3D Hydraulic Modeling of the Ancient Irrigation System at the MGK site in Xinjiang, China

Summary

Most archaeologists would agree that ancient irrigation systems preserve important information about the technology, economy, and social organization of past societies. However, considering that archaeologists generally lack training in hydraulics, it is often difficult for us to extract much information from an ancient irrigation system beyond basic description and chronology. Thanks to the recent development in drone technology and flow modeling techniques we now have the option of generating 3D models of ancient irrigation systems and evaluate their hydraulic performance on desktops. In this case study, we demonstrate how these new methods have helped us achieve a deeper understanding of a complicated irrigation system in Xinjiang, China. We further suggest that the application of these methods can be expanded to other areas of archaeology, such as surface surveys.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22388