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Daeres

An Inquiry relating to Canal-Based Agriculture

I'm familiar with canal based irrigation in Mesopotamia, and the economic structures and effects relating to it. I'm highly familiar with canal based irrigation in Central Asia, though its relationship to economic structures there is less well understood. I am aware that these are not the only two locations to develop canal based agriculture, and probably were not the only polities/cultures to develop this technique during the Bronze Age.

However, I am relatively ignorant on the use of canals in farming outside of these two locations (Central Asia and Mesopotamia). If anyone feels like talking about other places that used a similar system, that would be cool. But I'm also happy to be directed to reading material; I'm not exactly focused on the history of agriculture so I don't really have any reference points for what works to look at.

I'm particularly interested in ancient examples of this kind of agricultural system, but I'm game for anything pre-Industrial Revolution.

To clarify a little, a canal based irrigation system is where a dug channel or canal is used to divert water from a major source (usually a river) in order to irrigate land and to expand the amount of land that can be farmed.

Posted Jun 24, 2012, 2:58 AM UTC

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