Groundwater in Antiquity

There is a growing interest in the history of groundwater thinking and use by hydrogeologists, archaeologists, water historians and others.

Recent history-specific journal articles have extended such study back over time to the Sixteenth Century, Narasimhan (2005) and the Eighteenth Century by Stephens and Stephens (2006). These reviews add to the earlier, more comprehensive works, on ancient city water management such as for the Greek (Crouch, 1993) and Roman (Hodge, 1992) periods (see later). They included some groundwater elements.

These publications are helping to dispel the impression that some groundwater professionals still have; that groundwater theory and practice are a post Scientific Revolution phenomena, and more specifically, post Henri Darcy with his law of 1856. There is a need at this time to develop a cohesive historical narrative of how many of the conceptual ideas and practices used today, had their foundations empirically laid down before the Scientific Revolution prior to the Sixteenth Century AD.

Archaeologists are also beginning to appreciate the role water has played in past cultures (survival, aesthetics, health, power), and this book will further enhance this process.

In addition, there is a need to re-examine the record to see if some of the past ideas and practices can be re-used or adapted to today’s needs in the light of our climatic difficulties. The rationale for this is, that past peoples experienced variable and severe climatic and water stresses which in some cases exceed our current experience. They also had little technological support available for solving their problems.