use to this day to manipulate the flow of water and silt.

They're highly useful, and farmers and boaters along the Nile have known that for much longer than we ever knew.

The Yellow River in China used to have the oldest known groynes in the world. But not anymore.

Researchers in Australia and the United Kingdom have found evidence that Nubians were using groynes 2,500 years before farmers in China were doing the same.

Using satellite data, local surveys, and previous studies, the team revealed hundreds of groynes that still stand in Sudan to this day.

Some are buried under the waters of the Nile, while others stand on ancient riverbeds that have long since dried out.

Their shape, orientation, and size say a lot about their possible purposes.

Researchers suspect they were used to trap fertile silt, to irrigate land, to limit bank erosion, to defend against seasonal floods, to create optimal fishing pools, or to stop winds of sand from smothering crops.



Quote
The system is so effective, it's actually still employed by locals, although not in the same spots. Climate changes over the past three millennia have significantly altered the flow of the Nile in this region.

"From speaking with farmers in Sudanese Nubia, we also learned that river groynes continued to be built as recently as the 1970s, and that the land formed by some walls is still cultivated today," says archaeologist Matthew Dalton from the University of Western Australia.

"This incredibly long-lived hydraulic technology played a crucial role in enabling communities to grow food and thrive in the challenging landscapes of Nubia for over 3,000 years."

The practice of installing river groynes along the Nile was assumed to be modern, dating to around the early 19th century, and yet other older-looking groynes also exist in the region.

Unfortunately, the groynes found near archaeological sites from Nubia are often submerged in active channels, which means they cannot be properly dated.

Still, the ones that exist on dry riverbed, near an ancient walled town known as Amara West, have now been dated to between 3,000 and 3,300 years old...
Entire article: https://www.sciencealert.com/ancient-structure-along-river-nile-is-oldest-hydraulics-system-of-its-kind
Posted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: September 02, 2022, 12:17:32 am »

http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2022-09/01/content_78399557.htm

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Jijiaocheng is an archaeological site that hit the headlines in March when it was named among China's top 10 new discoveries of 2021. Located in Lixian county, Changde city, Central China's Hunan province, it's recorded in local annals that Jijiaocheng, which literally means "****-crowing city", got its name because it is said to have been built at the very dawn of time.

Dating back to between 5,300 and 4,000 years, Jijiaocheng may have not "crowed" over thousands of years, but when it did, it startled everyone.

A classic case among Neolithic sites, it presents a unique civilization of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River that thrived on rice agriculture.

The archaeological discoveries are significant and reveal a three-layer moat near settlement clusters, vast areas of irrigated paddy fields and a large-scale wooden complex.
...
"There is an evidence chain to prove that it's a civilization of an early-stage state based on rice agriculture," says Guo Weimin, who's in charge of Jijiaocheng's excavation project.
...
the complicated moat system, which dates back between 4,000 and 5,000 years, reflects the high level of rice agriculture at that time. Parallel canals were found on the fringe of the moat, and their function was to irrigate the rice fields.

Today, the well-preserved moat system can be clearly seen in aerial photos, and he says that "it's very rare among its counterparts in China".

"Compared with China's Liangzhu and Hongshan cultures, Jijiaocheng is less religious. However, it is more religious than its counterparts in the Central China Plains. It is probably somewhere in between a theocracy and monarchy," Guo says.

He believes that Jijiaocheng shows no obvious traces of war, which is different from the Central China Plains.

"At Jijiaocheng, the ancients were self-sufficient in food production. It's probable that they had no awareness or need to snatch resources from others," he says.


Archaeologists found a pile of chaff covering an area of 80 sq m, with an average depth of 15 centimeters. It's estimated to be from unprocessed rice weighing about 22 metric tons, enough to feed 1,000 adults for over 40 days.

"This is only what we discovered. The original storage must have been huge. It reveals the centralized management and redistribution of grain in Jijiaocheng, meaning that the society was highly developed," he says.
...
The 4,700-year-old house has a floor area of 420 sq m, with an extra 210 sq m of corridors. F63 was made of nanmu and camphor trees, which are resilient to warping and cracking.

Before the construction of the building, planks were placed on foundation trenches and columns, 55 cm in diameter, were installed.

He says that, even without metal tools, using just implements made from stone and wood, the people of that time were able to produce smooth wooden planks between five and eight meters long.

