Ancient Knowledge Networks

Download Ancient Knowledge Networks full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Ancient Knowledge Networks ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Ancient Knowledge Networks

Author : Eleanor Robson
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1787355942
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (873 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Ancient Knowledge Networks by : Eleanor Robson

Download or read book Ancient Knowledge Networks written by Eleanor Robson and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Knowledge Networks is a book about how knowledge travels, in minds and bodies as well as in writings. It explores the forms knowledge takes and the meanings it accrues, and how these meanings are shaped by the peoples who use it.Addressing the relationships between political power, family ties, religious commitments and literate scholarship in the ancient Middle East of the first millennium BC, Eleanor Robson focuses on two regions where cuneiform script was the predominant writing medium: Assyria in the north of modern-day Syria and Iraq, and Babylonia to the south of modern-day Baghdad. She investigates how networks of knowledge enabled cuneiform intellectual culture to endure and adapt over the course of five world empires until its eventual demise in the mid-first century BC. In doing so, she also studies Assyriological and historical method, both now and over the past two centuries, asking how the field has shaped and been shaped by the academic concerns and fashions of the day. Above all, Ancient Knowledge Networks is an experiment in writing about ‘Mesopotamian science’, as it has often been known, using geographical and social approaches to bring new insights into the intellectual history of the world’s first empires.

Knowledge Networks and Craft Traditions in the Ancient World

Author : Katharina Rebay-Salisbury
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135014442
Total Pages : 239 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Knowledge Networks and Craft Traditions in the Ancient World by : Katharina Rebay-Salisbury

Download or read book Knowledge Networks and Craft Traditions in the Ancient World written by Katharina Rebay-Salisbury and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-08-07 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume investigates knowledge networks based on materials and associated technologies in Prehistoric Europe and the Classical Mediterranean. It emphasises the significance of material objects to the construction, maintenance, and collapse of networks of various forms – which are central to explanations of cultural contact and change. Focusing on the materiality of objects and on the way in which materials are used adds a multidimensional quality to networks. The properties, functions, and styles of different materials are intrinsically linked to the way in which knowledge flows and technologies are transmitted. Transmission of technologies from one craft to another is one of the main drivers of innovation, whilst sharing knowledge is enabled and limited by the extent of associated social networks in place. Archaeological research has often been limited to studying objects made of one particular material in depth, be it lithic materials, ceramics, textiles, glass, metal, wood or others. The knowledge flow and transfer between crafts that deal with different materials have often been overlooked. This book takes a fresh approach to the reconstruction of knowledge networks by integrating two or more craft traditions in each of its chapters. The authors, well-known experts and early career researchers, provide concise case studies that cover a wide range of materials. The scope of the book extends from networks of craft traditions to implications for society in a wider sense: materials, objects, and the technologies used to make and distribute them are interwoven with social meaning. People make objects, but objects make people – the materiality of objects shapes our understanding of the world and our place within it. In this book, objects are treated as clues to social networks of different sorts that can be contrasted and compared, both spatially and diachronically.

The Origins of Higher Learning

Author : Roy Lowe
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317543270
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Origins of Higher Learning by : Roy Lowe

Download or read book The Origins of Higher Learning written by Roy Lowe and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Higher education has become a worldwide phenomenon where students now travel internationally to pursue courses and careers, not simply as a global enterprise, but as a network of worldwide interconnections. The Origins of Higher Learning: Knowledge networks and the early development of universities is an account of the first globalisation that has led us to this point, telling of how humankind first developed centres of higher learning across the vast landmass from the Atlantic to the China Sea. This book opens a much-needed debate on the origins of higher learning, exploring how, why and where humankind first began to take a sustained interest in questions that went beyond daily survival. Showing how these concerns became institutionalised and how knowledge came to be transferred from place to place, this book explores important aspects of the forerunners of globalisation. It is a narrative which covers much of Asia, North Africa and Europe, many parts of which were little known beyond their own boundaries. Spanning from the earliest civilisations to the end of the European Middle Ages, around 700 years ago, here the authors set out crucial findings for future research and investigation. This book shows how interconnections across continents are nothing new and that in reality, humankind has been interdependent for a much longer period than is widely recognised. It is a book which challenges existing accounts of the origins of higher learning in Europe and will be of interest to all those who wish to know more about the world of academia.

