Irrigation
Controlled water management through canals and channels to support large-scale agriculture in arid regions.
Core metadata
- ID: irrigation
- Era: Ancient
- First known date: -6000 (millennium)
- Region: Mesopotamia, especially the Tigris-Euphrates alluvial plain
- Review status: source_checked
- Maturity: established
Prerequisites
- Agriculture (agriculture)
- Labor Specialization (labor_specialization)
- Social Stratification (social_stratification)
Dependents
- Basic Geometry and Surveying (basic_geometry_and_surveying)
- Canal Networks (canal_networks)
- Dams and Reservoirs (dams_and_reservoirs)
- Drip Irrigation (drip_irrigation)
- Early Field Terracing (field_terracing)
- Green Revolution (green_revolution_agriculture)
- Hydraulics (hydraulics)
- Local Irrigation Canals (irrigation_canals_local)
- Urbanization (urbanization)
Fields
Field lanes
- Agriculture & Food Systems: Irrigation
- Water & Sanitation Systems: Conveyance & Distribution
Node sources
- Mesopotamia (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2026, textbook) • Supports: node, maturity
Prerequisite edge evidence
Edge/source evidence summary:
- Prerequisite edges: 3
- Average edge confidence: 62%
- Prerequisite sources: 3
- expert_inference: 1
- textbook: 1
- weak_inference: 1
| Prerequisite | Type | Confidence | Evidence level | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture (agriculture) | enabling | 74% | textbook | Artificial irrigation is modeled as water control for agriculture in dry alluvial landscapes; farming is the direct use case. |
|
| Labor Specialization (labor_specialization) | commercial_or_scaling_dependency | 62% | expert_inference | Canal construction and maintenance scale better with organized labor, but small irrigation works can exist without formal specialization. |
|
| Social Stratification (social_stratification) | common_dependency | 50% | weak_inference | Complex social organization often accompanies large canal systems; it is contextual, not a strict prerequisite for irrigation itself. |
|
This page is generated from canonical era JSON and is indexable by URL.