Thirst: Water and Power in the Ancient World

Freshwater shortages will affect 75% of the world’s population by 2050. Mithen puts this crisis into context by exploring 10,000 years of water management. Thirst tells of civilizations defeated by the water challenge, and of technological ingenuity that sustained communities in hostile environments. Work with nature, not against it, he advises.

Table of Contents:
Contents List of Figures List of Photographs Acknowledgements 1. Thirst - For knowledge of the past and lessons for the future 2. The water revolution - Be origins of water management in the Levant, 1.5 million years ago to 700 BC 3. ‘The black fields became white/the broad plainwas choked with salt’ - Water management and the rise and fall of Sumerian civilisation, 5000 - 1600 BC 4. ‘Water is the best thing of all’ - Pindar of Thebes 476 BC - Water management by the Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Ancient Greeks 2100–146 BC 5. A watery paradise in Petra - Be Nabataeans, masters of the desert, 300 BC–AD 106 6. Building rivers and taking baths - Rome and Constantinople, 400 BC–AD 800 7. A million men with teaspoons - Hydraulic engineering in Ancient China, 900 BC-AD 907 8. The hydraulic city - Water management by the kings of Angkor, AD 802–1327 9. Almost a civilisation - Hohokam irrigation in the American South-West, AD 1–1450 10. Life and death of the water lily monster - Water and the rise and fall of Mayan civilisation, 2000 BC–AD 1000 11. Water poetry in the Sacred Valley - Hydraulic engineering by the Incas, AD 1200–1572 12. An unquenched thirst - For water and for knowledge of the past Notes Bibliography Index

Review :
[Mithen] builds to a striking conclusion. Though we may think that the rise of complex social and economic networks enabled ancient cultures to manage their water, the reverse may well be true: only when a society had reliable access to water could it turn itself into an economic or cultural power.
-- Cornelia Dean New York Times
In his often riveting Thirst: Water and Power in the Ancient World, Steven Mithen--a prehistorian--briefly describes this source of contemporary worry, and then describes in detail how ancient civilizations, from China and Cambodia to the Middle East, Arizona, Mayan Central America, and Incan Peru, managed their water supplies and thus made arid land inhabitable... Mithen expounds archaeological sites with verve and clarity and makes the technicalities of, for example, Sumerology surprisingly accessible... The archaeological Middle East is where Mithen is at home. In other parts of the world he writes as a traveller, but an exceptionally alert and well-informed one. He is excellent on the subject of Cambodia, where he gives a lucid summary of the dispute among archaeologists about the extent and purpose of the highly elaborate hydraulic system around Angkor Wat... Mithen is passionately convinced that the study of ancient water management offers us some lessons... Thirst is a vitally engaging book.
-- W. V. Harris London Review of Books
Mithen provides a well-written examination of how selected societies worldwide coped with problems of too much or too little water... This is a valuable book for the general public interested in prehistory and water management.
-- L. L. Johnson Choice
Mithen, a proven storyteller, is at his best in this engaging introduction to humankind's management of water throughout the world. Lucid prose and evocative vignettes make clear the broad and complex sweep of this story, which is both ancient and timely.
-- Vernon L. Scarborough, University of Cincinnati