"The practice of goldsmithing, like many of our Mandaean rituals, is fading into history. The craft that had once flowed through the veins of our family like a confluence of streams, canals and waterways is now about to dry up."

As Twain wrote, the Mississippi River is well worth reading about. If you agree—and you should—check out @boyceupholt.bsky.social's book THE GREAT RIVER, which I had the pleasure of reviewing for H-environment. www.h-net.org/reviews/show... 🗃️ #EnvHist

"Why would people still want to work at the mine? Practically speaking, this was more a question of home, and people wanting to stay living in the community where their families had lived, worked, and died for generations." - @historiamagoria.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2020/10/29/t... #envhist

To answer the obvious question yes we do cover the waterways filled with poop

What resource comes to mind when you think of the Persian Gulf? If you're the worst merchant in Ur, probably copper A sheltered sea, the Gulf has long served as a mini-Mediterranean permitting seaborne trade In 1750 BCE, that trade included Sumer and Dilmun, where Ea-Nasir got his subpar copper

The Gulf of Mexico, the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, *and* the Persian Gulf We're tired. So tired. Follow @waterways-project.bsky.social

“our multitude of #rivers is another powerful image that represents what #Wales is about – connection, and people, and politics, and the use of resources, and where history is remembered and legends are made." @raehowells.bsky.social @arachnepress.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Did you know there was a sixth Great Lake for three weeks? In 1998, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy passed a law naming Lake Champlain a Great Lake so Vermont could get money to study it under a Great Lakes program An uproar from Midwest senators quickly reversed the move, but Vermont kept the money

It may look cute, but did you know the North American river otter is kind of a dick? Native to Canada and the US, it's a trickster in many Indigenous cultures In an Ojibwe story, the otter tricked the bear into losing its tail by saying it could catch fish by sticking its tail into freezing water

It may look cute, but did you know the North American river otter is kind of a dick? Native to Canada and the US, it's a trickster in many Indigenous cultures In an Ojibwe story, the otter tricked the bear into losing its tail by saying it could catch fish by sticking its tail into freezing water

Is Lake Superior actually a lake, or a sea pretending? It's a lake in English, but it's “Ojibwa’s Great Sea” in Ojibwe, an apt name given it's the world's largest freshwater body Superior's sea-ness has made it useful for shipping, with lakers like the Edmund Fitzgerald hauling Minnesota iron ore

Unbelievably on brand for Faneuil Hall to be built on trash lmao

I was today years old when I learned this. HOLY CRAP.

Did you know the Founding Fathers wouldn't recognize modern Boston? Located on the Shawmut Peninsula, 1700s Boston was almost an island Land reclamation in the 1800s changed the city's coastline, filling in the location of the Boston Tea Party and creating the entire Back Bay neighborhood

This reminds me of how I just learned on a @fullstorybaltimore.tours tour that Water Street in Baltimore is named Water Street because it just to be the street that abutted the water before they filled it in and created the land that is now south of there.

We have updated our Waterwork Tier rankings to include Maori Agricultural Adaptations, the Dambuster Raid, and Boston's Land Reclamations What do you think?

Brb fixing the Bay area’s housing problem by filling in the bay and building houses there

Boston almost certainly has more reclaimed land than any other city in North America Here's historian Nancy Seasholes explaining how the city used trash and large chunks of Beacon Hill to fill in Back Bay and other areas of the city

this looks like a map of the Forbidden Sector of Boston, uninhabitable to baseline humans since the Calamity. none know the horrors that may be breeding within its unknown depths, but we keep watch day and night from outposts on the harbor, ever vigilant against its fell threat

Did you know the Founding Fathers wouldn't recognize modern Boston? Located on the Shawmut Peninsula, 1700s Boston was almost an island Land reclamation in the 1800s changed the city's coastline, filling in the location of the Boston Tea Party and creating the entire Back Bay neighborhood

Did you know the Vikings made swords from swamp water? Groundwater from a spring carries dissolved iron; when this water reaches a bog, acidity and certain bacteria can turn it into iron oxide Sifting this out, one gets ore to make "bog iron", the main source of iron in Scandinavia until ~1300 CE

Did you know Star Wars' Death Star attack was inspired by exploding dams? During WWII, the RAF launched Operation Chastise, which used 'bouncing' bombs to destroy Germany's Möhne and Eder dams The raid was subject of the 1955 film 'The Dam Busters,' which inspired the climax of 1977's A New Hope

At least it didn't have a nuclear bomb on it this time

Did you know Star Wars' Death Star attack was inspired by exploding dams? During WWII, the RAF launched Operation Chastise, which used 'bouncing' bombs to destroy Germany's Möhne and Eder dams The raid was subject of the 1955 film 'The Dam Busters,' which inspired the climax of 1977's A New Hope

