Ancient Water Technologies Ancient Water Technologies
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Ancient Water Technologies Ancient Water Technologies Larry W. Mays Editor 123 Editor Larry W. Mays School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287-5306 USA [email protected] ISBN 978-90-481-8631-0 e-ISBN 978-90-481-8632-7 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8632-7 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010922811 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover illustration: Aqueduct near Milas, Turkey for supplying water to ancient Mylasa, photo by Larry W. Mays, taken May 2009. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface Water technology began during antiquity long before the great works of investiga- tors such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782). The history of water technology started even before Archimedes (287–212 B.C.). Moreover, great water projects were already built thousands of years before the development of the concepts of conservation of mass, energy and momentum, (which are used in present-day water project designs) even existed. This book presents an introduction to ancient water technology. It is different from other books related to ancient water technologies and concentrated on specific ancient civilizations, in that it presents a more universal picture of ancient water technology. It is written by authors from multidisciplinary fields ranging from engi- neering, water resources engineering, hydrology to archaeology, architecture and geology. The entire spectrum of ancient water technologies can never be covered in one book, let alone by one author, however, this volume provides an excellent overview of the water technologies of many ancient civilizations. These include the very earliest civilizations such as the Mesopotamians and the Indus Valley Civilization, later civilizations such as the Mycenaeans, the Minoans, the Persians, and the Egyptians, followed by water technologies of the Greeks, the Romans, the Urartians, and the Nabataeans. Furthermore, water technologies of ancient civiliza- tions in the Americas, including the Hohokams, the Anasazis, the Teotihuacans, the Xochicalcoans, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and the Incas are also covered. Each of the chapters presents a detailed discussion on various topics, one can read for example about ancient Greek Lavatories, an analysis of the water system of a Roman city, effects on groundwater resources from earthquakes in antiquity or, the water management of a complex in ancient Iran. This book has grown out of a sincere passion to learn about water technol- ogy developed by ancient civilizations. This has driven me to visit many ancient locations, particularly in Italy, France, Greece, Spain, and Turkey to study and pho- tograph remains of the ancient water systems. Combined with this passion is my interest in sustainability issues, in particular water resources sustainability, and how we may use technologies (traditional knowledge) developed by the ancients to help alleviate and solve some of our present day water resources problems. v vi Preface Water resources sustainability is the ability to use water in sufficient quantities and quality from the local to the global scale to meet the needs of humans and ecosystems for the present and the future to sustain life, and to protect humans from the damages brought about by natural and human-caused disasters that affect sustaining life. The success and/or failure of the ancient civilizations depended upon their awareness and ability to work with water resources sustainability issues. Our present day future also depends upon similar issues related to water resources sustainability. Studying ancient water technologies may provide answers for our future. A book is a companion along the pathway of learning. Have a good journey. Tempe, Arizona Larry W. Mays Contents 1 A Brief History of Water Technology During Antiquity: Before the Romans ........................... 1 Larry W. Mays 2 Water Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia ............. 29 Aldo Tamburrino 3 Water Technology in Ancient Egypt .................. 53 Larry W. Mays 4 Ancient Greek Lavatories: Operation with Reused Water ..... 67 Georgios P. Antoniou 5 Water Resource Management for Iran’s Persepolis Complex .... 87 Mahdi Moradi-Jalal, Siamak Arianfar, Bryan Karney, and Andrew Colombo 6 A Web Based Information System for the Inspection of the Hydraulic Works ........................ 103 Nikos Mamassis and Demetris Koutsoyiannis 7 A Brief History of Roman Water Technology ............ 115 Larry W. Mays 8 Analysis of the Water System of the Ancient Roman City of Apamea ............................. 139 Benoît Haut and Didier Viviers 9 Water Technology in the Ancient American Societies ........ 171 Larry W. Mays and Yuri Gorokhovich 10 Ground Water Resources and Earthquake Hazards: Ancient and Modern Perspectives ................... 201 Yuri Gorokhovich and Lee Ullmann vii viii Contents 11 Lessons from the Ancients on Water Resources Sustainability ... 217 Larry W. Mays Appendix ................................... 241 Index ..................................... 275 Contributors Georgios Antonio Architect Engineer, Hellas, 44 Ioannou Soutsou, 11474 Athens, Greece, [email protected] Siamak Arianfar Department of History, Islamic Azad University, Sharhr-Ray Branch, Tehran, Iran, [email protected] Andrew Colombo Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St. George St., Toronto, ON, Canada, [email protected] Mahdi Moradi-Jalal Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St. George St., Toronto, ON, Canada, [email protected] Yuri Gorokhovich Department of Environmental, Geographic, and Geological Sciences, Lehman College, CUNY, 250 Bedford Park Blvd., West Bronx, NY 10468-1589, USA, [email protected] Benoît Haut Université Libre de Bruxelles, Transfers, Interfaces and Processes (TIPs), Chemical Engineering Unit, Av. F.D. Roosevelt 50, C.P. 165/67, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, [email protected] Bryan Karney Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St. George St., Toronto, ON, Canada, [email protected] Demetris Koutsoyiannis Department of Water Resources, School of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Heroon Polytechneiou 5, GR 15780 Zographou, Greece, [email protected] Nikos Mamassis Department of Water Resources, School of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athen, Heroon Polytechneiou 5, GR 15780 Zographou, Greece, [email protected] Larry W. Mays School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, 85287-5306 Tempe, AZ, USA, [email protected] Aldo Tamburrino Department of Civil Engineering, University of Chile, Casilla 228-3, Santiago, Chile, [email protected] ix x Contributors Lee Ullmann Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 1002, USA, [email protected] Didier Viviers Université Libre de Bruxelles, Archaeological Research Centre (CReA), Av. F.D. Roosevelt 50, C.P. 175/01, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, [email protected] About the Editor Larry W. Mays is a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona and former chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He has been the Director of the Center for Research in Water Resources at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also held an endowed professorship. He was educated at the University of Missouri at Rolla where he received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering and then at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana where he received the Ph.D. degree. Professor Mays has published extensively in engineering literature and in the proceedings of national and international conferences, and invited chapters in books. In addition he has been the author, co-author, and editor-in-chief of many books. His books include: author of Water Resources Engineering and co-author of Groundwater Hydrology (both published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.); author of Optimal Control of Hydrosystems (published by Marcel Dekker); and co-author of Applied Hydrology and Hydrosystems Engineering and Management (both published by McGraw-Hill). He was editor-in-chief of Water Resources Handbook, Water Distribution Systems Handbook, Urban Water Supply Management Tools, Stormwater Collection Systems Design Handbook, Urban Water Supply Handbook, Urban Stormwater Management Tools, Hydraulic Design Handbook, Water Resources Systems Management Tools, Water Supply Systems Security, and Water Resources Sustainability, all published by McGraw-Hill. In addition, he was editor-in-chief of Reliability Analysis of Water Distribution Systems and co-editor of Computer Methods of Free Surface and Pressurized Flow. Professor Mays’ most recent book is Urban Water Management in Arid and Semi-arid Regions, as editor-in-chief, which was published by Taylor and Francis. This book was the result of volunteer work for the United Nations UNESCO-IHP in Paris. Among his honors is a distinguished