Water management

Water management refers to both the technical means used to implement water systems (environmental assessment, landscaping and building of hydraulic structures) and to the related organizations operating and maintaining them.

In Ancient Arabia, water management included the irrigation of agricultural and pastoral lands, the supply of drinking water to humans and animals, as well as protection from surface runoff and floods. Despite the fact that the climate in most of Arabia is arid to semi-arid, irrigation should not merely be seen as a way of compensating for the lack of water. In some regions with higher rainfall, it was also a means of increasing land yields (Charbonnier & Schiettecatte 2013: 88).

Rainfed terraces can be regarded as a type of water management since their horizontality contributes to retaining runoff so that it infiltrates the soil. Rainfed terraces are characteristic of the mountains of Southwest Arabia, where precipitation is high, and their origins date back to the Bronze Age (Wilkinson 1999: 187). In the first half of the 1st millennium CE, large cross-valley walls appear for the first time, which seem to have retained both wādī floods and sediments (Wilkinson & Edens 1999: 11). Terraces differ from irrigation systems in the sense that water is used on the spot and not moved from its point of capture to cultivated areas.

An irrigation system is composed of various structures designed to capture, transport and store water. Water harvesting structures in Ancient Arabia include diversion walls, dams, wells and underground draining galleries. Canals transfer water, sometimes over long distances, from where the resource is collected to where it is used. Distribution canals also form the backbone of irrigation systems. The flow of water is divided or directed using water distributors. Spillways can also be implemented to evacuate excess water or drain plots of land. Two models of irrigation systems stand out in Arabia, each related to specific types of exploited resources. The Pre-Islamic water systems of Southwest Arabia were supplied by wādī floods, available for a short period of time, and were designed to distribute as much water as possible over the largest possible surface area. Water distributors were thus designed to let water flow through while dividing the flow (Gentelle 1991: 51). In Southeast Arabia, on the other hand, irrigation systems fed by underground draining galleries were designed to share water continuously by means of water distributors equipped with sluices to guide the flow and successively supply the different plots (Charbonnier 2014). The water ended up in cultivated plots, sometimes on terraces. The purpose of the latter was to flatten the land in order to regulate water flow and prevent erosion. Irrigated terraces are thus attested in Southwest and Southeast Arabia throughout the 1st millennium BC, both in mountains and lowlands (Gentelle 1991: 44–46; Purdue et al. 2019).

Water harvesting structures

In ancient Arabia, a distinction must be made between engineering works harvesting surface water resources (dams, diversion walls and some types of terraces) and structures exploiting groundwaters (wells and underground draining galleries).

The diversion of intermittent water courses is attested since the Early Bronze Age in Arabia, in the northwest and southwest regions (Brunner 1997: 196; Lüthgens et al. 2023). However, in the 1st millennium CE, diversion walls were mainly documented in the desert margins of Southern Arabia, which benefited from heavy summer rainfall. In Northwest Arabia, the function of the wall blocking the Wādī Muʿatadil (Bawden 1979), near the site of Dadan, remains unclear (perimeter wall or dam?). In the mountains of Southeast Arabia, an irrigation system dating from the early 1st millennium BCE, fed by runoff, was partly excavated in the oasis of Masāfī, but the catchment system was not preserved and it is thus impossible to determine whether it consisted of a diversion wall or a simple harvesting canal (Charbonnier et al. 2017).

Impounding a water course for storage (dams) is a much recent technology only attested in the first half of the 1st millennium CE in the mountains of Southwest Arabia, along wādīs with smaller water catchments (Charbonnier & Schiettecatte 2013: 80–81; Robin & Dridi 2004). Some of the dams (weirs) also served to raise water levels so that water could reach certain areas by gravity (Charbonnier & Schiettecatte 2013: 78–80). There is no evidence of dams before the Islamic period in the other regions of Arabia.

Cisterns, used for human and animal consumption as well as irrigation, can sometimes be considered as a means of water collection, when they are fed by surrounding runoff. The only well dated example of this type of cistern dates from around the first century CE and is found is Northwest Arabia (Marquaire et al. 2018: 262).

In arid and semi-arid environments, surface water is often only available seasonally. Wells thus accompanied the development of sedentary villages as early as the 5th/4th millennia BCE (Gebel 2013) in Northwest Arabia, and from the 3rd millennium BCE onwards in Southeast Arabia (Weisgerber 1981: 203). During the 1st millennium BCE and the early 1st millennium CE, this technology was present throughout the Arabian Peninsula. In Southeast Arabia, we have evidence that wells provided water for cattle and people, various crafts and sometimes crops (Charbonnier 2015: 63–65). In Southwest Arabia, wells sometimes supplemented irrigation systems seasonally supplied by floodwaters. On the other hand, wells could also sustain entire oases, such as the one surrounding the Nabataean city of Hegra (Courbon 2008), in North-western Arabia.