The Romans called the Mediterranean "Our Sea," but did the Etruscans get the last laugh? A major power in Italy before Rome, the Etruscans ('Tyrrhenians' in Greek) were conquered by their more famous neighbor But their name lives on in the arm of the Mediterranean west of Italy: the Tyrrhenian Sea

The Romans called the Mediterranean "Our Sea," but did the Etruscans get the last laugh? A major power in Italy before Rome, the Etruscans ('Tyrrhenians' in Greek) were conquered by their more famous neighbor But their name lives on in the arm of the Mediterranean west of Italy: the Tyrrhenian Sea

I explain why suspending the Indus Waters Treaty is a bad idea. Doing this, India doesn't stop Pakistan's share of water flowing into Pakistan, and it also helps the illegitimate government & unpopular army chief in Pakistan to use it for their survival. www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/why-...

The Gulf of Mexico, the Panama Canal, *and* the Suez Canal. WTF is it with these people and waterways? Follow @waterways-project.bsky.social

Did you know 'Ratty' from the children's book Wind in the Willows isn't actually a rat? He's a water vole, a semi-aquatic rodent most closely related to lemmings and hamsters Water voles reside in small burrows on the banks of rivers, with Ratty's home believed to be on the River Pang in Berkshire

yearning for this way of life

The Kakhovka Reservoir's emptying is expected to have decades-long impacts on the ecology of southern Ukraine Here's a video explaining some of its effects

Is Ukraine's Dneiper River still a river, or something else? The USSR built six dams along the Dneiper, forming a series of lakes that make up >500 miles of its ~700 mile length in Ukraine In 2023, Russian forces invading Ukraine breached one of the dams, emptying its lake and flooding thousands

Today on our site we have "Coastal economies rely on NOAA, from Maine to Florida, Texas & Alaska – even if they don’t realize it" by Christine Keiner Part of our Tracking the Effects: Environmental History & the Current United States Federal Administration series. niche-canada.org/2025/04/25/c...

Is Ukraine's Dneiper River still a river, or something else? The USSR built six dams along the Dneiper, forming a series of lakes that make up >500 miles of its ~700 mile length in Ukraine In 2023, Russian forces invading Ukraine breached one of the dams, emptying its lake and flooding thousands

Would you be comfortable fighting for your life on a frozen lake? In 1242, Novgorod lured the Teutonic Knights into battle on frozen Lake Peipus, with its slipperiness leading to a Teutonic defeat The "Battle on the Ice" is a major battle in Russian historiography; others consider it a skirmish

The Battle on the Ice is probably best known for being the climax of the classic Soviet film Alexander Nevsky (1938) One of the most influential battle scenes in movie history, it also introduced the unfounded belief the battle ended with the lake's ice cracking and drowning the Teutonic Knights

Not even the only Teutonic loss on frozen water! Thirty years later they were defeated by the Lithuanians /on the frozen Gulf of Riga/ where the latter made a shield wall from sledges they had brought to cart raiding loot around en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...

For centuries, the Dutch have lived with water — facing floods, building together, and turning danger into innovation. From ancient terps to the Delta Plan, it's a story of resilience and ingenuity. 🔗 watersnoodmuseum.nl/en/water-kno...

The lower Mississippi in major flood is always a magnificent sight to see. It's forecast to crest in the next few days.

The Teutonic Knights wore Stahlhelms

My grandfather fought as one of these partisans through *I think* these marshes, contracting a lifelong respiratory disease.

Would you be comfortable fighting for your life on a frozen lake? In 1242, Novgorod lured the Teutonic Knights into battle on frozen Lake Peipus, with its slipperiness leading to a Teutonic defeat The "Battle on the Ice" is a major battle in Russian historiography; others consider it a skirmish

compared to the Amazon all the other rivers are just fucking around. That's a long sea. Ridiculous. Going hard on draining most of the wettest continent.

They call him "Swamp Thing" but from what I usually see of him he's really more of a "Marsh Man"

Where did anti-Nazi partisans hide during World War II? Often it was in wetlands The largest wetland in Europe, the 100,000 sq mi Pripet Marshes located in Polesia were dreaded by the Germans as a partisan refuge In 1943, 76,000 partisans were operating in Polesia, including 4,000 Jewish fighters

The marshes' difficult terrain made them impassable to major military movement, even dividing the central and southern fronts of Operation Barbarossa Here's a video showing German soldiers' difficulty in moving through the marshes

i actually cannot handle this on any level. this is journalism malpractice.

Enjoy watching #Andor season 2 Don't be afraid to take the jump Follow @waterways-project.bsky.social