Ancient aquifers and a sovereign spirit

Water archaeology The archaeology of water is a big subject. Where to begin? Perhaps with the news of a project in the Sierra Nevada (literally ‘Snowy Mountains’) that rise to the north of Granada in southern Spain. In the sheltered south-facing valleys of Las Alpujarras, the southern foothills of the Sierra Nevada, farmers have irrigated their alpine meadows and terraced orchards for centuries with water from distant springs high in the mountains. Forming a network thousands of kilometres in extent, these are rather prosaically called acequias (‘ditches’ or channels), but they form part of a vital ecosystem whereby meltwater from snow seeps into underground aquifers; these in