Catching Water: Traditional Water-Collecting and Storing Structures at Meganisi

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International Conference on Sustainability in Architectural Cultural Heritage

Catching Water: Traditional Water-Collecting and Storing Structures at Meganisi

L. Koutsoumpos1, N. Galanidou2

School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens1

Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete 2

Abstract

Meganisi is a small island between Aetoloakarnania and Lefkas in Greece, which always had very limited water resources. Its inhabitants, from prehistoric times until the end of the twentieth century, had to use, and sometimes invent, sustainable ways of collecting water. What makes Meganisi very special is the fact that these practises were alive until recently, since running tap water only became available in 1985. This makes it an ideal case study for research into water-collecting strategies in an insular setting. The paper has a twofold objective: to document and treat systematically the various kinds of structures that were used to collect water at Meganisi and to initiate a discussion about the meaning of these structures for its inhabitants. The first aim is covered by offering a detailed account of types of structures employed. The second is covered by documenting a series of social practices concerning the collection of water that are relevant to these structures. The structures are organised in three main groups according to when they are used in the water’s cycle: i. Structures that capture surface water; ii. Structures that collect rain water; iii. Structures that tap ground water. Our study springs from architecture and ethnoarchaeology, yet it flows over into hydrology and local history.

Keywords: Meganisi, ethnoarchaeology, water-collecting, water-cycle, cisterns, wells

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1. Introduction

Water is extremely critical for the survival of humans. Human societies and economies have always "predicated on ready access to sources of drinking water" (Salzman, 2006). Being the first necessity of life, it is closely related to human survival, health and prosperity.

This paper documents anonymous vernacular ways of water collecting and management practices on an insular setting of the Mediterranean Sea: Meganisi. It builds on earlier work on the same subject (Mithen, 2010; Mays, 2010; Reitano, 2011; Salzman, 2006; Ευθυμιόπουλος & Μοδινός, 2009). The largest of the Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago, Meganisi is a small island in west Greece situated between Aetoloakarnania and Lefkas. It has always had very limited fresh water resources which, in turn, had a direct impact on the island's settlement pattern over time (Galanidou in prep.). Running tap water became available in 1985.

Historical documents of the 19th century show that the water supply was a big issue at Meganisi (Goodisson, 1822; De Bosset, 1821; Davy, 1842). Charles Philip de Bosset, in his book Parga and the Ionian Islands, describes a debate at the British House of Commons on June 15th, 1819, about the removal of people from Parga to Meganisi (the wider area was under the British rule at that time). During the debate Mr. Smith said about the island that "...it was not only unable to afford them the comforts of life, but would not supply them even with bread and fresh water" (De Bosset, 1821, p. 371–372). In the same debate Mr. Hume remarked that the island "did not afford means of cultivation for the support of many families, it being nothing more than a mass of stones where no fresh water could be produced" (De Bosset, 1821, p. 373–374).

Fresh water in Meganisi has always been the most valuable resource, precisely because of its scarcity. The inhabitants of this island, from prehistoric times until the end of the twentieth century, had to use, and sometimes invent, ways of collecting water that arguably exceed the ways that are usually found in most other places in Greece. What makes Meganisi very special is the fact that this knowledge, as well as the practices that go with it, were alive until very recently, making it an ideal case study for ethnoarchaeological and architectural research

into island water-collecting strategies and structures.

Figure 1. Map of Meganisi

2. Methodology

This paper is part of a wider research on modern cultural heritage that was accomplished as part of the 'Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago Archaeological Survey'. The project was conducted between 2010 and 2013 by the University of Crete in collaboration with the 36th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities (Galanidou, 2014; 2015). It addresses the prehistory and history of human presence and activity on the cluster of islands and islets of this inner and protected sea. Since Palaeolithic times, human presence on the Archipelago has not been uninterrupted. Understanding the dynamic interaction between human settlement and environment was high in our research agenda. It was approached through interdisciplinary collaboration of archaeologists with specialists in

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geology, ecology, marine geophysics and social anthropology whose work sheds light on the ways natural and cultural landscape histories are interweaved over time (ibid.). The architectural study involved the documentation of windmills, farm buildings, barns, wells, cisterns, threshing floors and other modern agriculture and husbandry-related structures through detailed drawings (Koutsoumpos in prep.).

