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The Florescence of Arid Lands in Mesopotamia, Elam, and Central Asia:· An Historical Perspective 1
Jeffrey Zauderer 2
Abstract.--Great civilizations developed arid lands by the extension and management of artificial riverine systems to irrigate cereal cultivars. Areas formerly cultivated are today unproductive, due to the collapse of riverine management.
INTRODUCTION winter. The leguminous weed Scorpiurus was spread by Parthian or Sassanian irrigation ( Helbaek 1969). The broad framework for the development of urban societies, and their blossoming into great civilizations Spreading agriculture forced pastoralists to overexploit inarid and semi arid regions, rested upon the physical palatable species. With the appearance of domestic wool systems and social organizations for cultivating cereals sheep, Stipa, a former forage plant for wild sheep, became (lrlams 1969, Wittfogell97l). Wild cereals grew in areas a noxious weed spread by clinging to wool, and shunned receiving 400-500mm rainfall (Raikes 1965), and are because of its habit of burrowing into the sheep's skin cultivated with less than lOOmm. The course of arid land (Flannery 1971). This put more pressure on the winter history is woven around the hydrologic and social man natural grass cover. agement of artificially extended riverine systems into fine grained alluvium, allowing for the intensive cropping Salinity. --The effects of salinization and its historical of more prolific introduced winter annuals (cereals), and occurrence are discussed in detail by Jacobsen (1982). the loss of more nutritious but less prolific winter annual The niches created by abandoned saline land greatly changed legumes (Flannery 1971). the Mesopotamian biota; the original perhaps only visible in pollen records (Flannery 1971).
IRRIGATED ARID LANDS Irrigated Civilizations Mesopotamia-Elam Lower Mesopotamia. --The great city states of Southern Ecological Disturbance Mesopotamia depended upon canals fed by the Euphrates, and later, the Tigris. The system of settlements followed Botanical.--Rainfed agriculture on steppes began with linear patterns formed by irrigation works. In Hammu the introduction of highland cereals into cleared land. rabi 's time there were 6 major canals, used also for de Such areas were often near marshes with Scirpus, and fense and transport (Jacobsen 1960). The canals of Meso posessed good drainage (Hole, Flannery, and Neely 1969). potamia connected the city-states into a network of inter Natural winter maturing vegetation was removed for crops, national trade. Hostile relations between states existed but contaminants such as Aegilops, Lolium, and Avena as a result of their efforts to accrete more land and water. were also spread. Lolium is today a major lower Meso Slavery for irrigation and agricultural labor seems to have potamian noxious weed (Helbaek 1963,1969, Adams 1965). been absent (Walters 1970). Native grass cover was replaced by Malva, Plantago, Fumaria, Gallium, Lathyrus and vetches. The Neo-Assyrians.--The later Assyrian kings sought to develope the steppe and plains north and east of the The natural cover of winter legumes on alluvium, Tigris: the Khosr system to Nineveh, along the Zab to Astragalus, Trigonella, and Medicago, important food Calah, and the Bastura to supply Erbil. Figure 1 shows sources before cultivation of cereals, were removed. Sennacherib 's water supply to Nineveh and the royal estate They exist on talus slope refugia sought by goats. Summer at Khorsabad. Note the great diversion aqueducts and maturing plants, such as Prosopis, spread to the steppe canals carrying water from the Atrush River and the and lower alluvium, becomming an important food source waters from the Jebel al-Qosh. A storage dam above (Helbaek 1969); their summer transpiration helped lower Nineveh was tapped by qanats into the city. excessive soil saturation ( Jacobsen 1982). Zizyphus spread from upland forests after sufficient soil disturbance and soil saturation. It produces a small fruit eaten in 1he land to the north and east of the Tigris at Nine veh receives more than 200mm rainfall, but the Novem 1 ber rain is very unreliable. The Assyrians irrigated for Paper presented at the Riparian Ecosystems and intensive development beyond its former use and natural their Management conference, April 16-18, 1985 at capacity. Sargon II (722-705 BC) writes of himself: the University of Arizona, Tucson. " He vowed to open up fallow land and plant orchards; 2Research Associate, Department of Arid Land to gain a crop on steep rocky slopes; he set his heart Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson. into wasteland that had known no plough under former
