Project under the direction of : Dominique Charpin, Chair of Mesopotamian Civilization and Henry Laurens, Chair of Contemporary History of the Arab World.
In the Near East, water is and always has been a fundamental element in the development of human societies. Studies of past civilizations and those of the present can complement and feed off each other, and provide a clearer picture of future scenarios and related issues.
Environmental studies that take into account both interdisciplinarity and diachrony are rare in general, and particularly so in the Near East. The project entitled Les politiques de l'eau au Proche-Orient, de Sumer à nos jours, which began in autumn 2023, is based on multidisciplinary approaches, combining history, archaeology, epigraphy, iconography, geography, climatology and sedimentology. It aims to cover a vast geographical area, from the eastern Mediterranean coast to lower Mesopotamia, and to open up to a deliberately broad chronological sequence, from the first sedentary settlements to the present day.