Water Histories and Spatial Archaeology

Michael J. Harrower is Assistant Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at The Johns Hopkins University and has over fifteen years of archaeological experience exploring the remote desert highlands of Ethiopia, Jordan, Yemen and Oman. He is a leading-expert in spatial technologies, and is co-editor, with Douglas C. Comer, of Mapping Archaeological Landscapes from Space (2013).

• 1. Introduction: comparing water histories of America and Arabia; 2. Comparison and juxtaposition in archaeology: water, agriculture and state formation in space and time; 3. Water histories of ancient Yemen in global comparative perspective; 4. Pastoralism, water and the beginning of agriculture in Southwest Arabia; 5. Water histories of Southwest Arabian kingdoms (and the American West); 6. Conclusion: water histories, comparison, geopolitics and spatial archaeology.

'… the author makes a compelling case for the relevance of his choice with regard to 'human geographies of water' … The reader interested in irrigation and water resource use in Yemen, especially for the pre-Islamic period, will not be disappointed by this work.' Daniel Martin Varisco, Review of Middle East Studies