Polish archaeologists discover complex ancient water distribution system in Ar

Using satellite imagery and remote sensing techniques, researchers from the University of Warsaw and the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia mapped an extensive network of canals, riverbeds and streams around the archaeological site.

Their findings, published in the journal Antiquity (https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2026.10344), shed new light on the scale of hydraulic engineering undertaken during the Kingdom of Urartu, also known as the biblical kingdom of Ararat.

View of Mount Ararat from the Argishtikhinili site. Credit: Krzysztof Jakubiak

The researchers identified a total of 1,019 kilometres of water-management infrastructure. This included approximately 135 kilometres of probable ancient canals, nearly 420 kilometres of ancient riverbeds and streams, around 429 kilometres of modern irrigation canals and about 36 kilometres of ancient canals still clearly visible in the landscape. Many of the preserved canal sections lie close to Argishtikhinili, indicating they were directly connected to the ancient urban centre.

The findings suggest that irrigation in the region was not limited to isolated agricultural plots but formed part of a coordinated, large-scale infrastructure programme designed to support farming across much of the Ararat Basin.

The Kingdom of Urartu began expanding into the basin during the reign of King Argishti I in the eighth century BCE. The ruler founded Argishtikhinili on the edge of the fertile plain, where irrigation became essential for supporting agriculture because of limited natural access to water.

The importance of the water system is documented in surviving Urartian inscriptions carved on stone steles. According to the inscriptions, five main canals supplied water to the city as well as to surrounding fields, orchards and vineyards. One inscription states that the land had remained uncultivated before the canals were built, indicating that the region’s agricultural productivity depended directly on the irrigation works.

Over the centuries, natural processes, farming and modern development have altered the landscape, destroying or obscuring many of the ancient canals. To reconstruct the network, the researchers relied on satellite imagery and digital terrain models capable of revealing subtle traces that are difficult or impossible to detect from the ground.

The study was carried out by Nazarij Buławka, PhD, and Professor Krzysztof Jakubiak of the University of Warsaw, together with Inessa Karapetyan, PhD, of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia in Yerevan.

The researchers analysed imagery from multiple satellite generations, including photographs taken during the Cold War by the American CORONA and GAMBIT reconnaissance satellite programmes. Although captured in the 1960s and 1970s, the images preserve a record of the landscape before extensive agricultural mechanisation and the expansion of modern irrigation systems, making it easier to identify ancient features that have since disappeared.

The team also used multispectral satellite data, which record wavelengths of light invisible to the human eye. Differences in soil moisture and vegetation caused by centuries of water flow can leave detectable signatures, allowing archaeologists to trace former canals. Digital elevation models capable of identifying changes in ground level of only a few centimetres further helped locate buried embankments, dikes and irrigation channels.

According to the researchers, the scale of the network points to sophisticated engineering and centralised organisation.

Designing canals that carried water across long distances without pumps required precise calculations of terrain gradients to maintain a steady flow. The system also demanded methods for controlling water flow, limiting erosion and carrying out regular maintenance.

“Knowledge of artificial irrigation and the benefits it brings were not surprising when it comes to the Urartians. We know of numerous hydrological structures from the area of present-day Turkey. In the case of the Ararat Basin, the emergence of irrigation systems was something new. This skill was brought by the Urartians, who understood perfectly well that the land around the newly founded city of Argishtikhinili was potentially very fertile. Unfortunately, the lack of access to water prevented its intensive use. The royal administration had the appropriate resources to change this situation, and thus a network of canals appeared in the valley landscape, thanks to which these areas became the granary of the entire kingdom,” Professor Krzysztof Jakubiak of the University of Warsaw said.

The researchers argue that constructing and maintaining such an extensive network would have required a specialised administrative system responsible for managing water resources. Reliable irrigation enabled the cultivation of grain, orchards and vineyards, supporting population growth, trade and the consolidation of the Urartian state.

Despite the new mapping, the researchers caution that not every canal identified necessarily dates to the Urartian period. Some irrigation channels may have been constructed after the fall of the Kingdom of Urartu around 590 BCE and incorporated into later water-management systems.

Establishing the precise chronology of the network will require additional fieldwork, including sediment sampling from canal beds.

“Dating irrigation canals is extremely difficult due to their constant silting during use. To attempt to date the canals’ formation, it is necessary to drill holes and collect samples from the canal bottom, hoping that the sediments will contain organic remains that can be subjected to radiocarbon dating,” Jakubiak said.

Nauka w Polsce, Ewelina Krajczyńska-Wujec (PAP)

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