Climate-smart harvesting and storing of water: The legacy of dhaka pits at Great Zimbabwe

IF 3.3 2区地球科学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Anthropocene Pub Date : 2022-12-01 DOI:10.1016/j.ancene.2022.100357

Innocent Pikirayi , Federica Sulas , Bongumenzi Nxumalo , Munyaradzi Elton Sagiya , David Stott , Søren M. Kristiansen , Shadreck Chirikure , Tendai Musindo

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引用次数: 3

Abstract

Understanding past water management is crucial to address contemporary human-environmental challenges in sub-Saharan Africa, where urban growth is impacting upon water availability and supply. This study integrates soil profiles, high-resolution topographic data, historical sources, and socioecological memory to reconstruct how the ancient urban society at Great Zimbabwe negotiated water security. New evidence shows for the first time that closed depressions known as dhaka pits were used by the inhabitants of Great Zimbabwe for water storage and harvesting for a long time, possibly since the emergence of settlement in the mid-second millennium CE. These pits were part of a landscape-scale water management system that exploited catchment hydrology and groundwater by means of artificial dhaka reservoirs, wells, and springs to secure water for subsistence, farming, ritual and ceremony services. This study highlights the need for precise dating of the construction and functioning period of this water management system at Great Zimbabwe. Understanding past water management in such a water-scarce region is important for reconstructing how the ancient Great Zimbabwe urban society negotiated water security, but also for understanding contemporary human-environmental challenges.

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气候智能型水收集和储存:大津巴布韦达卡坑的遗产

了解过去的水管理对于解决撒哈拉以南非洲当前的人类环境挑战至关重要，在撒哈拉以南非洲，城市增长正在影响水的可用性和供应。本研究整合土壤剖面、高分辨率地形数据、历史资料和社会生态记忆，重建大津巴布韦古代城市社会如何协商水安全。新的证据首次表明，大津巴布韦的居民长期以来一直使用被称为达卡坑的封闭洼地来蓄水和收割，可能是在公元第二个千年中期出现定居点以来。这些坑是景观尺度水管理系统的一部分，该系统通过人工达卡水库、水井和泉水来利用集水区水文和地下水，以确保生存、农业、仪式和仪式服务所需的水。这项研究强调需要对大津巴布韦这个水管理系统的建设和运作时期进行精确的年代测定。了解这样一个缺水地区过去的水管理对于重建古代大津巴布韦城市社会如何协商水安全非常重要，而且对于理解当代人类与环境的挑战也很重要。

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来源期刊

Anthropocene Earth and Planetary Sciences-Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)

CiteScore

6.30

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

102 days

期刊介绍： Anthropocene is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes peer-reviewed works addressing the nature, scale, and extent of interactions that people have with Earth processes and systems. The scope of the journal includes the significance of human activities in altering Earth’s landscapes, oceans, the atmosphere, cryosphere, and ecosystems over a range of time and space scales - from global phenomena over geologic eras to single isolated events - including the linkages, couplings, and feedbacks among physical, chemical, and biological components of Earth systems. The journal also addresses how such alterations can have profound effects on, and implications for, human society. As the scale and pace of human interactions with Earth systems have intensified in recent decades, understanding human-induced alterations in the past and present is critical to our ability to anticipate, mitigate, and adapt to changes in the future. The journal aims to provide a venue to focus research findings, discussions, and debates toward advancing predictive understanding of human interactions with Earth systems - one of the grand challenges of our time.