| Variable | Definition |
|---|---|
| Polity | The Seshat Polity ID |
| Year(s) | The years for which we have the data. [negative = BCE] |
| Tag | [Evidenced, Disputed, Suspected, Inferred, Unknown] |
| Verified | A Seshat Expert has approved this piece of data. |
| Variable | Definition |
|---|---|
| irrigation_system | The absence or presence of irrigation system for a polity. |
| # | Polity | Year(s) | Irrigation System | Description | Edit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 |
(Portuguese Empire - Early Modern) |
Full Year Range of Portuguese Empire - Early Modern is assumed. [1640, 1806] |
present |
"Throughout this era Portugal was an overwhelmingly agricultural country, the vast majority of its people being peasants subsisting on smallholdings. They grew basic cereals – usually wheat, maize or rye – and tended vegetable patches, fruit trees, vines and increasingly olive groves. The traditional livestock, particularly sheep, goats, pigs and chickens, were reared almost everywhere. Crops and cultivation patterns varied from region to region: wheat predominated in the centre and south, but maize was now the staple in the northwest, where it was often grown under irrigation." [Disney 2009] | |
| 8 |
(Eastern Zhou) |
Full Year Range of Eastern Zhou is assumed. [-475, -256] |
present |
Irrigation known in this period: "The oldest known hydraulic engineers of China were Sunshu Ao (6th century BCE) of the Spring and Autumn Period and Ximen Bao (5th century BCE) of the Warring States period, both of whom worked on large irrigation projects." [Henkel 2015, p. 87] "Around 430 B.C., the first known large-scale irrigation project was built on the North China Plain (near present-day Hebei Province) to channel water from the Yellow River to nearby fields." [Karplus_Deng 2008, p. 10] | |
| 9 |
(Gauda Kingdom) |
Full Year Range of Gauda Kingdom is assumed. [600, 625] |
present |
“In the delta, embanked fields irrigated by monsoon rainwater and worked by ploughs appeared at least 2,500 years ago.Since then this form of crop production has been expanding gradually across the lowlands at the expense of an older system of hoe cultivation on temporary plots.” [van_Schendel 2009] | |
| 10 |
(Sena Dynasty) |
Full Year Range of Sena Dynasty is assumed. [1095, 1245] |
present |
“In the delta, embanked fields irrigated by monsoon rainwater and worked by ploughs appeared at least 2,500 years ago.Since then this form of crop production has been expanding gradually across the lowlands at the expense of an older system of hoe cultivation on temporary plots.” [van_Schendel 2009] |