Revolutionizing a World

Author : Mark Altaweel
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1911576658
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (115 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Revolutionizing a World by : Mark Altaweel

Download or read book Revolutionizing a World written by Mark Altaweel and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the long-term continuity of large-scale states and empires, and its effect on the Near East’s social fabric, including the fundamental changes that occurred to major social institutions. Its geographical coverage spans, from east to west, modern-day Libya and Egypt to Central Asia, and from north to south, Anatolia to southern Arabia, incorporating modern-day Oman and Yemen. Its temporal coverage spans from the late eighth century BCE to the seventh century CE during the rise of Islam and collapse of the Sasanian Empire. The authors argue that the persistence of large states and empires starting in the eighth/seventh centuries BCE, which continued for many centuries, led to new socio-political structures and institutions emerging in the Near East. The primary processes that enabled this emergence were large-scale and long-distance movements, or population migrations. These patterns of social developments are analysed under different aspects: settlement patterns, urban structure, material culture, trade, governance, language spread and religion, all pointing at movement as the main catalyst for social change. This book’s argument is framed within a larger theoretical framework termed as ‘universalism’, a theory that explains many of the social transformations that happened to societies in the Near East, starting from the Neo-Assyrian period and continuing for centuries. Among other influences, the effects of these transformations are today manifested in modern languages, concepts of government, universal religions and monetized and globalized economies.

Archaeologists in Print

Author : Amara Thornton
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1787352595
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (873 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Archaeologists in Print by : Amara Thornton

Download or read book Archaeologists in Print written by Amara Thornton and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2018-06-25 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeologists in Print is a history of popular publishing in archaeology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a pivotal period of expansion and development in both archaeology and publishing. It examines how British archaeologists produced books and popular periodical articles for a non-scholarly audience, and explores the rise in archaeologists’ public visibility. Notably, it analyses women’s experiences in archaeology alongside better known male contemporaries as shown in their books and archives. In the background of this narrative is the history of Britain’s imperial expansion and contraction, and the evolution of modern tourism in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. Archaeologists exploited these factors to gain public and financial support and interest, and build and maintain a reading public for their work, supported by the seasonal nature of excavation and tourism. Reinforcing these publishing activities through personal appearances in the lecture hall, exhibition space and site tour, and in new media – film, radio and television – archaeologists shaped public understanding of archaeology. It was spadework, scripted. The image of the archaeologist as adventurous explorer of foreign lands, part spy, part foreigner, eternally alluring, solidified during this period. That legacy continues, undimmed, today. Praise for Archaeologists in Print This beautifully written book will be valued by all kinds of readers: you don't need to be an archaeologist to enjoy the contents, which take you through different publishing histories of archaeological texts and the authors who wrote them. From the productive partnership of travel guide with archaeological interest, to the women who feature so often in the history of archaeological publishing, via closer analysis of the impact of John Murray, Macmillan and Co, and Penguin, this volume excavates layers of fascinating facts that reveal much of the wider culture of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The prose is clear and the stories compulsive: Thornton brings to life a cast of people whose passion for their profession lives again in these pages. Warning: the final chapter, on Archaeological Fictions, will fill your to-be-read list with stacks of new titles to investigate! This is a highly readable, accessible exploration into the dynamic relationships between academic authors, publishers, and readers. It is, in addition, an exemplar of how academic research can attract a wide general readership, as well as a more specialised one: a stellar combination of rigorous scholarship with lucid, pacy prose. Highly recommended!' Samantha Rayner, Director of UCL Centre for Publishing; Deputy Head of Department and Director of Studies, Department of Information Studies, UCL

Key Concepts in Public Archaeology

Author : Gabriel Moshenska
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1911576445
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (115 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Key Concepts in Public Archaeology by : Gabriel Moshenska