"It's unlikely a house for daily living. It's more likely to be a place for a ritual or large public activities, revealing that Jijiaocheng was a hierarchical society," he says



See also:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/mythical-world/yandi-vs-huangdi-myth-confirmed/
Posted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: October 21, 2021, 10:00:33 pm »

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/mysterious-9000-years-old-wells-discovered-central-china-1659531

Quote
The discovery was made public on Tuesday, (6 February). Deputy head of the provincial archaeological research institute, Wei Xingtao told Xinhua News that they are the oldest wells found in China to date.

The wells are different in structure. The deepest of the six goes 5.2 metres underground. Some were built with flights of stairs, most likely to allow settlers to fetch deeper water and more easily.

In the wells, the team of archaeologists unearthed ancient tools. five pottery pots were found, most likely used to carry water. These pots were built with handles so that strings could be attached to them.

"The people probably dropped the pots accidentally into the wells while fetching water," said Xingtao.

The purpose of the wells is still obscure. Xingtao mused they could have either been used for drinking water, for land irrigation or to fetch water used in pottery. "These are questions yet to be answered."
Posted by: guest5
« on: February 06, 2021, 11:37:04 pm »

The Ancient Peruvian Mystery Solved From Space
Quote
The puquios were a “sophisticated hydraulic system constructed to retrieve water from underground aquifers,” says Rosa Lasaponara of the Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis, in Italy. And they transformed this inhospitable region.
Quote
“What is clearly evident today is that the puquio system must have been much more developed than it appears today,” says Lasaponara. “Exploiting an inexhaustible water supply throughout the year the puquio system contributed to an intensive agriculture of the valleys in one of the most arid places in the world.”

A series of canals brought the water, trapped underground, to the areas where it was needed; anything left was stored in surface reservoirs. To help keep it moving, chimneys were excavated above the canals in the shape of corkscrewing funnels. These funnels let wind into the canals, which forced the water through the system.

“The puquios were the most ambitious hydraulic project in the Nasca area and made water available for the whole year, not only for agriculture and irrigation but also for domestic needs,” says Lasaponara, who has written about her satellite studies in Ancient Nasca World: New Insights from Science and Archaeology, published in 2017.

Quote
The origin of the puquios has remained a mystery to researchers because it was not possible to use traditional carbon dating techniques on the tunnels. Nor did the Nasca leave any clues as to their origin. Like many other South American cultures they had no writing system.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-ancient-peruvian-mystery-solved-from-space?utm_source=pocket-newtab


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Puquios are systems of subterranean aqueducts found the deserts of southern Peru and northern Chile. Of 36 known puquios in Peru, most still function and are relied upon to bring fresh water into the desert.[1]

The puquios first became a subject of study in the early 20th century,[2] although they had been known before, but historic evidence was scarce. Around 1900 it was noted there were puquios, locally known as socavones (lit. shafts), spread through the oases of Atacama Desert.[3] Today puquios, in various states of use and decay, are known to exists in the valleys of Azapa and Sibaya and the oases of La Calera, Pica-Matilla and Puquio de Núñez.[3]

For some time, scholars disagreed on whether they were built by pre-Hispanic peoples or during the Spanish colonial era, because of a lack of evidence.

The first known historical writing to refer to them was in 1605 by Reginaldo de Lizárraga. Some scholars believe this suggests that the works were built by the Spanish.[4] But none of the available Spanish texts mentions a project to build the puquios,[5] nor do they describe such existing water systems.[6] The theory of a Spanish origin holds that the puquio technique is not substantially different from Spanish techniques used from the early conquest to drain mines.[7] An early example is the mine of Potosí that was drained by subterranean canals as early 1556 following instructions of Florentine engineer Nicolás de Benito.[7]

In 1918 geologist Juan Brüggen mentioned the existence of 23 socavones (shafts) in the Pica oasis, yet these have since then been abandoned due to economic and social changes.[3] The puquios of Pica-Matilla and Puquio Núñez tap the Pica Aquifer.[3]
Quote
The puquios of Nazca are thought to have been built by both the Paracas and Nasca cultures. The former group occupied the area roughly between 800 BCE and 200 BCE, and the Nasca from 200 BCE to 650 CE[8] near the city of Nazca, Peru.

