| # | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
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Built-up transport infrastructure was introduced in the early Russian period (see next sheet).
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for the construction of canals during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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inferred from lack of mention in sources related to this infatructure
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for the construction of canals during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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"There are [...] no signs of communal construction activities, and no preserved facilities to store agricultural surplus. [...] It has to be considered that the preservation of features in Nok sites is generally poor and that the amount of data is not too large and regionally restricted to a rather small key study area."
[1]
[1]: (Breunig and Ruppe 2016: 253) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/ES4TRU7R. |
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Only mention of a canal was a project started by abandoned by a Songhai king.
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for the construction of canals during this period (although some small scale irrigation practices may have been used).
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Only mention of a canal was a project started by abandoned by a Songhai king.
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Not enough data, though it seems to reasonable infer absence.
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transportation canal = inferred absent for this region. irrigation canals would likely have been present.
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According to SCCS variable 14 ’Routes of Land Transport’ only ‘1’ or ’unimproved trails’ were used for land transport, not roads.
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No evidence of canals written in the sources consulted.
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Canals for transportation purposes would not be developed until the later Postclassic around Tenochtitlan, when they were needed to logistically transport goods through chinampas, dyke systems, and the city itself.
[1]
[1]: Hassig, Ross. (1985) Trade, tribute, and transportation: The sixteenth-century political economy of the Valley of Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pg.56-66. |
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The Yayoi villages have yielded evidence of rice paddy fields, irrigation system canals and ditches. -- irrigation canals don’t count as transport infrastructure
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canals for transportation purposes would not be developed until the later Postclassic around Tenochtitlan, when they were needed to logistically transport goods through chinampas, dyke systems, and the city itself.
[1]
[1]: Hassig, Ross. (1985) Trade, tribute, and transportation: The sixteenth-century political economy of the Valley of Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pg.56-66. |
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The first canal is thought to have been built by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 187 BCE) to drain the lower Po region.
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The first canal is thought to have been built by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 187 BCE) to drain the lower Po region.
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There is no mention of the papacy or other powers undertaking canal works during this period; Roman-era canals had, by this point, most likely silted up.
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The first canal is thought to have been built by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 187 BCE) to drain the lower Po region.
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There is no mention of the papacy or other powers undertaking canal works during this period; Roman-era canals had, by this point, most likely silted up.
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The first canal is thought to have been built by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 187 BCE) to drain the lower Po region.
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The development of canals in Russia transitioned significantly during the early 18th century under Peter the Great. Prior to this period, Russia primarily relied on its natural river systems for transportation and trade, with rivers interconnected by simple boat portages. Peter the Great’s exposure to the canal systems in Holland inspired him to initiate the construction of engineered waterways in Russia. This marked a pivotal shift from reliance on natural waterways to the systematic building of canals, enhancing trade, transportation, and military logistics within the Russian Empire.
[1]
The first canal was a project to link the Don with the Oka and the Volga. A system of canals was built connecting the Volga and the Neva. This so-called Vyshny Volodsky system started at the city of Tver (now Kalinin) on the Volga and opened in 1706. [2] [1]: Stefan T. Possony, “European Russia’s Inland Waterways - Past, Present, and Future,” U.S Naval Institute Proceedings, https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1947/august/european-russias-inland-waterways-past-present-and-future. Zotero link: VKJJBJ5B [2]: Н. П. ИнфоРост, “ГПИБ | Николаев А. С. Краткий Исторический Очерк Развития Водяных и Сухопутных Сообщений Торговых Портов в России : [В 3-х ч.]. - СПб., 1900. Zotero link: 24FNQ62E |
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"There are [...] no signs of communal construction activities, and no preserved facilities to store agricultural surplus. [...] It has to be considered that the preservation of features in Nok sites is generally poor and that the amount of data is not too large and regionally restricted to a rather small key study area."
[1]
[1]: (Breunig and Ruppe 2016: 253) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/ES4TRU7R. |
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There is no mention of canals in the sources used.
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While irrigation canals might have been used, there is no evidence for canals as water transport and they would have been unnecessary for island cities in any event.
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There is no mention of the papacy or other powers undertaking canal works during this period; Roman-era canals had, by this point, most likely silted up.
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The first canal is thought to have been built by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 187 BCE) to drain the lower Po region.
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Certainly in neighbouring Mesopotamia c2000-1500 BCE: "It was an important task for the rulers of Mesopotamia to dig canals and to maintain them, because canals were not only necessary for irrigation but also useful for the transport of goods and armies. The rulers or high government officials must have ordered Babylonian mathematicians to calculate the number of workers and days necessary for the building of a canal, and to calculate the total expenses of wages of the workers."
[1]
[1]: Muroi in J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html |
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not mentioned in the literature and not visible archaeologically. Inference approved by Peter Peregrine.
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Certainly in neighbouring Mesopotamia c2000-1500 BCE: "It was an important task for the rulers of Mesopotamia to dig canals and to maintain them, because canals were not only necessary for irrigation but also useful for the transport of goods and armies. The rulers or high government officials must have ordered Babylonian mathematicians to calculate the number of workers and days necessary for the building of a canal, and to calculate the total expenses of wages of the workers."
[1]
[1]: Muroi in J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html |
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According to SCCS variable 14 ’Routes of Land Transport’ only ’unimproved trails’ were used for land transport, not roads.
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The Hmong relied on natural waterways: ’Roads. - The communication system in the Miao area consists of land routes and waterways. The most important waterway is the T’ung Ho, because it is navigable for a comparatively long distance, and it goes deep into Miao country. This river starts at Lu Ch’i and goes toward the mouth, extending 17 li to Su-mu Ch’i, ten more li to Hsien-ch’i-t’ang, another 21 li to Nung-t’an, 15 more li to T’an Ch’i, ten more li to Ta-pi-liu, another ten li to Ch’e-ch’i, and 30 more li to Ho Ch’i. From the mouth of the river to Ho Ch’i, some 130 li, the waterway is known as the Wu Ch’i River. Above Ho Ch’i it divides into two branches, south and north: the northern branch, known as the Wan-yung Chiang, runs ten li to Chang-p’ai-chai, where it again divides into two more branches, one flowing westward as the Wan-yung Chiang proper, passing through Ta-chuang and Hsiao-chuang for 50 li to Kan-ch’eng. The other branch, which flows northwestward, is known as Kao-yen Ho, and goes 15 li to Chen-ch’i-so, 15 li to Hsienchen-ying, ten li to Chen-ning-ying, 20 li to P’ing-lang, five li to Wei-che, eight li to Hsün-chien-p’ing, 20 li to Kao-yen-hsin. The branch flowing south of Ho Ch’i, known as the T’o Chiang, flows through Ch’i-k’ou, Chiang-chün-yen, and Mao Chou to Lao-hu-k’ou for about 60 li, and then passing Lao-hu-k’ou it flows from Mu-lung-ti Chiang to Feng-huang for another 70 li.’