In Arabia, underground draining galleries were implemented more recently than wells and were most likely confined to the southeast of the Peninsula during pre-Islamic periods, especially on the piedmonts and desert margins, which lacked sufficient surface water resources. Archaeological evidence indicates that underground draining galleries, locally called aflāj (sing. falaj), were used throughout the Iron Age and in the first half of the first millennium CE (Del Cerro & Córdoba, 2018: 96; Cremaschi et al. 2018: 138). The only Iron Age irrigation system associated with a falaj was excavated in al-Madām and offers a glimpse of what pre-Islamic oases looked like (Del Cerro & Córdoba, 2018: 93–96). Underground draining galleries were a major innovation. Indeed, they are more capital-intensive than wells, but the water then flowed by gravity, without any need for human or animal traction. However, the drawback of underground draining galleries is that they were more sensitive to variations in the water table, which sometimes led to their abandonment.

Rules and organization for managing water

Since water systems are usually implemented by communities, water management encompasses the organizations set up to construct, maintain and operate them, as well as the rules governing these operations. The latter can also include regulating access to water resources. In the Arabian Peninsula, our knowledge of the subject is generally limited. Nonetheless, an extensive corpus of texts dealing with water management has been found in Southwest Arabia. However, this remains a much-debated subject among researchers as the inscriptions are often short, equivocal and tend to reflect the viewpoint or claims of the elite.

No textual source provides information regarding the management of underground draining galleries in Southeast Arabia. Ethnographical comparisons indicate that the building and maintenance of qanats is labour intensive and can only be funded by communities, wealthy individuals or rulers (Honari 1989: 69–71). Water is distributed on a rotating basis, with those entitled to it benefiting from water in turn. However, self-regulating systems do not avert social inequalities, and some families often benefited from more shares.

Evidence of the Iron Age society in Southeast Arabia does not point to a marked hierarchy. Few buildings stand out, apart from community buildings, and therefore a collective management of pre-Islamic underground draining galleries is likely. Similar irrigation time allocation practices are also attested in the oasis of Kharga during the second half of the 1st millennium BCE (Agut-Labordère 2023). We can thus assume that these practices were also common in Southeast Arabia during the Iron Age.

From the early 1st millennium BCE to the eve of Islam, water was probably managed at multiple levels in the oases of Southwest Arabia. Sovereigns played an active role in the construction of hydraulic works (Darles et al. 2013). By erecting the major water collecting structures, they positioned themselves as the protectors of water resources, harvests and, ultimately, of their people (Harrower 2009: 65). In some areas, authorities also appeared to be in charge of water management (Gnoli & Robin 1992: 97). Numerous inscriptions commemorate for instance the various phases of construction of the Maʾrib dam commissioned by Sabaean rulers (Darles et al. 2013).

In a similar manner, between the 1st and 4th centuries CE, in the mountains, kings and local leaders also played a critical role in building retaining dams and weirs to irrigate lands, as revealed by the inscriptions dedicated to their foundation. The construction of these works also legitimized their power (Charbonnier & Schiettecatte 2013; Darles et al. 2013).

However, cooperation was also key. On a local scale, landowners — whether tribal chiefs, officials or private individuals — built minor hydraulic works benefiting their own plots and managed water distribution (Gnoli & Robin 1992: 97; Schiettecatte 2011: 112). It is also suggested that the need to manage wādī floods from upstream to downstream led to the formation of each South Arabian kingdom around a single valley (Mouton 2004).

Julien Charbonnier

See also:

• Canal
• Cistern
• Dam
• Diversion wall
• Irrigation
• Maʾrib dam
• Terrace cultivation
• Underground draining galleries
• Well