Download or read book Key Concepts in Public Archaeology written by Gabriel Moshenska and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2017-09-28 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a broad overview of the key concepts in public archaeology, a research field that examines the relationship between archaeology and the public, in both theoretical and practical terms. While based on the long-standing programme of undergraduate and graduate teaching in public archaeology at UCL’s renowned Institute of Archaeology, the book also takes into account the growth of scholarship from around the world and seeks to clarify what exactly ‘public archaeology’ is by promoting an inclusive, socially and politically engaged vision of the discipline. Written for students and practitioners, the individual chapters provide textbook-level introductions to the themes, theories and controversies that connect archaeology to wider society, from the trade in illicit antiquities to the use of digital media in public engagement, and point readers to the most relevant case studies and learning resources to aid their further study. This book was produced as part of JISC's Institution as e-Textbook Publisher project. Find out more at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/institution-as-e-textbook-publisher Praise for Key Concepts in Archaeology 'Littered throughout with concise and well-chosen case studies, Key Concepts in Public Archaeology could become essential reading for undergraduates and is a welcome reminder of where archaeology sits in UK society today.' British Archaeology

Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain

Author : Jon Agar
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1911576585
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (115 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain by : Jon Agar

Download or read book Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain written by Jon Agar and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2018-04-09 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain brings together historians with a wide range of interests to take a uniquely wide-lens view of how technology and the environment have been intimately and irreversibly entangled in Britain over the last 300 years. It combines, for the first time, two perspectives with much to say about Britain since the industrial revolution: the history of technology and environmental history. Technologies are modified environments, just as nature is to varying extents engineered. Furthermore, technologies and our living and non-living environment are both predominant material forms of organisation – and self-organisation – that surround and make us. Both have changed over time, in intersecting ways. Technologies discussed in the collection include bulldozers, submarine cables, automobiles, flood barriers, medical devices, museum displays and biotechnologies. Environments investigated include bogs, cities, farms, places of natural beauty and pollution, land and sea. The book explores this diversity but also offers an integrated framework for understanding these intersections.

Things that Travelled

Author : Daniela Rosenow
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1787351173
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (873 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Things that Travelled by : Daniela Rosenow

Download or read book Things that Travelled written by Daniela Rosenow and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2018-03-19 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent research has demonstrated that, in the Roman, Late Antique, Early Islamic and Medieval worlds, glass was traded over long distances, from the Eastern Mediterranean, mainly Egypt and Israel, to Northern Africa, the Western Mediterranean and Northern Europe. Things that Travelled, a collaboration between the UCL Early Glass Technology Research Network, the Association for the History of Glass and the British Museum, aims to build on this knowledge. Covering all aspects of glass production, technology, distribution and trade in Roman, Byzantine and Early Medieval/Early Islamic times, including studies from Britain, Egypt, Cyprus, Italy and many others, the volume combines the strengths of the sciences and cultural studies to offer a new approach to research on ancient glass. By bringing together such a varied mix of contributors, specialising in a range of geographical areas and chronological time frames, this volume also offers a valuable contribution to broader discussions on glass within political, economic, cultural and historical arenas.

Restaging the Past

Author : Angela Bartie
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1787354059
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (873 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Restaging the Past by : Angela Bartie

Download or read book Restaging the Past written by Angela Bartie and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2020-08-17 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Restaging the Past is the first edited collection devoted to the study of historical pageants in Britain, ranging from their Edwardian origins to the present day. Across Britain in the twentieth century, people succumbed to ‘pageant fever’. Thousands dressed up in historical costumes and performed scenes from the history of the places where they lived, and hundreds of thousands more watched them. These pageants were one of the most significant aspects of popular engagement with the past between the 1900s and the 1970s: they took place in large cities, small towns and tiny villages, and engaged a whole range of different organised groups, including Women’s Institutes, political parties, schools, churches and youth organisations. Pageants were community events, bringing large numbers of people together in a shared celebration and performance of the past; they also involved many prominent novelists, professional historians and other writers, as well as featuring repeatedly in popular and highbrow literature. Although the pageant tradition has largely died out, it deserves to be acknowledged as a key aspect of community history during a period of great social and political change. Indeed, as this book shows, some traces of ‘pageant fever’ remain in evidence today.