[1]
’The parts of the T’ung Ho navigable by small craft are: the Wu Ch’i, 113 li; the Wan-yung Chiang, 60 li; /Illus. 16, 17 on pp. 42, 43/ the Kao-yen Ho, 93 li; and the T’o Chiang, 130 li; totaling 296 li in all. These river courses are difficult to navigate and are not passable all year round. Miao Fang-pei Lan in the section on roads and waterways says: “This river (the T’ung Ho) has precipitous cliffs standing up like daggers, strange rocks clustering like a forest of spears, and rioting cataracts. Through slight negligence a boat can be crashed into pieces. It dries up in autumn and winter, causing difficulty in transportation. It is only in summer when mountain streams rush down from the Miao villages, that small craft may ply here and there. However, the cliffs and rocks become more dangerous as the water rises. Once a sandbank is reached, a day is often spent in lifting the boat across to deep water. The difficulty of crossing such banks is twice as much as in other rivers.”’
[2]
[1]: Ling, Shun-sheng, Yifu Ruey, and Lien-en Tsao 1947. “Report On An Investigation Of The Miao Of Western Hunan”, 66 [2]: Ling, Shun-sheng, Yifu Ruey, and Lien-en Tsao 1947. “Report On An Investigation Of The Miao Of Western Hunan”, 67 |
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Irrigation canals, but these are not transport infrastructure.
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According to SCCS variable 14 ’Routes of Land Transport’ only ‘1’ or ’unimproved trails’ were used for land transport, not roads.
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Canals for transportation purposes would not be developed until the later Postclassic around Tenochtitlan, when they were needed to logistically transport goods through chinampas, dyke systems, and the city itself.
[1]
[1]: Hassig, Ross. (1985) Trade, tribute, and transportation: The sixteenth-century political economy of the Valley of Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pg.56-66. |
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According to SCCS variable 14 ’Routes of Land Transport’ only ‘1’ or ’unimproved trails’ were used for land transport, not roads.
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canals for transportation purposes would not be developed until the later Postclassic around Tenochtitlan, when they were needed to logistically transport goods through chinampas, dyke systems, and the city itself.
[1]
[1]: Hassig, Ross. (1985) Trade, tribute, and transportation: The sixteenth-century political economy of the Valley of Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pg.56-66. |
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No evidence of canals written in the sources consulted.
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Approved by Peter Peregrine.
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Canals have not been mentioned in the sources consulted.
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for the construction of canals during this period.
[1]
Gary Feinman (pers. comm.) writes that small-scale irrigation, such as check-dams and small canals were in use. However, these seem to be used for agriculture rather than transportation.
[2]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. [2]: (Feinman, Gary. Personal Communication with Jill Levine, Dan Hoyer, and Peter Turchin. Email. April 2020) |
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Sources do not suggest there is evidence for the construction of canals during this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Canals were not built in England until the eighteenth century.
[1]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 14) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U |
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Not applicable to such small islands.
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Not applicable to such small islands.
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"During and after the conquest of the Song, Bayan Chingsang (Grand Councillor Bayan) achieved legendary status. Chinese songs and folklore spoke of him as “Hun- dred Eyes” (bai yan in Chinese), and his red banner could incite panic in Song troops by its sudden appearance. Even so, Qubilai’s chief mandate to Bayan was to kill no more than necessary, and Changzhou was the only city where he ordered wholesale massacre. In 1311 a temple was dedicated to him in Lin’an by imperial decree. During his stay in the south, the development of water transport, both inland and overseas, had impressed him, and in 1282 he advocated both the construction of canals in the north and the overseas transportation of southern grain to the capital. These proposals bore fruit, however, only after he had been dispatched to the Mongolian frontier."
[1]
[1]: (Atwood 2004, 38) |
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“The developed canal network was vital for Kaifeng to prosper in the 6th~12th centuries. Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the Five Dynasties, Bianzhou gradually became the transportation junction, and it was also called a “metropolis rejoined by water and land” [29]. […] In the Later Liang Dynasty (during the period of the Five Dynasties), in order to acquire the material support of the region in the south of the Yangtze River, Zhu Wen utilized the advantageous water transportation of Bianzhou and founded the capital in Kaifeng.”§Huang, W. et al. 2021. Rise and Fall of the Grand Canal in the Ancient Kaifeng City of China: Role of the Grand Canal and Water Supply in Urban and Regional Development. Water 13(14): 1932. REF§Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/RSXWXJVJ/library§REF§
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“A large number of Sasanian sites recorded on the Diyala and Nippur surveys were classified as towns (covering between four and thirty hectares), small urban centres (between thirty and a hundred hectares) and cities (more than a square km in size). Most cities have remains of fortifications and all were on either major canals or river-courses, facilitating access to transport networks as well as drinking water.”
[1]
[1]: (Simpson 35) Simpson, St. John. Sasanian Cities: Archaeological Perspectives on the Urban Economy and Built Environment of an Empire In E. Sauer (ed) Sasanian Persia. Between Rome and the Steppes of Eurasia pp. 21-50. CUP. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/69J69WWF/library |
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“At the time when the Grand Canal of China was completed, water-transport in Europe was still in a primitive state. Few canals had been constructed, and rivers were chiefly used as a source of power for water-mills. On many rivers each mill had its weir, to provide an adequate head of water for the mill-wheel, and these weirs were a serious obstacle to navigation. In the later Middle Ages, however, important developments took place in the Netherlands, as we shall see, while throughout the more commercially active countries of Europe improvements were made in the rivers by building stanches in the weirs and also at intervals along the river, between the mills, to reduce the gradient and increase the depth of water in the shallow places. […] The early history of stanches is obscure, but it is practically certain that they were in existence on a number of rivers in Flanders, Germany, England, France, and Italy before the end of the thirteenth century. A reference to the winch for a stanch on the Thames at Marlow occurs in 1306.”
[1]
[1]: (Skempton 2017, 4-5) Skempton, A.W. 2017. Canals and river navigations before 1750. In M. Chrimes (ed) Canals and river navigations before 1750 pp. 2-34. Routledge. Seshat URLhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/369SZUSX/library |
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Built under Sui and maintained throughout Tang period.
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Built under Sui and maintained throughout Tang period.
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did the Egyptian bureaucracy carry out maintenance on existing canals within Egypt?
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Canal was dug during the Saite period. Was this still maintained?
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Present within the earlier Mamluk period.
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Polities would have maintained infrastructure that first appeared in earlier periods?
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Present in Ramesside period.
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Part of a wide-reaching irrigation system. Part of Sippar was known as the Quay of Sippar, although it has not been discovered. Baker speculates that it might have been on the major watercourse, the King’s Canal
[1]
[1]: Baker, H.D. 2012. The Neo-Babylonian Empire. In Potts, D.T. (ed.) A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Volume II. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. p.920 |
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e.g. the ’royal canal’ that connected the city of Seleucia to the Euphrates.