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Figure 1. --Sennacherib 's irrigation of Nineveh. (lfter Oates 1968, with topographic additions) -. ·: kings ... "(Saggs 1984). Nineveh is memorable for its vast gardens and orchards supplied in the hot summer Figure 2. --Sassanian irrigation of the Diyala Plain. by vast irrigation works. 'Vinter water supplied grain (After Adams 1965) and flax (or sesame) crops between Nineveh and Tar bisu (Oates 1968, Saggs 1984). The gardens contained Wheat, barley and rice were main crops, and perhaps artificial mountains covered with trees from Armenia: sugarcane was grown close to canals. In Deh Luran, cypress, cedar, pistachio, stone fruit trees, mullberry, qanats were used to tap alluvial water from the Mehmeh and pleasant herbs. Sennacherib also gave plots of land and Dawairij rivers. The piedmont zone was improved to citizens for orchard use (Luckenbill1926). Cotton, with retention dams and gabrbands. Captive Romans also from the Ararat area was grown and woven into may have been used and settled. With time, the non garments (Luckenbill 1926). noble population became enserfed, leading to the Maz dakite revolts in the 580's. Reform granted varying Sennacherib undertook similar works for Erbil: degrees of freedom to improve worker productivity rechannelization of the Bastura tributaries, conducting (Nomani 1976, 1977). The interior of Iran, with less than spring discharge to the city, a qanat originating below 50mm rainfall was opened to agriculture by the use of the Bastura and discharging in the city, and a qanat qanats. Yazd until about 1960 was still completely de from the foothills of Qala Mortka to Erbil (Safar 1947). pendent upon the management of qanats-underground riverine systems (cf Bonine 1980). The Assyrian development strategy was bound to its military policies and drive to monopolize resources. Oates' (1968) study indicates that Assurnasirpal 's devel Central Asia opment of Calah (ca. 879 BC) exceeded the local capacity of agriculture to support its population-orchards were Early Irrigation Civilizations grown at expense of grain. Surprisingly, date palms were cultivated, and oaks for the galls used in tanning. Herd Southern Turkmenia-Kopet Dag.-- The pattern of ing was an important part of the economy, possibly ex urban development and agriculture follows the move down tended by improved water supply. Sennacherib 's Nineveh slope with increasing irrigation as seen in Mesopotamia was similar (Oates 1968). The population was supported and Elam. Up to the I millenium BC the piedmont zone by the flow of tribute from the empire's periphery. Use- of the Kopet Dag and the A trek, Sumbar and Chandyr ful persons were deported to the C:i!pital, or settled in valleys in the west were extensively irrigated with simple garrisons in buffer areas. The Assyrians deported over irrigation systems (fig. 3). By the beginning of the I a million persons, who were given rights as citizens, millenium BC complex irrigation with control structures although farmworkers were sold with the land they worked and extensive branching extended onto the alluvial plains (Oded 1979). of the Murghab River, and the Misserian plain of the Atrek. Figure 3 geomorphic information from Dolu The Sassanians. -- The Sassanian development of the khanov (1980) and Babaev & Magtimov (1983) show Diyala Plain is shown in figure 2. Most of the land is not the extent of ancient agriculture on the Atrek-Sumbar cultivated today (Adams 1965). Note the canals from the alluvial plain, which was very active in the II and I Tigris and the Jebel Hamrin, which are also pierced by millenium BC. The predominate vegetation at that time a tunnel. Note, too, the diffuse linear branching pattern was ash and elm. Irrigation, with interruption by wars of settlement. Wenke (1978) found that in Susiana, the continued into Timurid times; sometime by the 15th strategy was to concentrate the population into a great century AD the area became predominately saline des city, Gundishapur, thus leaving the arable land less pop ert (Babaev and Magtimov 1983). Qanats were in use ulated, but heavily cultivated by large royal estates. in the early 1 millenium BC (Lisitsenia 1980).
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Khorezem.--Figure 4 shows that the area up to the Sakas and Achaemenids brought iron; irrigation expanded Syr Darya was from around the II millenium BC to the greatly, possibly with slave labor. The Greco-Bactrian 13th Century AD populated and irrigated. Figure 5, the period was another high. The Kushan period was very inset for figure 4, sho•.vs more detail: settlements fol prosperous, declining with the clashes with the Sassanians. lowing the myriad irrigation branches of the Amu Daryn. The Afrighid period, 4th to 5th century and the Hepthalites, who pushed out the Sassanians in the 6th century saw pros Khorezmian irrigation in the I millenium BC extended perity, until the advent of turkish nomads. Irrigation de as far west as the Uzboy (Frumkin 1970). The rise and clined during the Arab invasion, and revolts against the decline of its agricultural civilization follows the turns of caliphate. In the lOth to 13th centuries irrigation flourish empire. It is probably the area referred to in the Avesta ed, and the area of the Samannids was a world center of (Masson and Sarianidi 1972). In the 6th Century BC the philosophy, commerce, tree fruits, mellons and famous gardens. Prosperity waxed through the Karakhanids, until ·e:: Chengis Khan raided the area, and 170 years later, Timur devastated the region (Frumkin 1970).