The technology of puquios is similar to that of the qanats of Iran and Makhmur, Iraq, and other ancient filtration galleries known in numerous societies in the Old World and China, which appear to have been developed independently.[9] They are a sophisticated way to provide water from underground aquifers in arid regions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puquios
Posted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: September 10, 2020, 04:20:45 am »

https://www.al.com/news/2019/02/ancient-native-american-canal-discovered-in-gulf-shores.html

Quote
The canal is six tenths of a mile, making it one of the longest pre-Columbian canals discovered in North America said Greg Waselkov, head of the archaeology department at the University of South Alabama. Waselkov led the recent excavation of the canal in a forested area near Little Lagoon.

“There are other similar ancient canals, but they are very rare. All of the other long canals, and there are only six known examples of this type, are all in Florida,” Waselkov said. “The Gulf Shores canal is one of the best preserved ancient canals. There are many short canals found at coastal sites, but long ones like the Gulf Shores example, which ran for a kilometer or more are quite rare.”

Waselkov said that one of the Florida canals was in the panhandle area, but the others were in the Everglades and south Florida, making the Gulf Shores canal an important find for the northern Gulf Coast.

“The only other ancient canals I know of in North America are the Hohokam irrigation canals in Arizona, which are similar in appearance and scale and very extensive, but very different in terms of function and hydrology,” Waselkov said.

Which, of course, fits the Eastern Agricultural Complex Aryans learning canal engineering from the Pueblo Aryans:

http://aryanism.net/culture/aryan-race/aryan-diffusion-part-7/

Continuing with the first link:

Quote
In that era, one of the easiest ways to travel was by water. That was especially true along the Gulf Coast, where our forests often form dense jungles. Study a map of the Fort Morgan peninsula and the benefits of this particular canal are quickly apparent. As you look at the map, remember that the Intracoastal Canal did not exist.

Getting from the eastern shore of Mobile Bay to the Gulf without the newly discovered canal would mean an arduous trip, requiring hours of paddle across the open and often rough waters of the bay. From the mouth of Weeks Bay to the tip of Fort Morgan, for instance, would require a 14-mile paddle across the bay, where two-foot waves are common. Then imagine making that trip in a hollowed-out log with paddles carved from trees.

Connecting Oyster Bay with Little Lagoon, which had an outlet to the Gulf even in prehistoric times, was a brilliant idea. Travelling via the canal would cut the amount of paddling from Weeks Bay to the Gulf by more than 10 miles. And much of the journey would occur in calm and protected water, where paddling is both safer and much easier.

Waselkov said that the Middle Woodland era was believed to be relatively peaceful compared to later times, when tribes frequently enslaved those they conquered. While slave labor was sometimes used for various purposes in those later periods, Waselkov said he did not think that was the case with the canal.

“We have no reason to think any of them were built with slave labor,” Waselkov said. “People seem to have contributed labor for short periods during the year to build mounds and earthen enclosures.”
...
Standing on the edge of the canal this week, gazing over the remnants of one of the oldest manmade objects on the Gulf Coast, it was easy to understand why those ancient people would have come together for a communal project like this. Simply put, it would have made life much easier, and much more pleasant. What better reason to do anything?

But of course the increasingly non-Aryan population did not even maintain it:

Quote
While the benefits of the canal for travel are obvious, it was clearly abandoned at some point and allowed to fill in. Only a few sections of the canal are apparent today, one where it dumps in to Little Lagoon.

“I am still trying to pin down the approximate date when the canal fell out of use.
Posted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: September 10, 2020, 04:14:10 am »

OLD CONTENT

www.telegraph.co.uk/china-watch/culture/liangzhu-unesco-world-heritage-site/

Quote
“The archaeological ruins of Liangzhu (3300-2300BC) reveal an early regional state with a unified belief system based on rice cultivation in Late Neolithic China,” the Unesco World Heritage Committee said.
...
Scholars once considered that the Central China Plain along the Yellow River (the plain is commonly known as Zhongyuan) was the cradle of Chinese civilisations, and Liangzhu Culture was once played down by academia as being a branch of a counterpart spreading from the north.

“However, Liangzhu Culture has its unique character and proves that the Yangtze River is another cultural hub,” said Song Xinchao, deputy director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration. “New archaeological research has changed the way we understand our history.

I told you so.

aryanism.net/culture/aryan-race/aryan-diffusion-part-2/

Quote
More importantly, there were still the Shennongshi who had stayed behind in the south all along instead of migrating north with the Yandi expedition.

The infrastructure has Shennongshi written all over it:

Quote
Links with water

In Chinese, Liangzhu translates as “beautiful isle”, and this culture was intricately connected with water.

