Ancient Egypt(P2): Irrigation and the First Villages

         Hey there! Welcome back to The Historical Musings. Today we will be moving into part two of ancient Egypt. Ancient Egypt part one was about how nomads turned into farmers and the Fertile Crescent(to learn more click here). Now, we will talk about a brand new invention that the ancient Egyptians made and the very first towns.


The Irrigation System

        First, we must talk about what irrigation even means. Irrigation means a supply of water that goes into land or crops to help grow. The early farmers had started to make fields of grain for them to harvest. The problem was that the fields needed a lot of water for them to flourish. The land near the rivers was damp enough to do the job but farther away the land was dry for most of the year. So what the farmers did was they learned how to dig canals from the rivers and out into their crops. These canals could reach land however far and dry they were. This irrigation system is still used today! Although, now there are huge metal sprinklers that pump water from lakes and then sprayed over fields. 

Irrigation Machines

        As I said before, the irrigation machines used today are massive sprinklers. However, in ancient times farmers had a much more simple tool for irrigation. This tool was called a shaduf. How would it work? A farmer would balance a pole on two pillars then attach a weight on one side of the pole and a bucket on the other side. Then he would lower the bucket into a canal and pick up the water. The weight would raise the bucket out and swing the bucket over the crops and pouring down the water. Here is an example:



Image from "Evolution of Water Lifting Devices Over Centuries Worldwide"




The First Villages

          Since the farmers had to tend to their crops every day for months, they began to build houses that would stay in the same place rather than using moveable tents. They usually built these houses out of any material that was in their area. For example, farmers who lived near rivers used reeds and dried mud bricks to build their houses. The early farmers soon realized that building houses near each other would work better for watering and tending to the fields. These small communities were the very first villages! 



That ends our segment of the day. I hope you found this topic interesting and if you have any questions about the first irrigation system or the first villages please comment and I'll make sure to answer. Also, if you did like this segment and want to learn more please follow to get notified when the next post comes out. With that being said, I hope you have an amazing and safe day and I'll see you on the next post!

-The History Buff











Comments

  1. Budgeting hacksDecember 30, 2020 at 7:24 AM

    I would like to know more about how they found out about dried bricks and what early crops were they growing

    ReplyDelete

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