CHAPTER TWO

HYDRAULIC LANDSCAPES AND

IRRIGATION SYSTEMS OF SUMER



Tony J. Wilkinson

I

t is often implied that Sumer derived much of its economic strength from irrigation,
but in reality water provided an even more fundamental context for everyday life.
This is because water manifested itself in many ways: not only as a supplier of essential
drinking water for humans and their flocks, but also in the form of marshes and
wetlands, as irrigation water, and as rivers and channels for bulk transport. The Tigris
and Euphrates rivers not only nurtured major economic resources in the form of fish,
reeds, and other wetland products, but were also regarded as sacred rivers (Wood 2005 ).
Consequently, rather than simply discussing irrigation, this chapter tackles the overall
‘hydraulic landscape’.
Some cuneiform texts emphasise the role of water as the provider of abundance
(Winter 2007 : 136 ). For example, a ‘hymn’ of the Ur III or Old Babylonian periods
(referred to as Ur-Nammu D) describes the king as having been provided with broad
wisdoms by Enki, digging a ‘canal of abundance’ in his home city of Ur, which then
produced plentiful fish, birds, and plants, as well as watering large tracts of arable land
where barley ‘sprouts like reed thickets’ (Winter, 2007 : 136 ; Flückiger-Hawker 1999 :
D 21 – 22 , 33 – 36 ). By the late third millennium BC, much of the available water of
southern Mesopotamia was used for the irrigation of grain crops and the province of
Lagash became a major centre of grain production, much of which was delivered to
redistribution centres in the form of bala tax (Rost 2010 : 8 ). In terms of landscape
development, this is difficult to imagine because in the mid-twentieth century ADthe
city mound of al-Hiba/Lagash was surrounded by marshes (Cotha Consulting 1959 a:
maps).
Ultimately, the maximum amount of land that could be irrigated in Mesopotamia
was limited by the overall discharge of water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers,
specifically during the period of low flow during the autumn and early winter.
Although estimates of the total area of potential cultivation in the Mesopotamian
lowlands range from 8 , 000 to 12 , 000 sq km (Adams 1981 : 5 – 6 ), if the Euphrates
alone is employed, to as high as 30 , 000 sq km (Ionides 1937 ), it is evident that the
irrigated area was but a fraction of the total potential cultivable area, especially when
the often large amount of fallow and wasteland is taken into account (Adams 1981 ;
Gibson 1972 ).
Water has a range of practical roles or functions and in southern Mesopotamia these
can be summarised as follows (Hunt 1988 : 189 – 190 ):