Changes

The earliest water technologies are likely to have been simple ditches or cuts made to irrigate fields. In the Near East, irrigation likely began soon after agriculture began to be developed. <ref> For examples and discussions of early irrigation systems, see: Mashkour, Marjan, Andrew M. Bauer, Tony J. Wilkinson, Nicholas Kouchoukos, and Abbas Alizadeh. 2004. “Human-Environment Interactions on the Upper Khuzestan Plains, Southwest Iran. Recent Investigations.” Paléorient 30 (1): 69–88. doi:10.3406/paleo.2004.4773.</ref> Most likely these types of irrigation canals would be too small or small in scale to leave any major archaeological remains. Evidence of terrace agriculture from the Neolithic, however, suggests that water captured from higher ground was beginning to be transferred to lower areas, including possibly using canals to move water (Figure 1). In China, similar Neolithic evidence has been found, showing that early villages had sometimes a relatively complex network of canals near village fields, where even field systems have been partially preserved.