ABSTRACT
This chapter describes such a trajectory in Mid-Holocene human history, establishes the sustainable sedentary oases lifeways in the Arabian lands: Resulting in wide-spread degradation and vulnerability of human, animal and plant systems, the major climatic shift towards drier conditions from 4200 BCE caused human adaptation into oasis life and related hydraulic engineering. Contrary to the stratified hydraulic cultures in historic Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Mid-Holocene development of human occupations, water use and interaction with nature in Arabia’s arid water-deficit regions followed other conditions and frameworks. Little hydraulic innovation investment has to be expected for the adaptation into oasis hydraulics when shifting from pastoral well and trough building to well and canal building. Concerning hydraulic engineering, many technical features related to the aforementioned strategies have been applied. Hydraulic structures are key features in Arabia’s archaeology; water availability and management strategies ruled all cultural development as well as the ethos of humans in Arabia’s past.