[1]
[1]: Lukonin, V.G., ‘Political, Social and Administrative Institutions: Taxes and Trade’, in The Cambridge history of Iran: the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Part 2, ed. by Ehsan Yar-Shater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), vol. 3, p.719. |
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inferred that they maintained existing canal networks. "rulers and elites financed dams, canals, and irrigation works".
[1]
[1]: (Darling 2013, 95) Darling, Linda T. 2013. A History of Social Justice and Political Power in the Middle East: The Circle of Justice from Mesopotamia to Globalization. Routledge. |
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The first canal is thought to have been built by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 187 BCE) to drain the lower Po region.
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’Archaeological research at Oc Eco in Vietnam and Angkor Borei in Cambodia, two walled and moated urban centres linked by a canal system, have revealed the adoption of Sanskrit names for kings, use of the Bhrahmi script, worship of Hindu gods, and adherence to the teachings of the Buddha, wooden statues of whom have been uncovered, containing pits for cremated human remains. Grave offerings found in these pits include gold plaques embellished with sacred Buddhist inscriptions and images of Hindu deities.’
[1]
’In the 1920s Pierre Paris overflew this area [the flat plains surrounding the Mekong and its Bassac arm below Phnom Penh] and took a series of photographs. These revealed a network of canals crossing the landscape, and various nodal points where they met. One such junction revealed a huge enceinte demarcated by five moats and ramparts encoding 1,112 acres (450 ha). It was here that Louis Malleret excavated in 1944. The site was known as Oc Eco [...].’
[2]
’The Funanese had already built a canal network near their port, and a canal 90 km long linking their port to an inland city, Angkor Borei, in which channels and bray were constructed for flood control and dry-season water supply, but the canal is considered to have been for transportation, and within a trading polite, not for irrigation.’
[3]
’Clearly Funan’s rise had two sources: the productivity of its agrarian system and the area’s strategic location opposite the Isthmus of Kra. A network of canals connect the coast to Funan’s agricultural upstream, centered on its urban ‘‘capital’’ at the archeological site of Angkor Borei in modern southern Cambodia. It is unclear whether this canal network required a new level of techno- logical competence or a central leadership for its construction (Malleret:1959-1963; Liere: 1980; Stark: 1998, 2003, 2006a, 2006b; Stark and Sovath: 2001).’
[4]
’The canal linking Oc Eo and Angkor Borei is 90 kilometers (54 mi.) long.’ [5] [1]: (Higham 2013, p.586) [2]: (Higham 2012b, p. 590) [3]: (Vickery 1998, p. 307) [4]: (Hall 2010, pp. 48-49) [5]: (Higham 2004, p. 62) |
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Canals present from earlier periods and maintained during Roman Dominate.
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Construction of large irrigation canals (e.g. Dargom, Bulungur, Narpai and Shahrud) on the Zaravshan (the Salar canal in the Tashkent oasis) have been dated to the Kushana empire.
[1]
Were these canals used for transport? "The surviving portions of a canal of the K’ang-chu period (fourth century b.c. to first century a.d.) measure as much as 20 m from bank to bank; those dating from the Kushan period (second and third centuries a.d.) measure only 10-11 m, but have steep sides and are much deeper."
[2]
[1]: B. N. Mukherjee, ’The Rise and Fall of the Kushana Empire’ (Calcutta, 1988), pp.369-70 [2]: (Mukhamedjanov 1994, 261) Mukhamedjanov, A R. Economy and Social System in Central Asia in the Kushan Age. in Harmatta J, Puri B N and Etemadi G F eds. 1994. History of civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. UNESCO. |
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"An exception to this is Tenghualuo (Liuyungang, Jiangsu), an apparently unwalled dwelling site complete with a canal and a pier, which covers an area of 10 ha (Anonymous 1996a)."
[1]
Not necessarily a canal used for transport, but since there was a pier, this can be inferred.
[1]: (Demattè 1999, 124) |
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e.g. The Grand Canal. Canal-transport continued to play an important economic role in the link between north and south China, and the upkeep and expansion undertaken during the Ming dynasty was continued under the Qing in varying degrees.
[1]
At the end of the Grand Canal was Hangzhou, connected with Ningbo port through the Eastern Zhejiang Canal, which served as the economic lifeline of the development of Hangzhou. The key to this development was the connection between the water system in the city and the outside through canals and irrigation networks.
[2]
[1]: (Smith, 2015, p.83, 216) [2]: (Fu and Cao 2019, p.329) |
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e.g. The Grand Canal
[1]
Overall, the canal systems declined drastically near the end of the Qing with increased silting in the Yellow River. The Board of Works was responsible for maintaining all official buildings, granaries, official communication routes, dykes, dams, and irrigation systems.
[2]
[1]: (Wang 2016, 196) [2]: (Smith 2015, 103) |
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Guangtong Canal 584 CE.
[1]
Luoyang Canal 606 CE and Yongji Canal 608 CE. Jiangdu Canal began construction 610 CE.
[2]
Tongi Canal (the first section of the Grand Canal which "ran from Luoyang southeast to link up with the Huai valley to the south") and Han Conduit ("extending the Grand Canal south to the Yangzi valley) projects.
[3]
[1]: (Xiong 2009, cvi) [2]: (Xiong 2009, cvii) [3]: (Xiong 2006, 34-35) |
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[1]
Menes diverted the Nile to build Memphis where it had run.
[2]
"To improve their communications with the south, the Egyptians dug out navigable channels in the rapids of the First Cataract at Aswan; this policy, initiated in the third millennium before our era, was to be continued by the kings of the Middle Kingdom and later by those of the New Kingdom.
[3]
[1]: (Modelski 2003, 26) [2]: (Angelakis et al. 2012, 130) [3]: (Mokhtar ed. 1981, 236) |
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[1]
Menes diverted the Nile to build Memphis where it had run.
[2]
"To improve their communications with the south, the Egyptians dug out navigable channels in the rapids of the First Cataract at Aswan; this policy, initiated in the third millennium before our era, was to be continued by the kings of the Middle Kingdom and later by those of the New Kingdom.
[3]
[1]: (Modelski 2003, 26) [2]: (Angelakis et al. 2012, 130) [3]: (Mokhtar ed. 1981, 236) |
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"Vilanova de Castelló (Valencia) borrowed heavily over several generations between 1587 and 1645 to build and maintain an irrigation canal."
[1]
[1]: (Casey 2002, 42) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT |
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620-625 CE repair work was undertaken on the reventments of the Corbulo canal at the Roman castellum of Leiden-Room-burg (Matilo).