For example, of nine heritage sites found at the city gate, eight were built above water, while research in 2010-16 revealed a complicated dam system.

Wang Ningyuan, a researcher with the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said: “This water conservancy system was crucial for people in Liangzhu city. It not only controlled flooding, but in an age with no vehicles and domesticated horses, waterways comprised the main mode of transport for the residents.”

Waterways in the mountainous area might not have been able to take large vessels, but the water was stored in an artificial reservoir, estimated to be 13sq km, about two times the size of the West Lake in Hangzhou, Wang said. Some parts of the reservoir are still used.

There was also a network of canals in the city, with a total length of 32km. As the city was built above marshland, all building materials had to be transported in by canal.

Wang has also found sites near the dams that he thinks were used to grow rice. He said the reservoir was probably used for irrigation as well. In 2017, the ruins of a burnt barn were found near the Mojiaoshan site, containing an estimated 200,000kg of carbonated rice.

“Liangzhu is a unique example of early-stage civilisations in the world, whose economy relied on cultivating rice, while other civilisations were mainly fed by wheat,” Wang said.

Li Boqian, an archaeology professor from Peking University, said the emphasis on conserving water in ancient China may be a legacy from Liangzhu city.

What is being described is a hydraulic empire, which facilitates autocracy:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_empire

Quote
A hydraulic empire (also known as a hydraulic despotism, or water monopoly empire) is a social or government structure which maintains power and control through exclusive control over access to water. It arises through the need for flood control and irrigation, which requires central coordination and a specialized bureaucracy.[1]
...
Most of the first civilizations in history, such as Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Sri Lanka, and Pre-Columbian Mexico and Peru, are believed to have been hydraulic empires.[citation needed] The Indus Valley civilization is often considered a hydraulic empire despite a lack of evidence of irrigation (as this evidence may have been lost in time due to flood damage).

and indeed from the article:

Quote
In the centre of the inner city of Liangzhu lies Mojiaoshan, an artificially terraced site covering nearly 300,000sq m. The foundations of 35 houses have been unearthed on the terrace, which is 12m (39ft) to 16m above the ground.

“This was probably the site of a palace complex where the top rulers lived,” Liu said.

But as usual the autocracy failed to control non-Aryan reproduction:

Quote
The city also faced a population crisis, with remains of residences found on its walls showing that people needed more living space. A 50m-wide canal in the city gradually shrank to 20m because residents kept dumping their rubbish there.

---

www.thenationalherald.com/254940/a-sign-of-communal-sophistication-revealed-by-finds-in-neolithic-site-of-koutroulou-magoula/

Quote
Excavations this year proved beyond any doubt that the settlement in the Neolithic was surrounded by perimeter ditches, large, seemingly communal works with multiple social, symbolic and practical functions. The natural bedrock had been cut by people in the Neolithic to form steps in order to facilitate digging, but also enable its continuous use for collecting water and possibly clay. “Given the size of the settlement, the time and effort invested in the creation and maintenance of this system of ditches would have phenomenal. These ditches would have been a central feature in the material and social life of the community,” noted professor Hamilakis.

Other information:

Quote
The building has stone walls measuring a total of 9.5 m in length and nearly 8.5 m wide, and is one of the largest of this period to be found in Greece. It also appears to have been supported by a massive external buttress. Its function remains unclear, but preliminary results indicate it was used over a long time and underwent rebuilding and modifications. At certain periods it also seems to have been shared with domestic animals.

Another significant find is a complex of heavily burnt, closed pottery kilns found near the edge of the settlement. One of the kilns preserves extremely well its plastered floor, parts of its plastered walls and dome, and other architectural features. It was built on a coarsely plastered platform. “This is an extremely important find, and an indication of the technological sophistication of the Neolithic inhabitants of the site,” noted Dr Nina Kyparissi-Apostolika, honorary ephor at the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology and Speleology, and co-director of the excavation with professor Yannis Hamilakis of Brown University.

---

Introductory article, with an emphasis on American examples:

www.sapiens.org/column/the-dirt/agriculture-water-crisis/

Quote
Prior to about 11,000 years ago, people lived primarily by hunting wild animals and gathering plants in their natural habitats. Over time, humans began to encourage particular plants to grow, while discouraging others. People came to rely more on the food provided by those plants, and they placed their communities nearby to protect their crops from animals and other people. As more and more people began living in a localized space, the need for more plant resources grew, which produced a need for more consistent water than was provided by rain.

