The invention and establishment of the water clock in Egypt, at first glance, seems to be one of the best-documented developments in the history of ancient technology. A closer look at these clocks, however, reveals that their form and function have not yet been described sufficiently. Meanwhile, acquisition of three-dimensional data enables novel analysis of the preserved examples scattered all over the world. Regarding the fragmentary condition of most of the clocks, 3D scans are indispensable to investigate developments and functions of particular examples more closely and to ascertain the knowledge that existed about fluid dynamics around 1500 BC.

Since 2012, the Centre Camille Jullian team carries out an interdisciplinary study of the aqueduct Galermi, architectural work and hydraulic engineering of about 30 km long. This aqueduct, built between the 5th century BC and the Roman Empire, first supplied drinking water to Greek and/or Roman Syracuse. In the 16th–17th centuries, partial transformations have been done and changed the function of the channel, with the installation of flour mills. In the 19th century, the new Italian state gradually expropriated immediate neighbors who exploited abusively the aqueduct. It was then devoted only to irrigate the Syracusan territory according to a system of concessions that has almost remained unchanged since the 19th century. The paper will present this program and the last results that the team obtained in the last two years, particularly about intakes of water and underground galleries, and which chronology can be proposed.

This paper seeks to provide lines of approach and hypotheses for a historical and geographic contextualisation of the jurisprudential texts of the Digest. It focuses upon the matter of water sharing in rural landscapes. After examining different landscapes, it argues that legal solutions proposed by Roman jurists originally applied to the situation of competition for natural resources observed in the periphery of Rome and were linked with the development of the city between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.

This paper deals with local irrigation systems organized by villages and communities that existed in the Roman world. It will examine some epigraphic and literary texts and relevant jurisprudential sources belonging to Justinian’s Digest on this topic. In all these cases, the need for joint water use led to the development of at least initial forms of ‘associations’among so called rivales. These ‘associations’ dealt with different matters such as: a) the distribution of water; b) the regulation of the hydraulic work, such as digging and maintenance; and c) the arbitration of possible disputes between users. For their part, the juridical texts provide a good insight into the ‘legal status’ of these communities, namely how internal relationships between rivales were considered.

Scholars have not paid much attention to the shādūf and they often describe it without studying the historical developments of the mechanical principles upon which its functioning is based. However, this water lifting device plays a very important role in the emergence of some basic concepts of mechanics: equilibrium and the law of the lever. This paper looks at the history of these concepts in relation to the use of the shādūf and pulley. It allows us to identify a set of basic principles that we can find both in theoretical works (the oldest surviving text is the Pseudo-Aristotelian Mechanical Problems 300 BC) and in books more focused on the practical applications of such principles.

Thales of Miletus wisely declared that water is the vital element for life. Being the core substance for human survival, the management of water has always been an important matter. Early attempts to improve water-lifting devices for agricultural endeavors have been detected in Hellenistic Alexandria. However, aside from the limitations of the different devices, variations in geology also limit the use of some of these machines in specific areas. Some of these devices were used daily, whereas others remained impractical or were of minor importance due to their complicated nature, and some were even forgotten until they were later rediscovered. Water also became a basic power source, providing energy, e.g. for cutting stone or milling grain, and such applications constituted the first attempts at Roman industrialization.

Excavation by the author at the site of al-Humayma, ancient Hawara, allowed detailed reconstruction of the water-supply system that supported this isolated settlement in the hyperarid Hisma Desert of Southern Jordan. A re-evaluation of the regional water-supply systems in Arabia Petraea from the Nabataean through the Early Islamic phases, shows that some aspects of the systems at Nabataean sites, such as Petra and Hawara, had precedents in the technologies of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements in the region, while others can be traced to developments in the Hellenistic Aegean. Sites such as Petra, Hawara, Iram, and Hegra show that the overall flavor of the water-supply systems remain strictly regional, mostly due to climate, topography, and hydrology.

This volume brings together papers on Water Management in Ancient Civilizations. It envelops a great variety of ancient means to harvest, supply, distribute, and dispute water in all its forms. Contributions range in time period from the early means of water management in Mesopotamia and Egypt, to the Epochs of Hellenistic and Roman Eras, into medieval times and beyond. The fascinating momentum of ancient water management include not only the great solutions and applications that were already at hand thousands of years ago, but its implications and importance for present and future problems, since water is, was, and will continue to be the most precious resource for human wellbeing.

This volume brings together papers on Water Management in Ancient Civilizations. It envelops a great variety of ancient means to harvest, supply, distribute, and dispute water in all its forms. Contributions range in time period from the early means of water management in Mesopotamia and Egypt, to the Epochs of Hellenistic and Roman Eras, into medieval times and beyond. The fascinating momentum of ancient water management include not only the great solutions and applications that were already at hand thousands of years ago, but its implications and importance for present and future problems, since water is, was, and will continue to be the most precious resource for human wellbeing.

While it is debated in scholarship whether the Greeks conceptualized swimming as a sport and leisure activity, the archaeological evidence of swimming pools in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 4th to 1st century BC speaks for the existence of such a concept. This paper argues that challenges of water management are a major reason why the Greeks did not systematically build swimming pools as an urban standard for the physical education and pleasure of broader parts of the population. By examining 13 pools, it is shown that their water management required specific topographical conditions, notably, a location close to a river or a spring, and the appropriate socioeconomic conditions, notably, patrons with sufficient financial means, access to technological know-how, and cultural appreciation of swimming.

A freely available data set about Andalusian irrigation communities was comprehensively analyzed and combined with a local time series of precipitation and temperature data and put into historical context. Andalusia’s annual precipitation lies between 150 and 1000 mm*yr−1. Due to the high seasonal and inter-annual variability of precipitation, irrigation measures are a necessity to enable intensive cultivation. The largely prevailing water scarcities are one likely reason for the evolution and continuation of water cooperations practicing irrigation strategies that have probably existed since Roman times, certainly since Islamic times. This study gives an overview of water management practices in Andalusia and highlights the Vega of Vélez Blanco (NE Andalusia), as a case study.

This article defines the elements of qanat technology in Spain and describes some recent projects which have advanced our understanding. A brief bibliography is provided that exposes some of the confusion surrounding classification, nomenclature, numbers, and distribution of the qanat. Some examples taken from recent fieldwork illustrate the complexities and show how different elements of hydraulic technology are combined. Hydraulic features at Citruénigo (Navarre), Bureta, Bulbuente and Daroca (all Aragón), Madrid, and Toledo (Castile-La Mancha) are all described. Finally, the paper focuses on recent research into dating these features and highlights a recently.completed project that dated episodes of con- struction and maintenance using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). This technique seems to offer significant potential for future research

Southern Mesopotamia was essentially agrarian and depended on artificial irrigation. The earliest cuneiform evidence for fully-developed irrigation networks stems from royal inscriptions and archival records from a temple archive from the city-state of Lagas, ca. 2475– 2315 BC. These sources testify to a four-level irrigation network, probably established upon the unification of the state by Urnanse and Eanatum. From the river, water flowed to primary canals with regulators, and from there branched off to secondary canals. Distributors regulated the water flow to the fields. The construction of primary canals and regulators was conducted by the ruler who drew on the corvée troops of the temples. The temples maintained the lower-level irrigation structures, such as the distributors and dikes in their fields.