[1]
[1]: (Lodewijckx ed. 2004, 19) Lodewijckx, M ed. 2004. Bruc ealles well: archaeological essays concerning the peoples of North-West Europe in the first millennium AD. Leuven University Press. Leuven. |
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620-625 CE repair work was undertaken on the reventments of the Corbulo canal at the Roman castellum of Leiden-Room-burg (Matilo).
[1]
[1]: (Lodewijckx ed. 2004, 19) Lodewijckx, M ed. 2004. Bruc ealles well: archaeological essays concerning the peoples of North-West Europe in the first millennium AD. Leuven University Press. Leuven. |
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620-625 CE repair work was undertaken on the reventments of the Corbulo canal at the Roman castellum of Leiden-Room-burg (Matilo).
[1]
[1]: (Lodewijckx ed. 2004, 19) Lodewijckx, M ed. 2004. Bruc ealles well: archaeological essays concerning the peoples of North-West Europe in the first millennium AD. Leuven University Press. Leuven. |
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Canals brought water to north of Delhi.
[1]
Firuz Shah Tughlaq "created the biggest network of canals known in pre-modern India"
[2]
-- were these irrigation or transport canals or both?
[1]: Siddiqui, I. H. (1986). Water works and irrigation system in India during pre-Mughal times. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient/Journal de l’histoire economique et sociale de l’Orient, 52-77. [2]: (Ahmed 2011, 102) Ahmed, Farooqui Salma. 2011. A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century. Pearson Education India. |
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the conquest of the former Achaemenid Satrapy of Sindh resulted in the acquisition of areas that had pre-existing irrigation canals and a large network of wells and other infrastructure.
[1]
[1]: Samad, Rafi U. The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys. Algora Publishing, 2011. p. 34 |
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Canals were a vital component to the core cities constructed during the Abasid Caliphate.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Osman S. A. Ismail (1968). The founding of a new capital: Sāmarrā’. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 31, pp 1-13. provides further evidence of bridge building. [2]: Bloom, Jonathan M., and Sheila Blair, eds. The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture p. 334 |
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Repairs of canals.
[1]
In Iraq, Ala al-Din Juwayni (Ilkhan official, governor of Baghdad) "built a canal from the Euphrates town of Anbar to Kufa and Najaf in an effort to promote agricultural production and allegedly led to the creation of 150 villages along the bank."
[1]
[1]: (Gilli-Elewy 174) Gilli-Elewy, Hend in Fuess, Albrecht and Hartung, Jan-Peter. 2014. Court Cultures in the Muslim World: Seventh to Nineteenth centuries. Routledge. |
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e.g. the ’royal canal’ that connected the city of Seleucia to the Euphrates.
[1]
[1]: Lukonin, V.G., ‘Political, Social and Administrative Institutions: Taxes and Trade’, in The Cambridge history of Iran: the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Part 2, ed. by Ehsan Yar-Shater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), vol. 3, p.719. |
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[1]
Mesopotamia c2000-1500 BCE: "It was an important task for the rulers of Mesopotamia to dig canals and to maintain them, because canals were not only necessary for irrigation but also useful for the transport of goods and armies. The rulers or high government officials must have ordered Babylonian mathematicians to calculate the number of workers and days necessary for the building of a canal, and to calculate the total expenses of wages of the workers."
[2]
Ensi city governors "responsible for upholding security and law and order in their cities. Maintenance of roads, canals, and major buildings was another of their duties."
[3]
[1]: Wall-Romana 1990, 213 [2]: Muroi in J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html [3]: (Foster 2016, 41) Foster, Benjamin R. 2016. The Age of Agade. Inventing Empire In Ancient Mesopotamia. Routledge. London. |
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"Rivers and canals were the main highways wherever possible since water transport, particularly of bulk goods, was easier than that over land."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 138) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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"Rivers and canals were the main highways wherever possible since water transport, particularly of bulk goods, was easier than that over land."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 138) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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"Rivers and canals were the main highways wherever possible since water transport, particularly of bulk goods, was easier than that over land."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 138) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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"Rivers and canals were the main highways wherever possible since water transport, particularly of bulk goods, was easier than that over land."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 138) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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"Rivers and canals were the main highways wherever possible since water transport, particularly of bulk goods, was easier than that over land."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 138) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
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Suez Canal and Atosa Canal.
[1]
Suez Canal which linked the west and east of the empire by sea was already planned by the Egyptians and was finished by Darius I.
[2]
Darius ordered a canal dug between Red Sea and the Nile; the commemorative stela suggests his primary transit interest was ’from Egypt through this canal to Persia’.
[3]
[1]: (Farazmand 2002) [3]: (Shahbazi 2012, 127) Shahbazi, A Shapour. The Archaemenid Persian Empire (550-330 BCE) Daryaee, Touraj. ed. 2012. The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History. Oxford University Press. |
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Certainly in neighbouring Mesopotamia c2000-1500 BCE: "It was an important task for the rulers of Mesopotamia to dig canals and to maintain them, because canals were not only necessary for irrigation but also useful for the transport of goods and armies. The rulers or high government officials must have ordered Babylonian mathematicians to calculate the number of workers and days necessary for the building of a canal, and to calculate the total expenses of wages of the workers."
[1]
[1]: Muroi in J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html |
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Rukn al-Duala’s canal marked the beginning of a building renaissance at Shīrāz.
[1]
Adud al-Dawla restored canal network in Baghdad.
[2]
[1]: Busse, H. 1975. Iran under the Būyids. In Frye, R. N. (ed.) The Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 4. The period from the Arab Invasion to the Saljuq’s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.281 [2]: (Kennedy 2004, 233) Kennedy, Hugh N. 2004. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. Second edition. Pearson Longman. Harlow. |
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"massive capital investments in dams, roads, and canals"
[1]
[1]: (Wenke 1981, 314-315) Wenke, Robert J. 1981. Elymeans, Parthians, and the Evolution of Empires in Southwestern Iran. Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 101. No. 3. Jul-Sep. American Oriental Society. pp. 303-315. http://www.jstor.org/stable/602592 |
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Shah Abbas had canals built to take water from the Alburz Mountains to Ashraf.
[1]
"In Isfahan in 1566-1567, an Afshar chieftain built a canal from the nearby Zayanda Rud to the Masjid-i Ali".
[2]
[1]: Blow, David. Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend. London: I.B. Tauris, 2009. p.178. [2]: (Newman 2009) Newman, Andrew J. 2009. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. I.B. Tauris. New York. |
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The rivers Tigris and Euphrates and Eulaios were used for transportation. The Seleucids also constructed a link between the Eulaios river and the sea, and probably maintained the Persian Pallakotas canal.
[1]
.
[1]: Aperghis, G. G. 2004. The Seleukid Royal Economy: The Finances and Financial Administration of the Seleukid Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p211 |
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reference to "canals inside Ravenna".
[1]
Before late 9th century (aftert this polity’s period) the fossa Asconis was extended.