As gatherers became farmers, they recognized that more consistent supplies of water resulted in better crop yields and healthier animals. The creation of water control systems, such as wells, cisterns, runoff diversion systems, and, eventually, irrigation, allowed populations to provide water for crops without relying solely on local rainfall. Water control was part of the Neolithic Revolution, as V. Gordon Childe called it, and, along with plant and animal domestication, it allowed people to consolidate and create denser population areas.

The development of these water control systems, though, created a concomitant need to control access to the water. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, anthropologists Karl Wittfogel and Julian Steward proposed that this control was a major factor in the development of early civilizations. Increased food production, they argued, led to increased population; increased population led to a need for increased food production to feed the larger population; increased food production required more water; increased demand for water required that it be apportioned in some way; and increased need for apportionment led to a need for greater control in order to prevent tension over conflicting demands for water.

Ultimately, whoever controlled the water had to maintain that control in one (or some combination) of three ways: through force, by having permission from those who needed the water, or by being able to negotiate with all the parties involved. People accepted the decisions of the water administrator to withhold or provide water, but they also came together under the administrator’s direction to construct or maintain water control structures. This centralized control led to greater integration of various family groups as they united for a common cause under an acknowledged leader
...
Smaller irrigation systems that rely on centralized control still exist in northern New Mexico. ... A friend of mine is a mayordomo of an acequía near Abiquiu, New Mexico. His role is to ensure equitable water distribution, and he makes himself available to address issues that come up throughout the growing season, as well as during the off-season. As a result of his role as ditch boss he is known in the community, and people seek him out for socializing as well as for “ditch business.” It’s a year-round commitment, but my friend finds the community interaction to be deeply satisfying.
...
The Hohokam of central and southern Arizona, for example—a major cultural group that thrived from about A.D. 200 to 1400—created irrigation systems that helped them deal with water scarcity in their semi-arid environment. Their canal systems brought water from rivers and dispersed it across the nearby landscape. Archaeologists believe that the construction, maintenance, and operation of these canal systems would have required a substantial and well-organized effort—an investment of time beyond that available to a single household or family. Also, because of the possibility of conflicts over water, strong leadership must have been necessary to quickly resolve disputes that could threaten the cooperative ventures needed to run the canals.

More on the Hohokam canals:

www.inmaricopa.com/hohokam-canals-maricopa/

---

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsta.2010.0191

Quote
Although some settlements show a long-term continuity of settlement, when taken as a whole, the Neolithic settlement pattern after 8500 years ago is transformed with the appearance of smaller and more dispersed sites, some now being located in parts of the landscape that suggest new forms of agricultural economies and relationships with water. In Wadi Faynan, for instance, the location of settlement shifts into the expansive area of the wadi bottom itself in the form of Tell Wadi Faynan (Najjar et al. 1990). Material culture is also transformed with the appearance of ceramics—we now enter the period of the Pottery Neolithic. It is also around this time, after 8500 years ago, when more substantial evidence for water management appears.

The most striking is found at the Neolithic site of Sha’ar Hagolan located in the northern reaches of the Jordan Valley: a well, dating to 8300 years ago, excavated by Garfinkel et al. (2006). This is not the earliest known well. This comes from the west coast of Cyprus where three Neolithic wells have been dated to approximately 10 000 years old (Peltenberg et al. 2000; Croft 2003). Three more Neolithic wells have been discovered from the underwater site of ‘Atlit-Yam near the Mediterranean coast dating to around 9000 years ago (Galili & Nir 1993; Galili et al. 1993). That of Sha’ar Hagolan is the earliest known in the Jordan Valley.

Sha’ar Hagolan is one of the largest known Neolithic settlements, covering 20 ha with streets and courtyard houses, giving the impression of a well-organized settlement (figure 13). The well appears to have been in an open area rather than within the courtyard of a private building. It consists of a 4.2 m shaft, the upper portion of which was stonelined, whereas the base widened out at the level of the water table (figure 14). The meticulous excavation has revealed the stages and methods of construction, along with the accumulation of sediment and domestic refuse after it had fallen into disuse.

