Water Harvesting and Water Management: A Discussion of the Implications of Scale in Artificial Irrigation: the Sri Lankan Example

Abstract

The pre-colonial, large-scale, irrigation systems of the dry zone of Sri Lanka have been used as examples of large-scale undertakings with given social consequences of centralisation and state control. A close reading of a given cultura! landscape and a focus on chronology give possibilities for an alternative approach, one in which artificial irrigation does not have an independent role. The starting point for the discussion is the archaeologically comparatively well-explored uplands of the capital city Sigiriya, which dates to the 5th century AD.