For example: Iran falls within the Middle East arid zone, with some 13% of the country receiving less than 100 mm mean annual rainfall, an additional 61% receiving less than 250 mm and only 9% receiving more than 500 mm.
First we have to know exactly what is the meaning of niche construction: ( Niche construction is the process by which an organism alters its own (or another species') local environment. These alterations can be a physical change to the organism’s environment or encompass when an organism actively moves from one habitat to another to experience a different environment. Examples of niche construction include the building of nests and burrows by animals, and the creation of shade, influencing of wind speed, and alternation of nutrient cycling by plants. Although these alterations are often beneficial to the constructor they are not always (for example, when organisms dump detritus they can degrade their own environments).
Iran has long been regarded as an important country for the development of irrigation works, but few systematic studies have been made of the history of such systems over long spans of time. In order to stimulate such a programme of research the Durham University Centre for Iranian Cultural Studies (CICS) hosted a workshop entitled: From Human Niche Construction to Imperial Power: Long-term trends in Ancient Iranian Water Systems.1 The workshop was intended to build upon the Water and Power workshop sponsored by the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University in November 2009 (Wilkinson 2010). The primary aim of the CICS workshop was to receive papers on the entire chronological range of water management systems in Iran from around 8000 years until approximately 1000 AD, with a view to recognizing major research questions that could be used to create an agenda for future studies of ancient water use in the country.2 Too often the archaeology of water is studied as a footnote to other areas of the ancient cultural record, or, simply presented as an interesting diversion from the ‘real’ archaeology of buildings, burials or artefacts
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