The paper has a twofold objective: to document and treat systematically the various kinds of structures that were used to collect water at Meganisi in modern times and to open the discussion about the meaning of these structures for its inhabitants. The latter is also treated by Andreas Kapetanios whose work (in prep.) on the husbandry practises shows that moving flocks and people forms a naval cord between the islands and the islets of the Archipelago.

The first aim is covered by offering a detailed account of the types of structures, although not all the different varieties in the island are presented. The given examples from specific sites constitute the material evidence for the categorization; they are not detailed accounts of all such instances.

The second aim of the research is achieved by documenting a series of social practices concerning the collection of water that are germane to the above structures. Their importance in the everyday life of the inhabitants of Meganisi is made plain. This is achieved through a series of unstructured interviews with inhabitants of the island that took place during the summer of 2012.

Water exists in Meganisi in three general categories: surface-water, rain-water and ground-water. The account of the structures is organised around these three classes.

The inhabitants of Meganisi throughout history have tried hard to 'catch' the water during its ceaseless flow from one stage to the other. They developed various techniques and they invented structures particular to each part of the cycle. These are described in detail below.

3. Surface Water

Surface water is the water that exists on the face of the earth. Apart from the sea that surrounds Meganisi, which is saline (salty), only very limited quantities of surface water exist there. It takes the form of springs of both fresh and

brackish water. The volume of water that they provided and its quality (in the case of brackish water) is so low, that, despite the shortage of water in the island, its inhabitants did not go to the trouble of creating any structure to capture it. Nevertheless, they customarily used it in various activities analyzed hereafter.

3.1 Springs of Fresh Water Springs are situations where ground water finds a way to the earth's surface. In Meganisi, there was only one known fresh-water spring, called 'Agioneri', located at Kefali close to the cave 'Papa'. Its name means 'holy water', illustrating the respect that the inhabitants of the island had for it. It is dry now.

Another kind of spring, though on a much smaller scale, was 'vrisidia' (gr. βρυσίδια) that yielded very small quantities of fresh water. The name means 'small vrisi' which is indicative of the quantity involved: so little that one could not call it a proper vrisi. They are reported to exist close to Katomeri. They used to have water only during winter and spring.

Another sort of small springs were 'rousmata' (gr. ρούσματα) that were cracks in large rocks through which water would pour. The flow was not continuous and mainly occurred during spring. Two such known rousmata were reported by the interviewees: at Ag. Giannis and at Kefali.

A seasonal stream that was used to collect water from was described by a 70 year-old man from Katomeri: "...during winter there was water running through the valley ... at a specific point there sprang such a gargling and crystal water, which - in winter only and after it had rained - was running smoothly and nicely." This source of water was not only used by passersby, but was regularly exploited by some families that were living in that neighbourhood of Katomeri called Rahi.

3.2 Springs of Brackish Water: 'Vlyches' In Meganisi a few springs of brackish water are reported and these are called 'vlyches' (gr. βλύχες, singular: vlycha). These springs probably come from seawater that penetrates one part of the island and finds its way back to the surface, having been partly filtered. In Meganisi, vlyches exist in three areas, all close to the sea: Spilia, Vathy and Elia.

Brackish water existed also in some wells that were built near the sea. The well of Atherinos was

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one such case. This brackish water from the wells or the vlyches was mainly used for laundry. It could also be used for drinking, but this was not very common: "I remember as a child, it was a torture when I was going with my uncle's boat: I had to drink it [the brackish water] and it was a torture, a punishment." Some people boiled this water before drinking it, so the taste would become less annoying.

4. Rainwater

Rain is that liquid form of water (droplets) condensed from the water vapour that exists in the atmosphere through evaporation. They drop to the earth because of gravity. The evaporation process purifies the water and for this reason rainwater is a very good source of water for humans. The process of accumulation of rainwater is commonly known as rainwater harvesting. The inhabitants of Meganisi used two different means to collect this: in natural deposits or in architectural structures. It is noteworthy that people would drink rainwater from any cavity in the ground or in rocks that would hold it. A 40 year-old man remembers: "people would drink out of even a cavity of ten centimetres deep, even when there were tadpoles in it. They did it this way: they had a handkerchief in their pocket, and the women used their headscarf, they spread it over the cavity and they were drinking from there [inside the cloth] so the water was filtered."

