The <i>Twelve Bander</i> irrigation system of Mount Aragats, Armenia

Abstract This study examines the traditional water management systems of Mount Aragats (Armenia) through a case study of the Twelve Bander irrigation network situated on the mountain’s southern slopes. The band canals constitute a distinctive hydraulic system designed for temporary water diversion and flow regulation from high-altitude river sources. Using a multidisciplinary approach that integrates late 19th–early 20th-century archival records, ethnographic fieldwork, and GIS-based spatial analysis, the research reconstructs the structural layout, engineering characteristics, and communal organization underlying this system, the functional knowledge of which almost completely died out after pipeline systems were introduced in the second half of the 20 th century. Fed by the Amberd River, the Twelve Bander system played a pivotal role in supporting densely inhabited agrarian settlements through regulated distribution and collective management of water resources. Field observations reveal sophisticated engineering adaptations – stone embankments, terrace-like channels, and diversion structures engineered to stabilize steep, erosion-prone slopes. Ethnographic data further elucidate patterns of canal usage, maintenance practices, and seasonal operational strategies, while historical documents attest to enduring conflicts over water allocation mediated by customary legal mechanisms. Although securely attested only from the mid-19th century onward, medieval inscriptions, oral traditions, and previous scholarly hypotheses suggest a possible deeper antiquity, with tentative associations to medieval or even Urartian and prehistoric precedents. The study argues that the Twelve Bander network exemplifies enduring communal strategies of hydraulic management on Mount Aragats and provides insights into long-term adaptive responses to environmental and social constraints in highland agrarian landscapes.