[1]
Fossa Augusta. Inland to coast, Ferrara-Padua. Was it still maintained?
[1]: (Deliyannis 2010, 288) Deliyannis, Deborah Mauskopf. 2010. Ravenna in Late Antiquity. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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The first canal is thought to have been built by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 187 BCE) to drain the lower Po region.
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E.g. Late 1st BCE. Ferrara - Padua, built by Augustus. Claudius "employed 30,000 men for eleven years in cutting an outlet to the Liris for the waters of the Fucine Lake, and thereby saved them from repeated inundation a large area of the Marsian lands"
[1]
"Legionaries’ engineering and construction skills were put to use for obviously military purposes (fortifications), but also sometimes for improving infrastructure by building canals or bridges, or in mining and quarrying."
[2]
[1]: (Allcroft and Haydon 1902, 121) [2]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 48) |
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The Nihon shoki chronicle tells that a canal was dug for two hundred boats used for transporting rocks for the building of the Empress Saimei’s Futatsuki palace located in the inland area of Asuka
[1]
.
[1]: Brown, D., 1993.The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 2.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 203. |
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‘In the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568-1600[CE]), Toyotomi Hideyoshi...ordered Otani Yoshitsugu, the owner of Tsuruga Castle, to build a canal from Oura toward Tasuragu.’
[1]
’A great many of the water supply systems that were laid out during the final decades of the sixteenth century or in the early seventeenth century were constructed principally to provide water to the moats that surrounded the castle or to the canals that functioned both as defensive moats and as sources of drinking water.’
[2]
[1]: Kawanabe, Hiroya, Machiko Nishino, and Masayoshi Maehata (eds.). 2012. Lake Biwa: Interactions between Nature and People. Springer Science & Business Media.p.293 [2]: McClain, James L., John M. Merriman, and Kaoru Ugawa, (eds.) 1997. Edo and Paris: Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era. Cornell University Press.p.241 |
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’But, in fact, the central government used these reports to prepare a table of legitimate uses of corvee labor and the number of workers who could be employed for each use. A few categories of work - repair of government buildings, construction of irrigation canals...’
[1]
[1]: Shively, Donald H. and McCullough, William H. 2008. The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 2: Heian Japan. Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press.p.209 |
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’the opening of the Asahina canal between Kamakura and Musashi Matsura in 1241, for example - the warrior government at Kamakura increased in prosperity, supported by wealth acquired through trade.
[1]
[1]: Yamamura, Kozo (ed). 2008. The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 3. Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press [sixth edition].p.410 |
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records of elaborate state sponsored canal systems dating back to at least the 7th century ’The Nihon shoki explains that a new canal had to be dug for the two hundred boats that were used for transporting rocks to the foot of the mountain where the palace’s stone walls were being constructed.’
[1]
[1]: Brown, Delmer M. 1993. The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 1: Ancient Japan. Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press.p.203 |
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‘The importance of preserving this watershed as a source of water for the rice paddies and to fill the city’s transportation canals and municipal water system was clearly understood by the earliest inhabitants of the area’
[1]
‘The Rolous River, along which the first capital city of Angkor, Hariharalaya, was founded in the 9th century A.D. Note how the river bed was wide and straightened in ancient times to increase capacity and facilitate transport.’
[2]
[1]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.19) [2]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.21) |
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‘The importance of preserving this watershed as a source of water for the rice paddies and to fill the city’s transportation canals and municipal water system was clearly understood by the earliest inhabitants of the area’
[1]
‘The Rolous River, along which the first capital city of Angkor, Hariharalaya, was founded in the 9th century A.D. Note how the river bed was wide and straightened in ancient times to increase capacity and facilitate transport.’
[2]
[1]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.19) [2]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.21) |
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‘The importance of preserving this watershed as a source of water for the rice paddies and to fill the city’s transportation canals and municipal water system was clearly understood by the earliest inhabitants of the area’
[1]
‘The Rolous River, along which the first capital city of Angkor, Hariharalaya, was founded in the 9th century A.D. Note how the river bed was wide and straightened in ancient times to increase capacity and facilitate transport.’
[2]
’Not only did the productivity of marginal lands therefore begin to fall, but the complex of transport canals and agricultural waterworks on which Angkor’s economy rested became clogged.’
[3]
[1]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.19) [2]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.21) [3]: (Lieberman 2003, p. 239) |
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‘The importance of preserving this watershed as a source of water for the rice paddies and to fill the city’s transportation canals and municipal water system was clearly understood by the earliest inhabitants of the area’
[1]
‘The Rolous River, along which the first capital city of Angkor, Hariharalaya, was founded in the 9th century A.D. Note how the river bed was wide and straightened in ancient times to increase capacity and facilitate transport.’
[2]
’Not only did the productivity of marginal lands therefore begin to fall, but the complex of transport canals and agricultural waterworks on which Angkor’s economy rested became clogged.’
[3]
[1]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.19) [2]: (Engelhardt 1995, p.21) [3]: (Lieberman 2003, p. 239) |
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While the Chenla may have contributed little to nothing to the creation of new canals, transportation canals existed from the Funanese. ’The Funanese had already built a canal network near their port, and a canal 90 km long linking their port to an inland city, Angkor Borei, in which channels and bray were constructed for flood control and dry-season water supply, but the canal is considered to have been for transportation, and within a trading polite, not for irrigation.’
[1]
[1]: (Vickery 1998, 307) |
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’Archaeological research at Oc Eco in Vietnam and Angkor Borei in Cambodia, two walled and moated urban centres linked by a canal system, have revealed the adoption of Sanskrit names for kings, use of the Bhrahmi script, worship of Hindu gods, and adherence to the teachings of the Buddha, wooden statues of whom have been uncovered, containing pits for cremated human remains. Grave offerings found in these pits include gold plaques embellished with sacred Buddhist inscriptions and images of Hindu deities.’
[1]
’In the 1920s Pierre Paris overflew this area [the flat plains surrounding the Mekong and its Bassac arm below Phnom Penh] and took a series of photographs. These revealed a network of canals crossing the landscape, and various nodal points where they met. One such junction revealed a huge enceinte demarcated by five moats and ramparts encoding 1,112 acres (450 ha). It was here that Louis Malleret excavated in 1944. The site was known as Oc Eco [...].’
[2]
’The Funanese had already built a canal network near their port, and a canal 90 km long linking their port to an inland city, Angkor Borei, in which channels and bray were constructed for flood control and dry-season water supply, but the canal is considered to have been for transportation, and within a trading polite, not for irrigation.’
[3]
’Clearly Funan’s rise had two sources: the productivity of its agrarian system and the area’s strategic location opposite the Isthmus of Kra. A network of canals connect the coast to Funan’s agricultural upstream, centered on its urban ‘‘capital’’ at the archeological site of Angkor Borei in modern southern Cambodia. It is unclear whether this canal network required a new level of techno- logical competence or a central leadership for its construction (Malleret:1959-1963; Liere: 1980; Stark: 1998, 2003, 2006a, 2006b; Stark and Sovath: 2001).’