4.1 Limbes The 'limbes' (gr. λίμπες, singular: limba) are natural cavities that exist in stone landscapes (mainly limestone) able to hold rainwater. Practically any cavity was used as a water collector. Its size could range from a few centimeters up to a couple of meters. The bigger ones, which were less common, were called 'graves' (gr. γράβες) or 'karavolimbes' (gr. καραβόλιμπες). Limbes retained water only after rainfall. In cases when these were quite deep, people used to extract water with a bucket. Through the interviewees, they have been recognized at the locations of Sxiza, Rahes and Kefali. In Malta, some open air 'cisterns' at Misqa dug in the limestone date from 4.500 and 2000 B.C. (Reitano 2011, 85). The difference here is that limbes were natural and not artificial. A 40 year-old man from Spartochori described one such case at Mesogi: "This one used to be much greater once,

but see what happens: someone went and peed in there during the old times - or maybe he did worse things than that. My great-grandfather, who was huge, threw all the stones and rocks and soil in that was over the limba and filled it up. After long time passed they went and exposed a small part of it. Imagine that even I was drinking water from there. My mother's cup still exists and even my grandmother's which was a yellow plastic one with dots."

Figure 2. Limba at Mesogi

Limbes were mainly used during the winter when there was plenty of rainwater. As one can imagine, there were plenty of health problems associated with such actions: A 70 year-old man from Katomeri observed: "During the winter people used to drink from the rocks. They were getting sick out of typhus. Half of the population was dying. Such was the life that we used to have here. ... From the limbes the donkeys were drinking water, the women used to wash themselves."

4.2 Lomboi The 'lomboi' (gr. λόμποι, singular: lombos) are artificial trenches dug in the ground in order to collect the rainfall. Their size was variable depending on the specific site, but could be as big as 2 meters long and 2 meters deep: "it was deep enough for a man to drown in." A lombos is literally a hole in the ground. Sometimes, because it was dug in soil its bottom would form a clay coating that would keep water from draining into the ground. Precisely because of the simplicity of their construction, they have not been preserved to this day. Either the sides have collapsed after they went out of use, or they have been purposefully filled to use the site for another purpose. The water collected at the lomboi was used mainly for

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watering crops and herds.

4.3 Cisterns

4.3.1 Traditional Cisterns The sterna (gr. στέρνα, plural: sternes) is the typical cistern: a waterproof receptacle that collects rainwater. It is made of stone walls plastered with mortar to make them waterproof. It usually collects water during the seasonal rainfalls (autumn, winter, spring) and can hold enough to provide water even during summer when the water becomes more scarce. All of them were privately owned.

The sterna collects the water draining off from an impervious surface that prevents it from soaking in the ground, leading it towards one or more holes, that are usually located close to the main opening. There are two types of cisterns at Meganisi: the rural and the domestic.

4.3.1.1 Rural Cisterns The rural cisterns are found among the fields or close to other agricultural structures. Three types of rural cisterns have been found during the

Figure 3. Examples of Rural Cisterns

research project: rectangular, cylindrical and asymmetrical. These cisterns collect the water from an area around it that is commonly known as the aloni (also the Greek word for 'threshing floor'), maybe because of the circular shape that it often had, around the cistern. Cisterns were also used as animal traps for livestock in pastures called 'pagides' (gr. παγίδες). The pagides are small enclosures located adjacent to cisterns (one documented at Kefali has the pagida next to a well). They are about 2x2 meters in size, and they are usually made of chain-link fencing. A bucket full of water is left in the enclosure. The animal can get into the enclosure from the top of the well or the cistern, but then it cannot get out.

Figure 4. Pagida at Mesogalia

4.3.1.2 Domestic Cisterns Cisterns that were related to specific houses started to be built around the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century; they became widely popular only after World War II. The extensive use of concrete as a construction material in Greece during that period allowed the building of covered cisterns in a way that was efficient and cost effective. The courtyards of many houses of Meganisi lie on top of cisterns, taking advantage of the rainwater that runs off the roofs. Metal gutters locally called 'kanoules' were often used to collect water from the other sides of the roof, and guide it to the cistern. Since all these cisterns were private, people were very strict about water sharing. Usually the oldest man of the family was responsible for sharing out the water: "the old man was sitting with his stick and his related women-folk (daughters, daughters-in-law, cousins) and he judged how many buckets or piniates each would take."

It is noteworthy that, although at the village of Spartochori cisterns were quite popular, yet at Katomeri they were not at all. Maybe, this is due to

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Figure 5. Domestic cistern at Spartochori and the system of gatters (gr. kanoules) that supply it.

the fact that Katomeri used to have quite a large well, Karamandani.

