Researchers mapped over 4,000 canals in the Mesopotamian region around Eridu, history’s first city.
The research team found that the canals irrigated more than 700 farms in the region, which was inhabited between the sixth until the early first millennium B.C.
Fed by the Euphrates River, these canals required extensive upkeep and work to water the network of farms.
History’s first city, at least according to the ancient text known as the Sumerian King List found on a clay tablet, was also one of the most intricately planned regions in all of ancient Mesopotamia according to a new study published in the journal Antiquity, which highlighted how the entire city was watered by the Euphrates River.
Study authors mapped what had been preserved of the archaeological landscape and discovered what they called a “well-developed network of artificial irrigation canals.” So well-developed, in fact, that the researchers discovered not only 200 primary and large canals all pulling from the Euphrates, but that those canals fed another 4,000 minor and branch canals.
Jaafar Jotheri, lead author of the study, posted on X that all the canals were connected to the ancient Euphrates and linked more than 700 farms. The team used everything from satellite imagery, drones, geomorphological analysis, historical records, and remote sensing technology to map the area.
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With the canals irrigating more than 700 ancient farms sometime between the sixth and early first millennium B.C., the farm sizes ranged from 5,000 square feet all the way to over 200,000 square feet.
The main canals were identified as at least a kilometer long (.62 miles) and some stretched as long as over five miles in length. They were between six and 16 feet wide. The minor canals were sometimes as short as 32 feet and had a much smaller width, typically three to six feet.
“Rivers in the Mesopotamian floodplain are the primary water source for irrigation, and farmers in the past needed to have basic skills in diverting water from rivers to their farms,” the study authors wrote. “These skills developed from simpler methods, such as digging a few meters of canal over a crevasse splay and developed over time with knowledge and experience passed from one generation to another, eventually resulting in canals 100 kilometers [62 miles] long.”
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The authors noted that the Euphrates River’s highly elevated levees enabled water to flow simply by gravity, and that natural breaks in river levees released water directly onto the floodplain. Both features made it easier to create the network of irrigation channels.
The authors did note that it is difficult to tell which canals were used at which time, and it’s “unlikely that all of the canals were running simultaneously” from the sixth until the early first millennium B.C.
A later shift in the Euphrates’ path meant that Eridu was abandoned instead of built over, preserving the ancient landscape. Excavations at specific spots could help accurately date exact sections of the canal network.
“Comparing the character and dimensions of the canals and farms with contemporaneous descriptions in the texts of the cuneiform tablets could provide additional, valuable insights,” the authors wrote, “into agricultural practices and management in the Euphrates floodplain and in Mesopotamia more broadly.”
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Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.