One of the most intriguing features of the Sha’ar Hagolan well is that it was dug reasonably close to a permanent fresh water source, the Yarmuk River—the well was no more than a few tens of metres at most from the river bank itself. This is quite different from the location of the wells on Cyprus and at ‘Atlit-Yam, which were evidently dug in locations of water shortage. So why dig the well at Sha’ar Hagolan? It may have been for convenience, to save that extra bit of effort that a trip to the river to fill vessels required. Alternatively, as Garfinkel and his co-workers have suggested, the well might have been dug to provide isolated water that was of guaranteed quality, the river being open to pollution by humans or animals. Another possibility—and one that I would favour—is that the well had functioned as a status symbol, perhaps the first evidence of water being used as a sign of wealth and power.

The settlement of Sha’ar Hagolan dates towards the end of the Neolithic period. Another water management structure has been dated to this time: the earliest terrace walls to inhibit soil erosion and maximize water use for a field system. This is at the Pottery Neolithic settlement of Dhra’, located close to the Dead Sea. Excavations by Kuijt and his co-workers in 2005 revealed the presence of a suite of terrace walls close to a Pottery Neolithic settlement with rectangular buildings (Kuijt et al. 2007). Nine of these walls have been found between 100 and 200 m away from the buildings. They were oriented perpendicular to the slope and placed directly across bedrock outcrops as a means to anchor them against the flow of water (figure 15).

These walls, some of which had stood almost 1 m high and ran for more than 20 m, indicate a significant investment of labour into the construction and maintenance of field systems, the walls functioning to minimize soil erosion and to control run-off during wet periods of the year. The scatter of pottery and other refuse in the vicinity of the walls suggests attempts at manuring to fertilize the soil.

You do know that the term "canal" (also "channel" (verb)) etymologically originates from Cain, I hope?

---

Different but still relevant:

www.livescience.com/65728-neolithic-human-made-islands.html

Quote
Neolithic People Made Fake Islands More Than 5,600 Years Ago

Hundreds of tiny islands around Scotland didn't arise naturally. They're fakes that were constructed out of boulders, clay and timbers by Neolithic people about 5,600 years ago, a new study finds.
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Archaeologists have yet to find any Neolithic structures on the islands, and they said more excavations were needed. But divers found dozens of Neolithic pottery fragments, some of them burnt, around the islets at Bhorgastail and Langabhat, the researchers said.

These pots were likely dropped into the water intentionally, possibly for a ritual, the researchers said.

Each of the islets is fairly small, measuring approximately 33 feet (10 meters) across. One islet in Loch Bhorgastail even had a stone causeway connecting it to the mainland. And though it undoubtedly took a lot of work to make these crannogs, these structures were clearly important to ancient people, as there are 570 known in Scotland alone. (There are more in Ireland, the researchers noted.)

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www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/underwater-study-reveals-possible-quay-at-br%C3%BA-na-b%C3%B3inne-1.4189765

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An underwater archaeological reconnaissance of the bed of the River Boyne near the Brú na Bóinne complex in Co Meath has revealed features that may represent log boats or man-made quays, a research conference was told on Saturday.
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Christie told the conference, titled The Pleasant Boyne and organised by the UCD school of archaeology as part of its world heritage programme, that it was likely that for the first visitors to this landscape, the river provided the easiest way to travel, offering an accessible route through a largely wooded landscape. As such, it represented a major communications artery, not just for local visitors but also connecting communities in the area to those from farther afield, such as Wales or even Orkney.

Christie said 100 “anomalous features” were revealed in the study and these were assessed and classified according to how likely they were to have been created as a result of past human activity, and their likely archaeological interest.

“Features that were clearly man-made, and were likely historically or archaeologically important, were considered of high archaeological potential. In addition to a few possible log boats, two other features stand out as being of interest, one an alignment of six stones that clearly formed part or all of a weir, the other a strong linear feature that was clearly a subsurface continuation of a wall in the river bank which could possibly have been used as a quay,” she said.

Tom Condit, of the National Monuments Service, said that processions and processional routes were, even in modern times, part and parcel of religious festivals and events, and he described how cursus monuments, formally laid-out ritual routeways controlling direction and views of the surrounding visual landscape, indicated that such processions also took place in the late Neolithic period at Brú na Bóinne.

Clíodhna Ní Lionáin, project archaeologist at Dowth Hall, where a 5,500-year-old passage tomb was uncovered in 2018, said that two burial chambers have been discovered within the western part of the main passage tomb, over which a large stone cairn has been raised. One of the interesting finds there was the skull of a woman, aged 17-25, which contained bones of a child and animals, pointing to possible ritual ceremonies.

Besides the waterways themselves, humans and non-humans sharing the same tomb is another Aryan practice as previously mentioned. Definitely Partholonians here.