Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (1.1968/1971)

262

REVIEWS

Majpamtobe. Irrigation of the lowlands of Syr-Darja
also differed from the systems on Amu-Darja, as well
as from the systems used on the middle stream of
Syr-Darja. This was due not only ro natural conditions,
but also to the fact that amongst a population
concerned mainly with cattle rearing and only partly
with primitive agriculture, the conditions essential for
the rise of a highly developed irrigation agriculture
were not created. An important role was played here
by the historical and political conditions characteristic
of the lowlands and deltas of Syr-Darja, a border
steppe territory frequently subject to the raids of
nomads (e.g. Turks and Huns). The historical and
political conditions - specialization in cattle rearing
and the semi-nomadic way of life were also substantial
factors.
This picture of early irrigation in the lowlands of
Syr-Darja, utilizing local water basins and floods
where no great effort was needed for the rather small-

scale irrigation systems also partly explains the
character of the general historical development of the
population of this area - semi-nomadic cattle rearing
farmers.
The book is based on rich archaeological and eth-
nographic material accumulated by the author in
research expeditions since the year 1952.
In Antiquity the acreage of irrigated territory in the
environs of the Aral Lake covered about 5 mill, ha,
more than three times the present irrigated acreage.
Information on the old irrigation plants can, to a
considerable degree, act as a guide in planning present
irrigation, and well-arranged archaeological maps can
help in making up prognoses of the secondary saliniza-
tion of soil and the dynamics of the water regime. The
book is a valuable contribution to the existing in-
formation on the development of old irrigation
systems and is sure to become a reference hand-book
not only for historians but also for planners.
Antonin Hdjek

Notes and Comments

Anmerkungen

Bulgaria. The three editors of Tools and Tillage
wish to record their grateful thanks to the Committee
for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign
Countries for making possible a joint working tour
in Bulgaria. A fortnight was spent, under the guidance
of distinguished Bulgarian scholars, visiting museums,
villages, farms and craft-work shops. Techniques of
cultivating with the ox-drawn ard (ralo) were recorded
on still and cine film, and several shares and coulters
were noted and drawn in the museums.

Bulgarien. Die drei Redakteure von Tools and Til-
lage mbchten dem Committee for Friendship and
Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries ihren tief-
gefiihlten Dank fur die Ermoglichung einer Studien-
reise nach Bulgarien aussprechen. Zwei Wochen war-
den unter der Leitung hervorragender bulgarischer
Wissenschaftler fiir den Besuch von Museen, Dbrfern,
Bauernhbfen und gewerblichen Werkstatten aufge-
wendet. Methoden des Bodenbaus mit Hakenpflug
mit Ochsengespann (Ralo) wurden auf Photographien
und Schmalfilme festgehalten, eine Reihe von Pflug-
scharen und Sechen in den Museen wurden vermerkt
und gezeichnet.

(Fortzetzung aus Seite 204)
dass das Internationale Sekretariat fiir die Erfor-
schung der Geschichte der Bodenbaugerate von
Zeit zu Zeit Nachrichtenblatter herausgibt, die auf
Verlangen unentgeltlich zugesandt werden. Wenn
ein Thema zu weitlaufiger Diskussion herausfor-

dert oder sofortige Behandlung erheischt, konncn
die Nachrichtenblatter zu diesemZweckverwendet
werden. Dadurch wird die Rubrik Anmerkungen«
von Tools and Tillage von der Verdffentlichung
von Mitteilungen fiber das Rohmaterial der wis-
senschaftlichen Forschung entlastet.