References and suggested readings

• Agut-Labordère, D. 2020. Qu’est-ce qu’un « jour d’eau » ? L’eau et la terre à ʿAyn Manāwir (Oasis de Kharga) Ve-IVe siècle av. J.-C., in S. Bouffier & I. Fumadó Ortega (eds) L’eau dans tous ses états. Perceptions antiques: 195–201 (Archéologies Méditerranéennes). Aix-en-Provence: Presses Universitaires de Provence.
• Al-Tikriti, W.Y. 2002. The south-east Arabian origin of the falaj system. PSAS 32: 117–138. www.jstor.org/stable/41223728
• Bawden, G. 1979. Khief El-Zahrah and the Nature of Dedanite Hegemony in the Al-’Ula Oasis. Atlal 3: 63–72.
• Brunner, U. 1997. Geography and Human Settlements in Ancient Southern Arabia. AAE 8: 190–202. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0471.1997.tb00153.x.
• Charbonnier, J. 2014. In the shadow of the palm trees: time management and water allocation in the oasis of Ādam (Sultanate of Oman). PSAS 44: 83–98. www.jstor.org/stable/43782904.
• Charbonnier, J. 2015. Groundwater management in Southeast Arabia from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age: a critical reassessment, Water History 7(1): 39–71. DOI: 10.1007/s12685-014-0110-x.
• Charbonnier, J., L. Purdue & A. Benoist 2017. Taming Surface Water in Pre-Islamic Southeast Arabia: Archaeological, Geoarchaeological, and Chronological Evidence of Runoff Water Channeling in Masāfī (UAE). Journal of Field Archaeology 42: 13–28. DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2016.1256172.
• Charbonnier, J. & J. Schiettecatte 2013. Les barrages de L’Arabie méridionale préislamique. Architecture, datation et rapport au pouvoir, in F. Baratte, C.J. Robin & E. Rocca (eds) Regards croisés d’Orient et d’Occident. Les barrages dans l’Antiquité tardive: 71–91. Paris: De Boccard.
• Courbon, P. 2008. Les puits nabatéens de Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ (Arabie Saoudite). AAE 19: 48–70. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0471.2007.00288.x.
• Cremaschi, M., M.D. Esposti, D. Fleitmann, A. Perego, E. Sibilia & A. Zerboni 2018. Late Holocene onset of intensive cultivation and introduction of the falaj irrigation system in the Salut oasis (Sultanate of Oman). Quaternary Science Reviews 200: 123–140. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.09.029.
• Darles, C., C.J. Robin & J. Schiettecatte 2013. Contribution à une meilleure compréhension de l’histoire de la digue de Maʾrib au Yémen, in F. Baratte, C. Robin & E. Rocca (eds) Regards croisés d’Orient et d’Occident : les barrages dans l’Antiquité tardive (O&M, 14): 9–70. Paris: De Boccard.
• Del Cerro, C. & J.M. Córdoba. 2018. Archaeology of a falaj in al Madam Plain (Sharjah, UAE); a study from the site. Water History 10: 85–98. DOI: 10.1007/s12685-018-0210-0.
• Gebel, H.G. 2013. Arabia’s fifth-millennium BCE pastoral well cultures: hypotheses on the origins of oasis life. PSAS 43: 111–126. www.jstor.org/stable/43782872.
• Gentelle, P. 1991. Les irrigations antiques à Shabwa. Syria 68: 5–52. DOI: 10.3406/syria.1991.7261.
• Gnoli, G. & C.J. Robin 1992. Nouveaux documents sabéens de Barāqish. Yemen 1: 93–98.
• Harrower, M.J. 2009. Is the hydraulic hypothesis dead yet? Irrigation and social change in ancient Yemen. World Archaeology 41: 58–72. DOI: 10.1080/00438240802668354.
• Honari, M. 1989. Qanats and human ecosystems in Iran, in P. Beaumont, M. Bonine & K. McLachlan (eds) Qanat, Kariz et Khattara. Traditionnal Water Systems in the Middle East and North Africa: 61–85. Wisbech: Middle East and North African Studies Press.
• Lüthgens, C., M. Luciani, S. Prochazka, G. Firla, P. Hoelzmann & A.M. Abualhassan 2023. Watering the desert: Oasis hydroarchaeology, geochronology and functionality in Northern Arabia. The Holocene 33: 562–580. DOI: 10.1177/09596836231157292.
• Marquaire, C., G. Charloux, M. Cotty, R. Mensan & R. Schwerdtner 2018. Technology transfer or local invention? A water collecting system in the northern Arabian desert, in L. Purdue, J. Charbonnier & L. Khalidi (eds) From refugia to oases: living in arid environments from prehistoric times to the present day: 251–268 (Cultures et Environnements. Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen Âge). Antibes: APDCA.
• Mouton, M. 2004. Irrigation et formation de la société dans les basses-terres du Yémen: un essai de modèle. Syria 81: 81–104. DOI: 10.3406/syria.2004.7834.
• Purdue, L., J. Charbonnier, E. Régagnon, C. Calastrenc, T. Sagory, C. Virmoux, M. Crépy, S. Costa & A. Benoist 2019. Geoarchaeology of Holocene oasis formation, hydro-agricultural management and climate change in Masafi, southeast Arabia (UAE). Quaternary Research 92: 109–132. DOI: 10.1017/qua.2018.142.
• Robin, C.J. & H. Dridi 2004. Deux barrages du Yémen antique. CRAI 148: 67–121. DOI: 10.3406/crai.2004.22690.
• Schiettecatte, J. 2011. D’Aden à Zafar. Villes d’Arabie du sud préislamique (O&M, 6). Paris: De Boccard.
• Weisgerber, G. 1981. Mehr als Kupfer in Oman. Der Anschnitt 5-6: 174–263.
• Wilkinson, T. 1999. Settlement, soil erosion and terraced agriculture in highland Yemen: a preliminary statement. PSAS 29: 183–191. www.jstor.org/stable/41223538
• Wilkinson, T.J. & C. Edens 1999. Survey and Excavation in the Central Highlands of Yemen: Results of the Dhamār Survey Project, 1996 and 1998. AAE 10: 1–33. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0471.1999.tb00124.x.