[4]
’The FUNAN maritime state (150-550 C.E.) was responsible for the con- struction of an extensive canal network, and at its main center of ANGKOR BOREI the EASTERN BARAY covers an area of about 200 by 100 meters (660 by 330 ft.).’
[5]
’The canal linking Oc Eo and Angkor Borei is 90 kilome- ters (54 mi.) long.’
[6]
The latest archaeological survey work by Evans using LiDAR attests to the large extent of irrigation systems from the fifth century onward
[7]
[1]: (Higham 2013, p.586) [2]: (Higham 2012b, p. 590) [3]: (Vickery 1998, p. 307) [4]: (Hall 2010, pp. 48-49) [5]: (Higham 2004, p. 41) [6]: (Higham 2004, p. 62) [7]: (Evans 2016) |
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“A large number of Sasanian sites recorded on the Diyala and Nippur surveys were classified as towns (covering between four and thirty hectares), small urban centres (between thirty and a hundred hectares) and cities (more than a square km in size). Most cities have remains of fortifications and all were on either major canals or river-courses, facilitating access to transport networks as well as drinking water.”
[1]
[1]: (Simpson 35) Simpson, St. John. Sasanian Cities: Archaeological Perspectives on the Urban Economy and Built Environment of an Empire In E. Sauer (ed) Sasanian Persia. Between Rome and the Steppes of Eurasia pp. 21-50. CUP. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/69J69WWF/library |
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Bukhara had canals.
[1]
"New canals were ... dug from the Hari Rud and Helmand rivers."
[2]
[1]: (Starr 2013) Starr, S. Frederick. 2013. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press. Princeton. [2]: (Negmatov 1997, 88) Negmatov, N N. in Asimov, M S and Bosworth, C E eds. 1997. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. Part I. UNESCO. |
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"People living along the great trunk-canal not only jointly used itswater andkept it clean and in repair; from the social standpoint they formed a close and stable community, whose economic cohesion waseventually given political form. This process found itsfullest expression inthe7th and early 8thcenturies, when the entire territory of Transoxiana, occupied by settled agricultural inhabitants, was divided into small oasis-states."
[1]
[1]: (Zeimal 1983, 250) |
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Canals used for transport were and are typical of Dutch cities. "Persistent sentiments of fear and insecurity will have been an added impetus for the inhabitants of Batavia to create a protected and safe environment in the city. As the name suggests, what was in essence a Dutch city was constructed there, albeit very gradually and with some reliance on improvisation: a grid of streets and canals, probably inspired by the ideas of Simon Stevin, of blocks of stone houses with tiled roofs, all enclosed by city walls and fortifications. Indeed, not only in terms of design and architecture but also in terms of its institutions, Batavia seemed a typical Dutch town, with a Board of Aldermen housed in the town hall and a civic militia."
[1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 265) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection. |
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"Putting the new economic doctrines into practice, Carlos III and Aranda ordered dramatic new public works such as the Canal of Aragon, they inaugurated regular stagecoach service to the major cities, and they established a royal school of agriculture at Aranjuez. Through their efforts, Spain had its first census in 1786, before even Britain.(Bergamini 1974: 93) Bergamini, John D. 1974. The Spanish Bourbons: The History of a Tenacious Dynasty. New York: G. P Putnam’s Sons. https://archive.org/details/spanishbourbons00john. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5A2HNKTF
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The Sonoran Desert people built extensive canal works and irrigation systems along the Salt and Gila rivers.
[1]
The Hohokam built a total of over 700 miles of irrigation canals, most of which were 8-12 miles long and around 50 feet wide and 12 feet deep.
[2]
[1]: “Hohokam Culture (U.S. National Park Service)”. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/34YMDDCN/library [2]: Barnhart 2018: 137, 142. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VPVHH2HJ |
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“The Porfirian focus on Mexico City’s built environment spilled over into other landscape features. Water itself was not necessarily detrimental to a city nor was water inherently insalubrious; flooding or “disorderly” water became the problem. Attempts to control and manage the waters around the capital persisted through time—from the early Aztec dikes that divided Lake Texcoco to the Spaniard Enrico Martinez’s open canal through the mountains in 1697. But no comparable project shared the ambitions and aspirations of the Grand Drainage Project that started in 1886… The momentous undertaking included a thirty-mile canal with four aqueducts and bridges, a six-mile tunnel coated with brick and Portland cement, and a mile and a half cut through the mountainous terrain.23 Rerouting infectious streams and conserving precious clean water required a firm state commitment and a significant financial investment. By completion, in 1901, the project’s footprint extended well beyond its symbolic importance: the canal used 22 million bricks, 25,000 cubic meters of mortar, 1.5 million meters of lumber, and untold numbers of laborers lives.”
[1]
[1]: (Wakild 2011: 521-522) Wakild, Emily. 2011. “Environment and Environmentalism,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp518–37. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BMVQRFNJ |
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“At its peak, Tiwanaku held power over a large part of present-day eastern and southern Bolivia, northwestern Argentina, northern Chile, and southern Peru. Its influence was largely due to its impressive “raised-field system” of agriculture, which used elevated planting beds separated from each other by small irrigation canals. The canals were designed to keep the crops from freezing on cold nights by preserving the heat from the daytime sun and for growing algae and aquatic plants used as fertilizer.”
[1]
“Pumapunku… is the second most important structure at Tiwanaku (Figure 6.13). It measures 155 m x 122 m… Excavations done by the CIAT, between 1977 and 1978, and by the Instituto Nacional de Arqueología, in 1989, exposed the perimeter of the base walls and sectors of the upper platform. A main drainage canal can be seen today in the southwestern corner.”
[2]
[1]: (Middleton 2015: 947) Middleton, John. 2015. World Monarchies and Dynasties. Volume 1-3, A-Z. London: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/7N3PNVCB [2]: (Albarracin-Jordan 1999: 61) Albarracin-Jordan, Juan V. 1999. The Archeaology of Tiwanaku: The Myths, History, and Science of an Ancient Andean Civilization. Bolivia: Impresión P.A.P. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/P7MDWPAP |
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present ♥ “Because the Chacoans were skilled builders, Gordon Vivian was sure that they must have had some way of collecting and distributing this water. He soon found evidence of an efficient irrigation system. Later, Gwinn expanded on his father’s work. The Chacoan irrigation system depended on dams and canals. After a rainstorm a dam at the mouth of each side canyon collected the water that fell from the cliff top. The water was then channeled into a stone-lined canal, which emptied into a head gate with narrow openings that could be blocked or left open to control the water’s flow into ditches. The ditches led to large plots of many individual gardens. In the summer of 1967, Gwinn Vivian excavated a dam that had been built across one of the main side canyons. It was a massive structure more than 120 feet long and 7 feet high. The water emptied into a canal through a gate near the middle of the dam. The long, curving, masonry-lined canal directed the water to 24 acres of bordered gardens that were laid out in neat rectangles. Gwinn Vivian calculated that a summer thunderstorm that produced 1 1/4 inches of rain in an hour would have provided the Penasco Blanco gardens with 540,000 gallons of water—half a gallon per square foot. The Chacoan genius for building and engineering allowed a large number of people to live in that otherwise dry and rugged canyon.”
