Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt: A Study in Cultural Ecology

"Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt is a fundamental contribution to knowledge of the cultural ecology of civilization in the Nile Valley. While the book extends the temporal range of publications scheduled for the Prehistoric Archeology and Ecology series well into more recent millennia, the nature of the problems Butzer treats and the perspective in which they are seen are obviously as central to the series' purpose as works dealing with early prehistory. This is the first effective attempt to isolate, understand, and synthesize the critical factors involved in the rise of an "irrigation civilization.""