Systemy irygacyjne w królestwie Urartu : uwarunkowania społeczno-polityczne powstania i rozwoju sieci irygacyjnej

Abstrakt

. Królestwo Urartu było jednym z wielu państw bliskowschodnich, w którym uprawa roli wymagała sztucznego nawadniania. Niewątpliwie najczęściej stosowanym sposobem nawadniania pól był system oparty na tradycyjnych, naziemnych kanałach nawadniających czepiących wodę nie tylko z rzek często przegradzanych tama-mi, ale również sztucznych jezior.<br>URARTIAN IRRIGATION SYSTEMS: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL GROUNDS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF IRRIGATION. The highly developed irrigation systems of Urartu included canals, dams and artificial lakes. The use of quanats, however, remains the subject of scholarly debate. It was proposed mainly on the basis of the similarity of the expressions meaning "water outlet" used to describe Urartian irrigation channels in the Neo- Assyrian letter to the god Assur and drainage systems of Neo-Assyrian ziggurats. Scepticism about qanats is perheps justified, particulary on account of the difficulty of establishing whether the key expression refers to field irrigation or to any water system within the Urartian citadel. The latter is quite probable since same citadels featured an underground chamber to which water was supplied through a channel hewn though bedrock and a separate drainage system. Questions surround numerous other aspects of Urartian irrigation systems. The most plausible reason for their construction was the population increase caused by forced migration from conquered regions, first recorded during the reign of Menua which brought the centralization of state administration. It may be further assumed that the primary factor in the location ofsettlements was strategic and did not show regard for natural water supplies. Moreover, from the king's treatises on irrigation, it transpires that it is he that should be regarded as the initiator of works and provider of necessary funds and tools. The content of such treatises and the fact that they were written at all indicate the considerable role that civic projects played in social and economic life of Urartu. This is also confirmed by the three-part structure of the inscriptions and the fact that the names given to irrigation units were a compound of the king's name as in the case of other important state investments. It is by no means easy to establish how the necessary labour was organized to construct the irrigation system, but it may be assumed that construction was carried out at the same time as the erection of adjacent citadels, which allowed the employment of the same groups of workers. Little is known about the maintenance of irrigation systems or the laws regulating the use of water, although an expression "let this water irrigate these towns" which features in same inscriptions may be interpreted as a low establishing the universal right to water. Special watchtowers and commonly called "houses of giants" built in the vicinity of the canals and dams were usrd to protect water resources, as were the religious rites performed during the opening of the irrigation system.