There is a growing interest in historical groundwater thinking and use by hydrogeologists, water historians, and others. This book aims to develop a cohesive historical narrative of how many ideas and practices used today had their foundations laid down before the Scientific Revolution.

CONTENTS AND STRUCTURE. CHAPTER 1 THE HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK. * Content of modern Hydrogeology as a tool to evaluate groundwater developments in the past. * Chronological schemes in Archeology and Geology. * Methodology, types of data, evidence. * Past climates, data and interpretation issues. * Outline of the book. * Previous histories covering ancient Hydrogeology and groundwater ideas. . CHAPTER 2 THE BEGINNINGS IN PREHISTORIC TIMES 7.0 Million Years 3300BC. * Hominins, hunter gatherers and groundwater discovery. * Shifts in water use: surface water to springs to wells. * Role of Palaeolithic and Neolithic mining in subsurface conceptual understanding. * Neolithic farmers and urban dwellers and the role of groundwater in their inception. * Concepts of water storage and leakage, in earthen materials; pots. * The Chalcolithic (4500BC 3300BC) spring developers and aquifer builders of Baluchistan and other locations.Application to archaeological exploration and interpretation. * Early ideas of permeability and quality and soil/water management for agriculture. * Irrigation and the beginnings of salinity problems in the 4th millennium BC.. . . CHAPTER 3 EARLY SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT OF GROUNDWATER RESOURCES IN THE PERIOD BRONZE AGE TO EARLY IRON AGE, EMERGING PREDICTIVE CONCEPTS; 3300BC 1050BC. * Storage in rock cut cisterns. * Mesopotamia second millennium disposal wells of Ur and the first application of mathematics to irrigation of unsaturated soils. Salinity problems expand in irrigation areas. * Mohenjo Daro and the Herappan Civilization on the Indus River, 2450BC 1800BC: A city of wells and drains, permeability reduction concepts. * Linkages between the Harappan Civilization and the Oman Peninsula. Could groundwater knowledge have transferred?. * Fortress tower wells of the Oman Peninsula in the Umm al Nar Period (2500BC 2000BC); pioneering efforts at groundwater security. * The Minoan Civilization, Palace Period 2100BC 1450BC. Spring and well development and distribution in sophisticated settlements. Evidence of water quality management. * The Mycenaeans 1600BC 1050BC. Early rock tunnelling for water security of citadels. * Development of predictive concepts and organization. . CHAPTER 4 IRONAGE (1200BC 300BC) ROCK TUNNELLING INCREASES TO EXPAND GROUNDWATER DEVELOPMENT IN AN AGE OF CLIMATIC STRESS. * Holy Land examples; Megiddo, Hezekiah s tunnel (727BC 698BC) in Jerusalem; spring development and transfer using tunnels. * Urartu tunnels for irrigation (860BC 600BC). * Assyrian tunnel and shaft methods for water transfers (721BC 681BC). * Growing need for water security and large scale water schemes. . CHAPTER 5 THE AFLAJ, FOGGARA, KAREZ, QANAT AND PUQUIOS BUILDERS OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLD 1000BC 1550AD. * Definitions, concepts, locations, examples. * The Aflaj of Oman and UAE. * The Foggara of the Garamantes Civilization of Fazzan, Libya. * The Karez / Qanats of Iran. * Persian development of the Nubian Sandstone in the Kharga Oasis, Egypt. * The Cuniculi of the Etruscans and others in Europe. * The Karez of Turpan, China, source of the technology. * The Puquios of Nasca, Peru and Mexico in the New World. * Origins; correcting past errors in origin models applied to Old World examples. * Debate on origins in the New world; Mexico, Peru. * Roles of Persians, Greeks and Romans, Islam, Spanish colonists, in the technology, transfer and maintenance. * Other factors influencing their invention; climatic stress, tunneling technology, trade and idea transfers. * Significance of the drainage gallery for agriculture and people over time. * Management and law in relation to ground water resource management arising out of the technology. CHAPTER 6 CONTRIBUTION OF NEW WORLD FARMERS TO GROUNDWATER UNDERSTANDING AND USE 1200BC 1550AD. * The irrigators and terrace makers of southern USA and Mexico, 1200BC 1520AD. * Raised field constructed aquifer systems for sustainable agriculture in South America with a focus on the Tiwanaku Civilization of Bolivia in the first Millennium AD. Use of hydrogeological principles to manage water, salinity and heat flow at high altitudes in the Andes for food production over long periods. * Sunken fields of the Nasca in the arid south coast of Peru during the Early Intermediate Period (AD 1-750). Utilization of the upper phreatic zone and capillary water for