The cisterns were gradually abandoned after public water came to Meganisi from Lefkas. Most of them were then used as rooms, for storage or as cesspits.

The cistern of the Zavitsanos family collected water from the courtyard shared between two homes (Figure 6). It has a dividing wall at the bottom of the cistern. This must have been used to divide the water for the two families when the level was running low. For this purpose the cistern had two separate well-heads from which each family could fetch its own share of water. The dividing wall may have also been used to completely empty one part in order to clean it, without having to waste any remaining water, by transferring it to the second part. The same procedure was reversed to clean the first part. At the end, the water could be shared again.

Figure 6. Sterna of the Zavitsanos family at Spartochori

Some cisterns are not adjacent to the house that they belonged to. Such is the case of the Mitseiki sterna which stands alone; it dates back to 1912. There is a large collecting surface, 12x17 meters, called the avli, surrounded by a stonewall.

A descendent of the family recalls: "This cistern, here, nourished families. ...This water was gold." He goes on remembering "My mother had seven children and you can imagine ...some good aunts were complaining [to others]: Allow her some more water since she has so many children; what will

Figure 7. Mitseiki sterna at Spartochori

you do with it? You don't have any [children]. There was a fight for water."

4.3.2 Modern Public Cisterns In the twentieth century, the municipality was able to construct some public cisterns, built out of reinforced concrete. Before that, there were some public wells, but they were not enough to cover the island’s needs. There are four public cisterns: at Spartochori, at Vlastara, at Bitzas and at Mesogi.

In 1928 Kouniakis noted that "Spartochori ...is deprived of fresh water during the summer months. The recently built Cistern is not enough to cover the water needs of the inhabitants. When it is opened during the summer season, the inhabitants are being prepared and instructed to be thrifty on the water consumption." (Κουνιάκης 1928, 64). Later on, a network of pipes from these cisterns delivered water to some public tabs at specific sites in the villages.

Figure 8. Public cisterns at Mesogi (left) and Amygdalia (right)

The public cistern at Vlastara was constructed after the Second World War and has an inscription

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that translates as: "Completed during the Presidency of Dion. Argyros, 1954."

Nowadays there is a network of seven cisterns and pumping stations on the island connected with 10 km of pipes handling the water that comes from Lefkas. The network has been conserved recently by replacing the old iron pipes with pipes of polyethylene. The pipes follow generally the road network, apart from the first part of the line that goes through the forest (Μπέτσης et al. 2010).

5. Ground Water

Ground water is the water that exists under the earth's surface in cracks and spaces in soil, sand and rock forming thus an aquifer. It is a long term reservoir that, nevertheless, changes through time (e.g. seasons). Nowadays, it is reached by drilling holes in the ground and installing electric pumps that extract the water. Traditionally, the same was achieved by digging wells that would reach the aquifer.

5.1 Wells Water wells are excavations in the ground aimed at creating a porous receptacle that collects the water present in the aquifer. Wells have been used around the Mediterranean since the middle Neolithic era. In Cyprus, archaeologists have discovered a group of water wells that could be among the oldest in the world at around 7000 BC to 8,500 BC (BBC 2009). In Meganisi the wells are called pigadia similarly to the mainland Greece (gr. πηγάδια singular: pigadi). Each water well consists of three main parts: the well-head, the main body and the bottom (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Example of a flat well-head (left) and axonometric section of the parts of a well (right).

The well-head (Figure 9) is that part of the well that stands above the ground surface. It is usually rectangular on the outside, but circular within. This part is locally called 'vera' (gr. βέρα) which is also

the word for the wedding-ring, probably because of its round shape. The vera is usually made from a single limestone block. A cover was placed on top of the vera to keep the inside of the well clean and secure. This lid was usually made out of a steel plate. In few cases, the well-head was set upon a cylindrical base, the top surface of which sloped towards the outer edge (Figure 9, right). The height of this base was about 70 cm. More often, though, this base did not project above the ground, forming a pavement around the well-head (Figure

9- left). In some cases, a flat surface was constructed around the well – as with the cisterns - for collecting rainwater as well.

The main part of the well is set into the ground. The sides of the well-shaft were lined with masonry. Their form is bottle-shaped (Fig. 10) - a shape that was also used for some underground cisterns e.g. Zavitsaneiki sterna (Figure 3 -bottom left).