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Figure 4. --Khorezem and the Syr Darya. Figure 5.-- Inset in figure 4. Ancient irrigation (After Frumkin 1970) and settlement in Khorezem. (After Frumkin 1970)
465 Khorezem and Turkmenistan are now covered with Helbaek, H. 1969. Plant collecting, dry farming, and takyrs, Haloxylon, Scirpus, Artemisia, saltwort, and irrigation agriculture in prehistoric Deh Luran. dunes that sometimes disclose the loamy humic horizons In Prehistory and human ecology of the Deh Luran of hurried civilization (Lisitsinia 1980, Dolukhanov 1980, Plain, F. Hole, K.V.Flannery, and J. Neely. Frumkin 1970). Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 1. Ann Arbor.
Large Scale Interactions Hole, F., Flannery,K.V. and J. Neely. 1969. Prehistory and human ecology of the Deh Luran Plain. Memoirs Irrigation Collapse of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Number 1. 438p. Ann Arbor. Yemenite Agriculture.-- The civilizations of Rome, Persia and Yemen were powers in a world economy. Com Jacobsen, T. 1960. The waters of Ur. Iraq 22:174-185. petitive Roman shipping had drawn away the supporting trade and capital of the caravan routes that provided the Jacobsen, T. 1982. Salinity and irrigation: agriculture support for agriculture and irrigation maintenance. In in antiquity. Bibliotheca Mesqpotamica 14. 107p. the 3rd Century AD the Marib dam failed and the result ing flood and erosion of thousands of hectares of arable Lisitsina, G.N. 1980. The history of irrigation agricult land hastened the process of bedouinization (Caskel 1954). ure in Southern Turkmenia. Soviet Anthropology and The displaced tribes formed the Lakhmid and Ghassanid Archaeology XIX (3-4) :350-358. federations· the latter being a Sassanian vassal state, the former 'opposed to them. The Tayy, also of Yemenite Luckenbill, D.D. 1926. Ancient records of Assyria and origin later became Sassanian clients. Wars between Babylonia. Vol. II p. 160-163. University of Chicago Rome and Persia, with increased nomadic pressure Press, Chicago. leading to internecine fighting and depredation, weakened the buffer zone between Persia, Rome, and other nomads Masson, V.M. and Sarianidi, I. 1972. Central Asia, who in the 7th Century AD would sweep across Mesopot South Turkmenia before the Achaemenids. London. amia, Persia, into Central Asia, and forever change the world political and religious configuration. Neely, J. 1974. Sassanian and early Islamic water control and irrigation systems on the Deh Luran Plain, Iran. In Irrigation's impact on society, T .E. Downing and M. Gibson editors. p. 21-42. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. LITERATURE CITED Nomani, F. 1976. Notes on the origins and development of extra-economic obligations of peasants in Iran, Adams, R. McC. 1965. Land behind Baghdad: a history 300-1600 AD. Iranian Studies, IX(3-4):121-133. of settlement on the Diyala Plain. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Nomani, F. 1977. Notes on the economic obligations of peasants in Iran, 300-1600 AD. Iranian Studies Adams, R. McC. 1969. The study of ancient Mesopot X(1-2):62-75. amian settlement patterns and the problem of urban origins. Sumer 25:111-123. Oates,D. 1968. Studies in the ancient history of Northern Iraq. 176p. Oxford University Press. Babaev, A. and Magtimov,A. 1983. Landscape studies London. of Southern Turkmenia using remote sensing. Prob lems of Desert Development (3):57-64. Oded, B. 1979. Mass deportations and deportees in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. 142p. Reichert, Bonine, M. E. 1980. Yazd and its hinterland. 232p. Wies baden. Geographischer Instituts der Universitat Marburg, Marburg. Safar, F. 1947. Sennacherib's project for supplying Erbil with water. Sumer, 3:23-25. Caskel, W. 1954. The bedouinization of Arabia. Amer ican Anthropological Memoirs 76:40. Saggs,H.W. F. 1984. The might that was Assyria. 340p. Sidgwick and Jackson, London. Dolukhanov, P.M. 1980. The ecological prerequisites Walters, S. 1970. Water for Larsa. Yale University for early farming in Southern Turkmenia. Soviet Press, New Haven. Anthropology and Archaeology XIX. (3-4) :359-385. Watson,A. 1983. Agricultural innovation in the early Flannery, K. V. 1971. Origins and ecological effects of Islamic world. 260p. Cambridge University Press, early domestication in Iran and the Near Es.st. Cambridge. p. 50-79 In Prehistoric agriculture, S. Struever editor. Natural History Press, New York. Wenke,R.J. 1978. Imperial investments and agricultural developments in Parthian and Sassanian Khusestan~ Frumkin, G. 1970. Archaeology in Soviet Central Asia. 150 BC to AD 640. University Microfilms International, Leiden. Ann Arbor. University of Michigan thesis, 1975.
Helbaek, H. 1963. Isin Larsin and Horian food remains Wittfogel, K.A. 1971. Developmental aspects of hydraulic at Tell Bazmosian in the Dokan Valley. Sumer XIX: societies, pp557-571 In Prehistoric Agriculture, 27-35. S. Struever editor. Natural History Press, New York.
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