The workshop, following a series of lectures, highlights various examples for the interplay between ecology, infrastructure, power, culture and religion from Egypt to Central Asia. At the same time, these case studies are contextualized within the wider framework of irrigation cultures and water management technologies across entire AfroEurAsia.
09:00–09:15 Opening
Session 1: Irrigation: Reconstructing Knowledge Systems and Loan Words
Conveners: Hannes Fellner & Nina Mirnig
Chair: Florian Schwarz (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
09:15–10:00 Water Agency: Irrigation Infrastructure and Social Management in the Ancient Tarim Region (1000 BCE–1000 CE), Melanie
Malzahn (University of Vienna)
10:00–10:45 Qanats and Water Canals in Old and Middle Iranian Texts (1000 BCE–900 CE): Lexical Borrowing and Loanword Adaptation in
Irrigation Terminology, Milad Abadi (University of Innsbruck)
10:45–11:15 Coffee break
Chair: Robin Coningham (Durham University)
11:15–12:00 Tracing Hydraulic Knowledge in the Kathmandu Valley: Irrigation Terminology in Nepalese Sanskrit Inscriptions, Hannes
Fellner & Nina Mirnig (University of Vienna)
12:00–12:50 Panel Discussion: Reconstructing Knowledge Systems and Loan Words, moderated by Hannes Fellner & Nina Mirnig
12:50–14:20 Lunch break
Session 2: Modern and Historical Re-use of Irrigation Systems
Conveners: Robin Coningham & Florian Schwarz
Chair: Johannes Preiser-Kapeller (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
14:20–15:05 The Full Tank. Prospects for Long-Term Sustainable Rejuvenation of Sri Lankan Tank-Cascade Irrigation Systems in a Climate
Change(d) Future, Robin Coningham, Ian Simpson & Christopher Davis (Durham University)
15:05–15:50 Watering the City for over Two Millennia, a Cretan Case-Study, Amanda Kelly (University College Dublin)
15:50–16:20 Coffee break
Chair: Bernhard Palme (University of Vienna)
16:20–17:05 Ancient Maya Self-Cleaning Reservoirs and Future Water Needs, Lisa Lucero (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
17:05–17:55 Panel Discussion: Modern and Historical Re-use of Irrigation Systems, moderated by Robin Coningham & Florian Schwarz
Dinner (Workshop Participants)
Date: Wednesday, 13 May 2026
Time: 9 AM - 6 PM (CET)
Venue: Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde, Seminarraum 1, Spitalgasse 2, Hof 2, Eingang 2.7, 1090 Wien
Contact: nina.mirnig(at)univie.ac.at
For online participation, please register here: https://univienna.zoom.us/meeting/register/iDAY9O-IREeTTC1QGw5bVQ
Supported by the Cluster of Excellence EurAsian Transformations and the UNESCO Chair, Durham University