In Meganisi, the construction of the masonry lining was found to vary widely, from rough unprocessed stones, to evenly sized ones that formed a smooth internal surface. Sometimes, stones projected out into the shaft of the well in a spiral arrangement, so forming a kind of staircase, although their small size makes it difficult to imagine someone walking up or down on them. Macroscopic observation gave no evidence of visible binding mortar, allowing the possible conclusion that the masonry was dry-stone. The lack of binding mortar and the lack of plaster in the interior could be intentional: in that way, the ground water can pass through the masonry and collect in the interior.

Figure 10. Group of three wells at Paliolakos

The bottom of the well in Meganisi (Figure 9) is called 'podochi' (gr. ποδόχι which comes from the Greek word υποδοχή that means 'reception'). Most probably, the name has to do with the fact

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that this part received the first water entering the well at its bottom. At the same time, this part kept the last water that the well held during the summer, when the aquifer would get low. The 'podochi' consists of a characteristic circular receptacle that is formed in the ground in the middle of the bottom, and which is lower than the rest of the shaft. It was reported that this formation also helped the cleaning of the well.

Water wells are usually located in valleys, as such topography retains water more easily. Such is the case at Paliolakos where three wells exist in a distance of 15m. Nevertheless, a well at Kefali is located on top of the ridge: a pagida that is attached next to it is similar to those that were created next to cisterns (see chapter 4.3.1.2). Moreover, quite a few wells were located close to the sea. Most of those had brackish water, although, is some cases, during the winter the water becomes rather fresh. One such case is the well of Atherinos which was so famous that brides used to go and dance there before their wedding.

One particular form of water well of Meganisi is the 'pigadoula' or 'pigadouli' (small or diminutive well). It was of low depth, of about 2 metres, and did not have any well-head or other distinguishing part above the ground. For this reason, they were dangerous, especially for children who could get drowned at their play. Moreover, people remember that during the summer when the water level was very low, women had to bend so much to get at the water that they could fall inside, since there were no well-head to protect them and the opening was quite large.

The method of drawing the water from the wells, in all the documented cases, was by using containers that were lifted by hand with the help of a rope. No evidence of any water-lifting mechanical apparatus was found. Some electric pumps were installed after 1974. At Katomeri, at the public well called Karamandani, the pump was connected to some public taps that were installed in some public areas in the village.

A 70 year-old man from Katomeri talked about the traces that the rope left on the inside of the vera: "It was a tyranny that makes me sad. ...The head of the well had some stones ...which were nicely cut. The rope with which they were raising water had marked the stone in innumerable notches; and those notches there reveal the toil,

the sweat, the aching hands, the labour, the aching waist of our mother, our grandmother, our sister that was fetching water for us."

A particularity in Meganisi is that the water was carried on the head, in a special pot called 'piniata.' The piniata was a cooking pot that was so popular for carrying water that is still used in performances of folklore dances. One full piniata could weigh about 25-30 kilos. This way of carrying objects was used for other items as well, in contrast to other places of Greece, like Epirus, where women carry stuff on their back. During the wedding of a woman at Spartochori all her dowry was carried on the head, even a heavy Singer sewing machine. The item to be carried was placed on a fabric patch called 'podologa' that was set on the hair first.

The inhabitants of Meganisi still have strong memories of women's struggle to fetch water especially during the summer, when the wells were drying out and the water was scarce. Women used to go to the wells at all hours of the night to wait and see if any water had collected in the podochi. A 49 year-old man still has memories of the process: "They would fill a small cup with water, which they would put in the piniata. They would fill another cup and do the same. Until the piniata would be filled up." A 70 year-old man recalls: "You could find a woman getting up any time during the night. A woman would knock on her window and say 'there is nobody at the well', 'there are no other women', 'there is water'. She would leave her bed to bring water." His voice breaks with emotion when he goes on: "A case can be imagined that a woman put down the piniata from her head and fell on her bed to give birth. Or even to have a miscarriage. It was such a tough situation and so difficult was the word 'water' for Katomeri."

Figure 11. A woman helps another to put the piniata on to her head -photo by: Fritz Berger (left) and traces of rope on the vera of a well (right).

