Get this product faster from our US warehouse
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.