The Contemporary Medieval in Practice

Author : Clare A. Lees
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1787354660
Total Pages : 120 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (873 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Contemporary Medieval in Practice by : Clare A. Lees

Download or read book The Contemporary Medieval in Practice written by Clare A. Lees and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2019-10-07 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary arts, both practice and methods, offer medieval scholars innovative ways to examine, explore, and reframe the past. Medievalists offer contemporary studies insights into cultural works of the past that have been made or reworked in the present. Creative-critical writing invites the adaptation of scholarly style using forms such as the dialogue, short essay, and the poem; these are, the authors argue, appropriate ways to explore innovative pathways from the contemporary to the medieval, and vice versa. Speculative and non-traditional, The Contemporary Medieval in Practice adapts the conventional scholarly essay to reflect its cross-disciplinary, creative subject. This book ‘does’ Medieval Studies differently by bringing it into relation with the field of contemporary arts and by making ‘practice’, in the sense used by contemporary arts and by creative-critical writing, central to it. Intersecting with a number of urgent critical discourses and cultural practices, such as the study of the environment and the ethics of understanding bodies, identities, and histories, this short, accessible book offers medievalists a distinctive voice in multi-disciplinary, trans-chronological, collaborative conversations about the Humanities. Its subject is early medieval British culture, often termed Anglo-Saxon Studies (c. 500–1100), and its relation with, use of, and re-working in contemporary visual, poetic, and material culture (after 1950). ‘The Contemporary Medieval in Practice is both wise and unafraid to take risks. Fully embedded in scholarship yet reaching into unmapped territory, the authors move across disciplines and forge surprising links. Thought-provoking and evocative, this is a book that will have an impact that far belies its modest length.’ – Linda Anderson, Newcastle University

Ancient Knowledge Networks

Author : Eleanor Robson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781787355972
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (559 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Ancient Knowledge Networks by : Eleanor Robson

Download or read book Ancient Knowledge Networks written by Eleanor Robson and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Knowledge Networks is a book about how knowledge travels, in minds and bodies as well as in writings. It explores the forms knowledge takes and the meanings it accrues, and how these meanings are shaped by the peoples who use it.

Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History

Author : Zoltán Biedermann
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1911307843
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (113 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History by : Zoltán Biedermann

Download or read book Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History written by Zoltán Biedermann and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2017-06-07 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The peoples of Sri Lanka have participated in far-flung trading networks, religious formations, and Asian and European empires for millennia. This interdisciplinary volume sets out to draw Sri Lanka into the field of Asian and Global History by showing how the latest wave of scholarship has explored the island as a ‘crossroads’, a place defined by its openness to movement across the Indian Ocean.Experts in the history, archaeology, literature and art of the island from c.500 BCE to c.1850 CE use Lankan material to explore a number of pressing scholarly debates. They address these matters from their varied disciplinary perspectives and diverse array of sources, critically assessing concepts such as ethnicity, cosmopolitanism and localisation, and elucidating the subtle ways in which the foreign may be resisted and embraced at the same time. The individual chapters, and the volume as a whole, are a welcome addition to the history and historiography of Sri Lanka, as well as studies of the Indian Ocean region, kingship, colonialism, imperialism, and early modernity.

Olga Tufnell’s 'Perfect Journey'

Author : John D.M. Green
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1787359069
Total Pages : 454 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (873 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Olga Tufnell’s 'Perfect Journey' by : John D.M. Green

Download or read book Olga Tufnell’s 'Perfect Journey' written by John D.M. Green and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2021-04-26 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Olga Tufnell (1905–85) was a British archaeologist working in Egypt, Cyprus and Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, a period often described as a golden age of archaeological discovery. For the first time, this book presents Olga’s account of her experiences in her own words. Based largely on letters home, the text is accompanied by dozens of photographs that shed light on personal experiences of travel and dig life at this extraordinary time. Introductory material by John D.M. Green and Ros Henry provides the social, historical, biographical and archaeological context for the overall narrative. The letters offer new insights into the social and professional networks and history of archaeological research, particularly for Palestine under the British Mandate. They provide insights into the role of foreign archaeologists, relationships with local workers and inhabitants, and the colonial framework within which they operated during turbulent times. This book will be an important resource for those studying the history of archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly for the sites of Qau el-Kebir, Tell Fara, Tell el-‘Ajjul and Tell ed-Duweir (ancient Lachish). Moreover, Olga’s lively style makes this a fascinating personal account of archaeology and travel in the interwar era.

