Due casi studio di continuità e discontinuità nelle opere idrauliche vicino orientali

The aim of this article is to outline a difficult balance between water and power in the Near Eastern environment, stemming from the irregular relationship that linked central power and local authorities concerning water infrastructure. In the whole history of the concerned ar- ea, same problems have been faced with different solutions, requiring multilinear approaches to highlight continuity and discontinuity elements for well known cases, still in need of re- thinking or reevaluation. Two case studies of water infrastructure between two ancient em- pires are presented: the case of Jerwan, known as the first real aqueduct of ancient Assyria, encased into Sennacherib’s wider intervention on the landscape, and the aqueduct of Gadara, example of Roman water engineering, placed between the usual centralized interventions and local projects, as this was the case for the second draſt of the aqueduct, the Qanat al-Fir’aun, serving the cities of Gadara, Adraha and Abila. A confrontation can be made, following trans- formative developments concerning the relationship between landscape and man, taking into account how similar problems required similar solutions.