[1]
[1]: (Vivian and Anderson 2002: 30) Vivian, R. Gwinn and Anderson, Margaret. 2002. Chaco Canyon, Digging for the Past. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/996XW2NW |
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Canals were used for expansion into the west and there was a huge investment in them during this period due to them being the preferred method of transporting heavy goods such as coal, wood and ore.
[1]
[1]: Volo and Volo 2004: 4, 55, 316. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SIB5XSW97. |
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“Maya agriculture was rainfall-dependent, and farmers used various water or agricultural systems including aguadas, artificial reservoirs, raised fields, dams, canals, and terraces (Dunning et al. 1997).”
[1]
“Peter Harrison (1993) correlates reservoir building with the accelerated construction of monumental architecture in Tikal’s core, especially beginning in the Early Classic. Quarrying of reservoirs provided building materials for monumental construction projects, including limestone fill, wall facing, and plaster (Scarborough 1993). At Calakmul, which is surrounded by bajos (low-lying seasonal swamps), there are extensive canal systems as well as thirteen reservoirs and aguadas (Braswell et al. 2004; Folan et al. 1995).”
[2]
[1]: (Lucero 2006: 35) Lucero, Lisa J. 2006. Water and Ritual: The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers. Austin: University of Texas Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NSX2SNWU [2]: (Lucero 2006: 158) Lucero, Lisa J. 2006. Water and Ritual: The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers. Austin: University of Texas Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NSX2SNWU |
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The famous traveller and geographer, Yaqut, wrote that Khwarazm infrastructure was prosperous and had canals and irrigation works.
[1]
Canals that channelled water for irrigation were navigable.
[2]
[1]: Boyle 1968: 142. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/CFW8EE6Q [2]: Buniyatov 2015: 85. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SAEVEJFH |
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Present since previous polity. “Industry and trade in cities like Brünn / Brno, Pest, and Trieste / Trst also benefited from new links created by Austria’s growing transportation infrastructure, which in turn stimulated increased economic growth. New highway projects, canals, river regulation, and mountain pass systems produced a rapid increase in continental transport and trade, as well as cutting the time it took to travel between economically linked destinations, often by over 50 percent.”
[1]
[1]: (Judson 2016: 114-115) Judson, Pieter M. 2016. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, USA; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BN5TQZBW |
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The existing transport infrastructure in the UK was developed throughout the Empire at great expense.
[1]
[1]: ( Porter 1999: 129, 254-56, 351, 529, 660, 685, 702) Porter, Andrew, ed. 1999. The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, vol. 3, 5 vols. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GTF9V4CG |
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No other country in the world has undertaken such an extensive program of construction of new canals and restoration of old ones, as has the Soviet Union. The Soviet waterways and the newly constructed and reconstructed canals, in particular, play both an economic and a strategic role. They not only provide additional navigable waterways and thus enlarge the transportation network, but they also now connect five seas—the Baltic, the White, the Black, the Sea of Azov, and the Caspian—on the European periphery of the Soviet Union. Thus, there exists an efficient inner waterway system, which permits the rapid transit of small naval vessels from one sea to another, since all the new and reconstructed navigable canals have a uniform depth of 3.65 meters (slightly over 12 feet). This allows 5,000-ton vessels to cruise freely and crisscross the entire European part of the country, and to sail at will to any of the five seas surrounding the area.
[1]
[1]: Victor P. Petrov, “Soviet Canals,” United States Naval Institute Proceedings (1967), https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1967/july/soviet-canals. Zotero link: RKX3AN4I |
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In the Russian Empire, significant canal construction occurred from the early 18th to the 19th century:
Vyshny Volodsky System (1757): Started at Tver on the Volga, it connected through Vyshny Volochok and followed the Volkhov River to the Neva, serving as the main link between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Marinskaya System (1731-1799): Linked the Volga tributary Sheksna with Lake Onega and the Neva, playing a key role in connecting Siberia with European Russia. Tikhvin System (1811): Connected the Volga tributary Mologa with Lake Ladoga, primarily used for timber transport. Oginski Canal (1804): Linked the Dnieper and Njemen, running from the Dnieper through the Pripet to Pinsk. Berezina Canal (1805): Connected the western Dvina and Dnieper, going through Lake Sepel into the Berezina. Württemberg Canal (1828): Joined the Marinskaya system with the Northern Dvina, modernized during the last war. These canals were part of a larger effort to improve transportation and trade, significantly enhancing Russia’s internal connectivity and economic development during this period. [1] [1]: Stefan T. Possony, “European Russia’s Inland Waterways - Past, Present, and Future,” U.S Naval Institute Proceedings Zotero link: VKJJBJ5B |
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[1]
c2000 BCE Bahr Yousuf canal dug to irrigate the Fayyum basin.
[2]
[1]: (http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/history12-17.htm#amenemheti) [2]: (Angelakis et al. 2012, 132) |
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They existed in previous period, but sources do not say whether they still did at this time. Frequent warfare likely caused major disruptions, so continuity with preceding periods is more difficult to infer.
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irrigation canals don’t count as transport infrastructure
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No information found in sources so far.
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Irrigation canals, but these are not transport infrastructure.
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Irrigation canals, but these are not transport infrastructure.
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maintenance of historic networks?
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Present in Mongolian Empire, unknown in this region
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No references so far, only to irrigation canals.
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The sources consulted thus far have only mentioned them in later periods.
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The following quotes suggest that there is not much evidence for the use and construction of canals in this polity at this time, with the partial exception of Charlemagne’s failed Fossa Carolina project. However, the fact that Charlemagne could conceive of such a project and attempt suggests that perhaps smaller canals existed.
