ABSTRACT
From prehistory, humanity has elaborated on methods and techniques to provide drinkable water. e Paleolithic nomadic hunter-gatherers could move from place to place thanks to knowledge of the territory, particularly of the methods of water nding and supplies. e Paleolithic population used to harvest drinkable water in caves thanks to water dripping and percolation; moreover, they realized stone paving to harvest rainfalls and divert them to pits. ey used dams, ditches, and stone arrangements to facilitate plant growing and shing [11]. In steppes, in savannahs, and in deserts along the Karst Plateau or along interuvial plains, human groups exploited favorable areas subject to becoming swampy and prone to drought, thanks to ow adjustment techniques. ese techniques became imposing trapping systems for shing as those found in Mount William in Australia [21] and in New Guinea where a complex system of draining canals developed from 9000 to 6000 years ago [9]. Such knowledge, which results from experiences gained in the end, is consolidated through the success of holders; it is recorded through the symbolic thought and art and is handed over to generations through oral tradition. Starting from the most archaic African sites, the knowledge is spread worldwide at the same time as the development of human groups. Labyrinthine spirals are reproduced in symbolic rock grati and we found the same shapes in the structures of the traps and the fences used for the rst experiences of domestication. Water harvesting is associated with the origin of spirituality and art as is testied by drawings in caves. An articial stone tumulus dating back 150,000 years ago in El Guettar in Tunisia, holding ints and Paleolithic handmaids, clearly shows functions linked to hydraulic practices [15]. Sedentariness in places without agricultural practices is a phenomenon that has existed from the late Paleolithic period. Imposing cult structures built up by nonagricultural groups 12,000 years ago have been recovered in the recent diggings of Göbekli Tepe (Anatolia) [24]. e quantity of people required to build the structures necessitates great availability of drinking water. Meaningfully, here we are in the same area where the rst domestication and production of wheat started from the spontaneous mutation of a local wild species. In Jericho (Palestine) from 12,000-10,000 years ago, structures for support of the soil and water catchment were realized by building holding walls and clay platforms with coated surfaces to hold drinkable water
[5]. e recent anthropological acquisitions no longer view the Paleolithic as a less-developed stage of knowledge surpassed by evolution; instead, it is seen as an advanced and rened-level precursor of important acquisitions in the following areas: arts, sedentary lifestyles, environmental knowledge, symbolism, community organization, and the management of ora and fauna. e ancient hunter-gatherers’ knowledge is a way of thinking troglodytic, with a lower waste of resources, labyrinthine, nomadic, passive, and slow, which can still provide indications for the careful and sustainable management of the environment. It persists as a sublayer shared by all populations that change, developed, or lost its importance according to socio-environment conditions. It reemerged in the shared similarities found in techniques, in architectural forms, and in myths among peoples in far-reaching places around the world.