Memorandoms by James Martin

Author : Tim Causer
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1911576828
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (115 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Memorandoms by James Martin by : Tim Causer

Download or read book Memorandoms by James Martin written by Tim Causer and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2017-06-07 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the vast body of manuscripts composed and collected by the philosopher and reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), held by UCL Library’s Special Collections, is the earliest Australian convict narrative, Memorandoms by James Martin. This document also happens to be the only extant first-hand account of the most well-known, and most mythologized, escape from Australia by transported convicts. On the night of 28 March 1791, James Martin, William and Mary Bryant and their two infant children, and six other male convicts, stole the colony’s fishing boat and sailed out of Sydney Harbour. Within ten weeks they had reached Kupang in West Timor, having, in an amazing feat of endurance, travelled over 3,000 miles (c. 5,000) kilometres) in an open boat. There they passed themselves off as the survivors of a shipwreck, a ruse which—initially, at least—fooled their Dutch hosts. This new edition of the Memorandoms includes full colour reproductions of the original manuscripts, making available for the first time this hugely important document, alongside a transcript with commentary describing the events and key characters. The book also features a scholarly introduction which examines their escape and early convict absconding in New South Wales more generally, and, drawing on primary records, presents new research which sheds light on the fate of the escapees after they reached Kupang. The introduction also assesses the voluminous literature on this most famous escape, and critically examines the myths and fictions created around it and the escapees, myths which have gone unchallenged for far too long. Finally, the introduction briefly discusses Jeremy Bentham’s views on convict transportation and their enduring impact.

The Wealth of Networks

Author : Yochai Benkler
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300125771
Total Pages : 532 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (257 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Wealth of Networks by : Yochai Benkler

Download or read book The Wealth of Networks written by Yochai Benkler and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing. The author shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront.

Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty

Author : John A. Burke
Publisher : Council Oak Books
ISBN 13 : 9781571781840
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (818 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty by : John A. Burke

Download or read book Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty written by John A. Burke and published by Council Oak Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Burke and Halbert present the scientific evidence behind their startling, original theory: ancient peoples constructed temples, mounds, and megaliths to increase the fertility of crops. These peoples used an ancient technology, only now rediscovered.

Water Societies and Technologies from the Past and Present

Author : Mark Altaweel
Publisher : UCL Press
ISBN 13 : 1911576704
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (115 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Water Societies and Technologies from the Past and Present by : Mark Altaweel

Download or read book Water Societies and Technologies from the Past and Present written by Mark Altaweel and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2018-11-26 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today our societies face great challenges with water, in terms of both quantity and quality, but many of these challenges have already existed in the past. Focusing on Asia, Water Societies and Technologies from the Past and Present seeks to highlight the issues that emerge or re-emerge across different societies and periods, and asks what they can tell us about water sustainability. Incorporating cutting-edge research and pioneering field surveys on past and present water management practices, the interdisciplinary contributors together identify how societies managed water resource challenges and utilised water in ways that allowed them to evolve, persist, or drastically alter their environment. The case studies, from different periods, ancient and modern, and from different regions, including Egypt, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Southwest United States, the Indus Basin, the Yangtze River, the Mesopotamian floodplain, the early Islamic city of Sultan Kala in Turkmenistan, and ancient Korea, offer crucial empirical data to readers interested in comparing the dynamics of water management practices across time and space, and to those who wish to understand water-related issues through conceptual and quantitative models of water use. The case studies also challenge classical theories on water management and social evolution, examine and establish the deep historical roots and ecological foundations of water sustainability issues, and contribute new grounds for innovations in sustainable urban planning and ecological resilience.