ABSTRACT
This chapter examines and briefly recounts water histories of southwest Arabia and southeast Arabia, paying specific attention to creativity and resilience in water-use strategies that have persisted in different social and environmental contexts since antiquity. While these two regions seem geographically contiguous from the vantage point of a foreign audience, they are in fact very different in terms of terrain, environments, cultures and histories. The chapter uses a pairwise approach of contrastive juxtaposition that examines not only the similarities but, just as importantly, the differences that characterise water-use strategies in Yemen and Oman. Ethnoarchaeology is used to help identify and understand ancient water-use systems and facilitate the comparison of the social contexts and task logistics involved in particular technologies and practices. Traditional water-use practices in Oman hold innumerable insights about the ancient past and the longevity, resilience and sustainability of water management in arid regions.
