New Kingdom Egyptian Agriculture
- Resource System
- Terrestrial land and associated watershed
- Resource Units
- Floodplain Basin Agriculture in the Egyptian Nile Valley and Delta
- Location
- Nile Valley and Delta, Egypt (Egypt)
Situated in the Nile Valley from Aswan to the Mediterranean, New Kingdom Egypt (c.1550-1050 B.C.) had an agrarian economy - almost entirely dependent on agriculture for subsistence. Because the climate was too dry for rain-fed farming, all agriculture was restricted to the narrow Nile Valley floodplain. However, due to spatio-temporal fluctuations in Nile flood levels, the amount of water (and thus arable land) in New Kingdom Egypt could also fluctuate greatly. In order to mitigate the risks involved with too-high or too low Nile floods, a system of floodplain basin irrigation had to be managed and maintained by local people. This was primarily undertaken through the coercive power of local political-economic elite hierarchies that owned most of the land. In particular, teh system of collective basin irrigation maintenance and management was incentivized by (A) profit incentives, (B) subsistence dependence on landowners, and (C) coercion/slavery.
No institutional analysis document available.
No coded case data available.
Resource System
-seasonal Nile floodwater
-floodplain land inundate by the Nile floods
Resource Users
-plantations/estates
-smallholders, tenants, dependent laborers, slaves
-landowners
Public Infrastructure
Irrigation works:
-canals
-dykes
-levees
-berms
-river channel (often artificially deepened)
Public Infrastructure Providers
-wealthy local landowners holding public office, with private dominion over their dependents and property
Relationship 1
-the ratio between water availability and irrigable farmland during low flood years
-the high velocity and volume of floodwaters during high flood years
Relationship 2
-labor and agricultural produce extraction from farmers by landowners
-dependence of peasants on landed patrons for livelihood
-dependence of landed patrons on local peasants for labor
-landed elite patron officeholders provide juridical oversight, law enforcement, courts
-peasants susceptible to labor tax levy (corvee)
Relationship 3
-officeholders responsible for maintaining irrigation infrastructure through labor tax (corvee)
-all landowners responsible for maintaining their private irrigation infrastructure through dependent labor
-landowners responsible for coordination of floodwater irrigation management during seasonal inundation, with infringements on rules subject to law enforcement
Relationship 4
-irrigation infrastructure controls, guides, and holds water with respect to agricultural land to facilitate cultivation
Relationship 5
-irrigation infrastructure maximizes the arable land coverage of low floods by guiding water to basins and regulating flow velocity/volume
-irrigation infrastructure minimizes damage that high/violent floods can do to irrigation infrastructure, soils, and settlements
Relationship 6
-landowners and (both dependent and independent) farmers must cooperate to maintain irrigation infrastructure
-workers on irrigation infrastructure must comply with task mandates of ruling hierarchy or else face harsh penalties
Exogenous Drivers (7) - Resource
(none specified)Exogenous Drivers (7) - Infrastructure
(none specified)Exogenous Drivers (8) - Users
(none specified)Exogenous Drivers (8) - Providers
(none specified)Human Infrastructure (Users)
(none specified)Human Infrastructure (Providers)
(none specified)- Ute Brady, Arizona State University
- Rudolf Cesaretti, Arizona State University
No bibliography entries.