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6. Concluding Remarks

A 60 year-old woman, an inhabitant of the island, remembers that due to the lack of water for half of her lifetime the collection of any possible form of water, like rainwater, was a constant struggle: "When it was raining we were placing all around the house every available vessel that could hold water and we were 'catching' it." The verb used here, to 'catch' (gr. πιάνω), is indicative of the agony of the process of water harvesting in the island since it usually means to stop, to grasp and hold onto, or to capture and not allow to escape, especially after a pursuit. A 70 year-old man comments on the current availability of running water: "Our water; it was something unbelievable that it came to Meganisi. It was made possible, though, and they brought it from Vafkeri [Lefkas], all the way to here, ...and now we have water; and we can speak of water in Meganisi and we cannot believe it." These quotes reveal, in a vibrant manner, the way that people who live there perceived their struggle for existence in a place where there was never enough water.

In this paper, we have described the methods and structures that the inhabitants of Meganisi employed in order to 'catch' water during the various stages of the hydrological cycle. Our study deals only with the different methods used in the island and is not meant to be an exhaustive account. This material was collected by executing an architectural documentation of these structures, combined with historical research in the literature and ethnographic interviews to capture the importance that these structures played in people's everyday life.

The structures are organised in three groups: 1. Structures that captured surface water. 2. Structures that collected rain water. 3. Structures that tapped ground water. Table 1 presents the usage of these structures, according to the seasonality of the rainfall.

The only source of fresh water that was permanent all year round was from some wells and some cisterns that were constructed rather recently. In the case of the wells though, as described in the case of Karamandani, during the summer months their usage was limited, since the water level dropped dramatically. The cisterns only just fall in the category of permanent sources, since they were always dependent on the timing of

Table 1. Types of water-collecting structures

Fresh water Brackish water

Permanent Temporal Permanent Temporal

Surface water

springs (piges) all dried

streams vrisidia rousmata

vlyches

Rain water

cisterns (sternes)

limpes lompoi

Ground water

Wells (pigadia)

Wells (pigadia)

Wells (pigadia) pigadoules pigadoulia

the rain water. All the other sources of fresh water were but transitory solutions, and often of very small quantity, like the vrisidia and the rousmata. Wells and cisterns, from an architectural point of view, were the major structures related to the collection of water, targeting ground- and rainwater respectively. A great variety was documented throughout: in terms of size (small/large), of ownership (private/public), construction (traditional/modern), and intended use of the water (agricultural/residential). Wells are older than cisterns: a couple of them are referenced from sources that date back 200 years. Cisterns are relatively newer, with some public ones belonging to the early 20th century (the private ones became popular after the Second World War). It was also proved that different villages developed different strategies in 'catching' water. Spartochori was mainly based on cisterns, while Katomeri relied on the well of Karamandani.

Brackish water was available in the island, either in the form of springs, in the case of vlyches, or in wells, usually close to the sea. The research identified the specific uses that brackish water had in the economy of Meganisi, mainly for laundry and watering herds and plants, while only occasionally was it used for drinking or cooking.

Running water, that became available at 1985, had a great impact on people's life on Meganisi, especially for the women, allowing them to be productive in other ways. Although a complete return to the old ways is unthinkable, the wisdom of the local water cycle that the inhabitants of Meganisi have developed through the ages is invaluable. From the first Neanderthals who lived on Meganisi to its current inhabitants, a deep, empirical and astute knowledge about the 'catching' of this elusive substance was built up, allowing them to survive in this barren place.

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Despite the fact that everyday life was a constant struggle, it creatively used the available recourses in an ecologically sensible way. This knowledge of 'catching' water is still present in peoples’ minds; its documentation now is important as part of their heritage. Traditional indigenous knowledge can contribute significantly in approaching contemporary ecological problems (Menzies and Butler 2006). This understanding is based on practical concepts developed after constant innovation and experimentation through the ages. Moreover, it still remains cost-effective even in our days, since it builds on locally apposite developments and efforts (Warren & Rajasekaran 1993; Mbilinyi et al. 2005, p. 793).

“Some older ways, persisting in cultural memory, may be needed again when times of lower energy return.”

(Odum 2007, 309)

7. Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Maria-Niki Koutsoukou for bringing the two authors together. Andreas Kapetanios has had a great input in the systematics of this study and is warmly thanked. This research owes a lot to the indigenous archaeologist Dimitris Politis who has devoted his life to documenting Meganisi's local history. Grigoris Koutropoulos contributed greatly to the documentation of the structures during the 2012 expedition. Nadia Dalma read early versions of the paper and made valuable suggestions.

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Documents

Catching Water: Traditional Water-Collecting and Storing Structures at Meganisi