Shaduf
Shaduf (cigoñal de riego)
- Date
- c. 2000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Mesopotamia (Akkadian seal, c. 2300 BCE) and Egypt (Thebes, c. 1500 BCE)
- Credited to
- Akkadians; adopted in Egypt in the New Kingdom
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A lever on a post with a bucket at one end and a counterweight at the other, raising water one or two metres with little effort. It is the first water-lifting machine and the first agricultural application of the counterweighted lever.
The noria and the saqiya are Hellenistic inventions (3rd century BCE), not from the Bronze Age. An Akkadian seal of c. 2300 BCE would be the earliest depiction of the shaduf.
What it led to
- Irrigation of orchards and high ground above canal level, extending the cultivable area
- Intensive horticulture (gardens, dates, vines) around cities
- The basis of water-lifting mechanics: the saqiya, Archimedes' screw and the noria
Built on
Made possible
- Archimedes' screwc. 250 BCE
- Saqiya (chain-of-pots waterwheel)
- Noria (waterwheel)