ACT Monaro Riverina Branch: Talk – The archaeology of water

The annual joint AGHS/Friends of the National Library

Archaeologist and well-known tour leader Dr Chris Carter will speak on The Archaeology of Water.

Water is an element that is essential for human survival – without it, economies fail and people die, and when there’s too much, the same can occur.

In his talk Chris will discuss the significance of water in relation to human development – its access, control, and delivery for power and for pleasure. We will travel from the driest deserts in the world – the Atacama Desert of Chile and the Arabian Peninsula – to the lush, terraced hillsides that produce prodigious quantities of grain in the Philippines, from the slopes of Andean Peru to Australia with its own surprisingly long history of water management. We will look briefly at how humans have gained access and control of water and how that has impacted on lifeways with both positive and negative results.

Bookings will open in August but in the meantime, save the date for this exciting talk.