agriculture in an arid environment. * Groundwater role in the Inca Empire 1476AD 1534AD.. CHAPTER 7 GRAECO ROMAN TIMES 700BC 462AD THE AGE OF EXTENSIVE GROUNDWATER DELIVERY AND MANAGEMENT. * The role of Karst hydrogeology in Greek water town management and location, groundwater use. * Case studies of groundwater use in Priene , Corinth and Athens. * Greek hydraulics in practice. * Greek water quality management. * Greek water law. * The Etruscans and their relation to the Greeks and Romans in water management and groundwater in particular. * Roman spring development engineering. * Roman Hydraulics;back-modeling evaluations such as at Ephesus. * Developments in Roman water pollution and resource management laws, spring protection zones. * The Nebatean aquifer builders and wise conjunctive managers in a hyper arid environment of the Levant from 200BC.. . CHAPTER 8 LOSS, PRESERVATION AND DIFFUSION OF GROUNDWATER KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE 3000BC 1500AD. * Collapse of societies, role of climate change and impact on water. * Responses employing hydrogeological strategies. * Loss or preservation of knowledge. * Greek Dark Ages 1000 700BC. * Roman Empire collapse in the West, significance of continuity in the East. * Middle Ages in Post Roman Europe. Infrastructure failures. Role of Monasteries in the preservation of knowledge and practice. * Exchange of hydraulic knowledge across the Iranian-Indian border in the latter half of the First Millennium AD. * Collapse of Indian Science and loss of groundwater knowledge. * Preservation and advances in knowledge by Islamic scholars and the Greek-Arabic bridge to the Western Scientific Revolution. * Role of Fundamentalist Islamic scholars such as Al Ghazali in retarding scientific advances in the East. * Water as a factor in the collapse of New World civilizations, Maya (9th - 11th Centuries AD), Tiwanaku (1000AD). * Diffusion versus independent invention of groundwater ideas and practice. * Role of the state (government power) in fostering and transmitting hydrogeolocial inventions; Wittfogel s hydraulic society concept;a critical evaluation. . CHAPTER 9 DEVELOPMENT OF GROUNDWATER CONCEPTUAL THEORY. THE DOCUMENTED LEGACY. * Cuneiform records from Mesopotamia dealing with irrigation and water management. * First and second millennium BC concepts in the Vedic literature of India. * Groundwater origins and the hydrological cycle as promoted by Greek philosophers; Thales, Aristotle, etc, first Millennium BC. * Roman and Greek contributions to flow estimation (flow and velocity) of springs, etc., and other hydraulics by Hero of Alexandria and Frontinus. * Practical groundwater exploration and other aspects recorded by the Roman architect/engineer Vitruvius in the first century BC. * The first hydrogeological text book in 550AD arising from within Vedic Prihat Samhita literature by the Indian astronomer/mathematician Varahamihira. * The Islamic legacy of Al Karagi, astronomer/mathematician, of Persia and the second hydrogeological textbook of 1017AD. * Status of medieval writings in Europe, Venerable Bede, etc. * Bridging to the Scientific Revolution; contributions of Leonardo da Vinci and Bernard Palissy in the 15th and 16th Centuries. * Visual art communication about groundwater by the Aboriginals of Australia; the first hydrogeological map makers. . . CHAPTER 10 CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN OF GROUNDWATER WELLS AND BOREHOLES. GROUNDWATER REMOVAL FROM AQUIFERS. * Excavation methods for wells, tunnels/shafts. * Deep drilling; Egyptians, Chinese, others. * Human and Animal power. * Well design; unlined, lined. * Artesian well, influence on drilling technology. * Water lifting devices, human, animal and mechanical aids. . CHAPTER 11 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANCIENT HYDRGEOLOGY PRACTICE AND CONCEPTS TO THE PIONEERS OF MODERN HYDROGEOLOGY AND RELEVANCE FOR TODAY. * Continuity of concepts and practice over time. How did the linkages occur?. * What were the foundations leading to the Scientific. Revolution that Darcy and others built on? How much did they know?. * Applications today:. o In Archaeology: new interpretations of water related artifacts. Use of knowledge as an exploration screening tool. Increasing the importance of the water supply question at archaeological sites. o For Water Resource Managers : aquifer construction, subsurface water storage in urban environments, (the modern cistern), return to water reuse and appropriate quality. Climatic stress (dry times) in the past drove civilizations to innovative use of groundwater. Do current policies reflect this as our climate changes?

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.