“Even more grandiose—if failed—the Fossa Carolina project, a canal connecting the Danube and Rhine rivers, underscores Charles’ vision of the eastwar extension of his empire (Figures 13.1 and 13.2). […] With or without canals and major bridges, the rivers of northern Europe offered comfortable travel for people and cheaper transport for bulk goods. Charlemagne and his family sailed down the Rhine, Frisian merchants were towed up it, and countless lesser streams bore boats. Such traffic stmulated the growth of small riverbank settlements, the portus.” [1] “During the Early to High Medieval period (cf. Table S1) the entire region between Denmark and Italy was controlled by powerful elites which were extraordinarily mobile, building up itinerant kingships and huge economic networks controlled by religious institutions [5]–[8]. Freund [9] highlights the important role of Central European river valleys for the communication networks of these groups. The basic work of Eckholdt [10] features methodological problems. Here, the role of the small rivers seems to be underrepresented [11]. until now there is poor knowledge about the location of inland ports, the explicit medieval navigability of the rivers and the bridging of watersheds between these rivers and their catchment areas [12]. So far there is mainly evidence for small and simple constructed medieval inland ports and hythes [13], [14].” [2] “At the time when the Grand Canal of China was completed, water-transport in Europe was still in a primitive state. Few canals had been constructed, and rivers were chiefly used as a source of power for water-mills. On many rivers each mill had its weir, to provide an adequate head of water for the mill-wheel, and these weirs were a serious obstacle to navigation. In the later Middle Ages, however, important developments took place in the Netherlands, as we shall see, while throughout the more commercially active countries of Europe improvements were made in the rivers by building stanches in the weirs and also at intervals along the river, between the mills, to reduce the gradient and increase the depth of water in the shallow places [3]. […] The early history of stanches is obscure, but it is practically certain that they were in existence on a number of rivers in Flanders,1 Germany, England, France, and Italy before the end of the thirteenth century. A reference to the winch for a stanch on the Thames at Marlow occurs in 1306.” [3] [1]: (McCormick 2001: 399-400) McCormick, M. 2001. Origins of the European economy: communications and commerce, A.D. 300-900. Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/MCCORMICK/titleCreatorYear/items/NMB5X3WI/item-list [2]: (Zielhofer et al. 2014: 1) Zielhofer, C. et al. 2014. Charlemagne’s Summit Canal: An Early Medieval Hydro-Engineering Project for Passing the Central European Watershed. PLOS ONE 9(9): 1-20Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/W2ES4DCA/library [3]: (Skempton 2017, 4-5) Skempton, A.W. 2017. Canals and river navigations before 1750. In M. Chrimes (ed) Canals and river navigations before 1750 pp. 2-34. Routledge. Seshat URLhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/369SZUSX/library |
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The near-absence of archaeologically identified settlements makes it particularly challenging to infer most building types. "While the historical sources provide a vague picture of the events of the first 500 years of the Kanem-Borno empire, archaeologically almost nothing is known. [...] Summing up, very little is known about the capitals or towns of the early Kanem- Borno empire. The locations of the earliest sites have been obscured under the southwardly protruding sands of the Sahara, and none of the later locations can be identified with certainty."
[1]
[1]: (Gronenborn 2002: 104-110) |
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"Contexts that could shed light on the dynamics of social structure and hierarchies in the metropolis, such as the royal burial site of Oyo monarchs and the residences of the elite population, have not been investigated. The mapping of the palace structures has not been followed by systematic excavations (Soper, 1992); and questions of the economy, military system, and ideology of the empire have not been addressed archaeologically, although their general patterns are known from historical studies (e.g, Johnson, 1921; Law, 1977)."
[1]
Regarding this period, however, one of the historical studies mentioned in this quote also notes: "Of the earliestperiod of Oyo history, before the sixteenth century, very little is known."
[2]
Law does not then go on to provide specific information directly relevant to this variable.
[1]: (Ogundiran 2005: 151-152) [2]: (Law 1977: 33) |
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Certainly in neighbouring Mesopotamia c2000-1500 BCE: "It was an important task for the rulers of Mesopotamia to dig canals and to maintain them, because canals were not only necessary for irrigation but also useful for the transport of goods and armies. The rulers or high government officials must have ordered Babylonian mathematicians to calculate the number of workers and days necessary for the building of a canal, and to calculate the total expenses of wages of the workers."
[1]
[1]: Muroi in J J O’Connor, J J. Robertson, E F. December 2000. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html |
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The following quotes suggest that there is not much evidence for the use and construction of canals in this polity at this time, with the partial exception of Charlemagne’s failed Fossa Carolina project. However, the fact that Charlemagne could conceive of such a project and attempt suggests that perhaps smaller canals existed.
“Even more grandiose—if failed—the Fossa Carolina project, a canal connecting the Danube and Rhine rivers, underscores Charles’ vision of the eastwar extension of his empire (Figures 13.1 and 13.2). […] With or without canals and major bridges, the rivers of northern Europe offered comfortable travel for people and cheaper transport for bulk goods. Charlemagne and his family sailed down the Rhine, Frisian merchants were towed up it, and countless lesser streams bore boats. Such traffic stmulated the growth of small riverbank settlements, the portus.” [1] “During the Early to High Medieval period (cf. Table S1) the entire region between Denmark and Italy was controlled by powerful elites which were extraordinarily mobile, building up itinerant kingships and huge economic networks controlled by religious institutions [5]–[8]. Freund [9] highlights the important role of Central European river valleys for the communication networks of these groups. The basic work of Eckholdt [10] features methodological problems. Here, the role of the small rivers seems to be underrepresented [11]. until now there is poor knowledge about the location of inland ports, the explicit medieval navigability of the rivers and the bridging of watersheds between these rivers and their catchment areas [12]. So far there is mainly evidence for small and simple constructed medieval inland ports and hythes [13], [14].” [2] “At the time when the Grand Canal of China was completed, water-transport in Europe was still in a primitive state. Few canals had been constructed, and rivers were chiefly used as a source of power for water-mills. On many rivers each mill had its weir, to provide an adequate head of water for the mill-wheel, and these weirs were a serious obstacle to navigation. In the later Middle Ages, however, important developments took place in the Netherlands, as we shall see, while throughout the more commercially active countries of Europe improvements were made in the rivers by building stanches in the weirs and also at intervals along the river, between the mills, to reduce the gradient and increase the depth of water in the shallow places [3]. […] The early history of stanches is obscure, but it is practically certain that they were in existence on a number of rivers in Flanders,1 Germany, England, France, and Italy before the end of the thirteenth century. A reference to the winch for a stanch on the Thames at Marlow occurs in 1306.” [3] [1]: (McCormick 2001: 399-400) McCormick, M. 2001. Origins of the European economy: communications and commerce, A.D. 300-900. Cambridge University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/MCCORMICK/titleCreatorYear/items/NMB5X3WI/item-list [2]: (Zielhofer et al. 2014: 1) Zielhofer, C. et al. 2014. Charlemagne’s Summit Canal: An Early Medieval Hydro-Engineering Project for Passing the Central European Watershed. PLOS ONE 9(9): 1-20Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/W2ES4DCA/library [3]: (Skempton 2017, 4-5) Skempton, A.W. 2017. Canals and river navigations before 1750. In M. Chrimes (ed) Canals and river navigations before 1750 pp. 2-34. Routledge. Seshat URLhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/369SZUSX/library |
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Fossa Augusta. Inland to coast, Ferrara-Padua. Was it still maintained?
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