英文《中国日报》的报道介绍：“In ancient Egypt, there was a 4,000-year-old relic, but it included only one dam.”(埃及只有4000年的遗存，仅有一个坝)。中国社会科学研究院考古研究所官网英文版《5000-year-old Large-Scaled Water management System around the Ancient Walled Settlement of Liangzhu Culture found》介绍：“The hydraulic system of Liangzhu culture is the earliest large-scale hydraulic system found in China. The recovery of the 5000-years-old hydraulic system is very important to the investigation of ancient Chinese hydraulic history. It is also the earliest flood control system in the world, which gives a clear comparison to the hydraulic systems of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia that were mainly built to conduct water such as the irrigation channels and cisterns（古代埃及与美索不达米亚的水利系统主要是灌溉与蓄水）. It has also indicated the difference between the rice-based civilisation of the East and the wheat-based civilisation of the West.”（http://www.kaogu.net.cn/en/News/New_discoveries/2016/0503/53769.html）。中国社会科学研究院考古研究所官网英文版还介绍道，这个水坝可能有多个功能：防洪、运输、供水、灌溉等。（It is suggested that this hydraulic system might have compositive functions such as flood control, transportation, water use, irrigation…etc. It was strongly connected with the production and daily activities of the Liangzhu settlement and its surroundings.）山东大学栾丰实教授认为，这个水利系统修筑时间是没有异议的，但在功能性问题上，专家们大致觉得灌溉的可能性不大，最大的可能性是防洪和蓄水运输。
据英文著作《水文学史》译著（原著出版于1970年）介绍，世界上最早的水坝是埃及的卡法拉水坝,建造年代介于公元前2950-2750年。英文维基“Sadd el-Kafara”词条介绍：“建于公元前三千年中叶（The dam was built in the first half of the third millennium BC），卡法拉水坝是世界上用于控制洪水的最老的坝。约丹的加瓦坝是世界上最早的水坝，主要用于供水（注：英文维基的“公元前三千年中叶”合适与否我尚不太确定）。德文维基“Sadd el-Kafara”词条介绍为“Die Talsperre Sadd-el-Kafara (Damm der Heiden[1]) wurde etwa zwischen 2600 und 2500 v. Chr. im Wadi Garawi in Ägypten erbaut. Andere Angaben sprechen von 2950 bis 2750 v. Chr.”
英文著作《Ancient Water Technologies(2010)》认为，尽管卡法拉水坝之前也有水坝，但卡法拉水坝有较大的的规模与体量，仍被视作世界最古老的水坝。该书提到，卡法拉水坝建于公元前2600-2700，Henning Fahlbusch教授则认为就是2650年左右。该水库的功能仍在争议之中（英文原文见附录5）。
日本人编著的《Water Civilization_From Yangtze to Khmer Civilizations(2013)》（Springer Japan 2013）一书尽管主打长江文明牌，但里面似未提及良渚水坝（该书似乎定稿于2012年，我不知道良渚水坝彼时是否已经公布），但专门介绍了距今5300年的城头山遗址的水库与水坝（注：只是原书摘录，是否符合史实尚未查证）：“The circular rampart presently exposed on the ground surface in the center of the Chengtoushan site belongs to the Quijialing culture, which dates back to 5300 cal. yr. BP. Behind the rampart to the northeast is a water reservoir, which also belongs to the Quijialing culture. Two water channels running in the NS direction, or a ringed moat, had existed along the ramparts. A dam had been constructed at the east gate, from which water fl owed into the lower valley plain.”
国外2014年发表的会议论文《Failure analysis of Sadd-el-Kafara: The oldest masonry dam》（Conference Paper，January 2014）明确指出，卡法拉水库用于防洪。不过，将建造年限称为公元前2600年。
美国大坝协会官网（http://ussdams.com/ussdeducation/history.html）称：“世界最早水坝建于大约公元前3000年的约丹，埃及卡法拉水坝建于此后约400年”（The earliest dams where remains have been found were built around 3000 b.c. for the town of Jawa in modern day Jordan. About 400 years later the Sadd Al-Kafara was built.”。该官网并提供了专门的水坝史研究性文章《Dams from the Beginning》（http://ussdams.com/ussdeducation/Media/damsfrombeginning.pdf）：“Elsewhere in Egypt, well-preserved remains of other masonry barriers can still be seen. The abutments of what some archeologists regard as one of the oldest dams in the world still survive in the normally dry channel of the Wadi el-Garawi near Helwan, about 32 kilometers (20 miles) south of Cairo. At some time - perhaps as early as the reign of Khufu (King of Egypt about 2900-2877 B.C.) - the Sadd el-Kafara Dam was built in the wadi to impound water for workmen in the nearby quarries.”
）：“The earliest dams where remains have been found were built around 3000 b.c. for the town of Jawa in modern day Jordan. About 400 years later the Sadd Al-Kafara was built. It is estimated to have taken 10-15 years to build. The dam was built in ancient Egypt and was destroyed by heavy rainfall soon after its completion. It is assumed that primitive irrigation canals existed thousands of years ago, but no conclusive physical evidence has been found.”
Early civilization sophisticated, dam dig reveals By Wang Kaihao (China Daily) Updated: 2016-03-18 08:07
An archaeologist examines sections of unearthed ancient flood-control dams in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Wu Huang/for China Daily
Archaeologists have unearthed ancient flood-control dams, a series of sophisticated barriers constructed 4,700 to 5,100 years ago that mark the oldest water management system ever found in China.
The discovery among Hangzhou's Liangzhu relics was announced to the public on Tuesday by the Zhejiang Provincial Archaeological Research Institute.
"It reveals complex planning and construction skills and may create a new horizon for studies on ancient Chinese civilization," said Yu Bing, an expert with the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage.
Though a section of a dam was found in the 1990s, a major excavation from July to January unearthed 11 dams. The scientific team included archaeologists from the Zhejiang institute, Nanjing University and Shandong University.
The dams are from a period 1,000 years earlier than the time of Yu the Great, a legendry ruler of ancient China famed for flood control. No physical evidence of Yu's work has ever been confirmed.
Liu Bin, director of the institute, said the dams were found within a 100-square-kilometer area, with the longest surviving section running 6.5 kilometers.
"Its scale is bigger than any contemporary counterparts overseas, according to current knowledge. In ancient Egypt, there was a 4,000-year-old relic, but it included only one dam," (埃及只有4000年的遗存，仅有一个坝)Liu said.
Follow-up studies are continuing.
"It is not enough to get a panorama that relies only on field research of its layout and appearance," Liu said.
"For example, in-depth research on intersecting surfaces collected from two dams is ongoing. It will decode specific piling methods. And information about people's daily lives, which is hidden in the sediment, will be analyzed."
Liangzhu relics, first found in 1936, provide evidence of a sophisticated civilization lasting from 3300 BC to 2000 BC. The area is best known for its abundant jade.
"The world's water-management relics from roughly the same period of history that have been unearthed are mostly in arid areas such as ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia," Yu said. "But Liangzhu is on a humid southern bank of the Yangtze River, which is an unprecedented example."
However, there are still many unsolved puzzles.
"The age of the dams is basically indisputable now, but their function is still being debated among scholars," said Luan Fengshi, a professor from Shandong University.
"Basically, we don't believe it is likely that they were used for irrigation," Luan said. "Details of their construction and abandonment are yet to be confirmed."
The Jawa Dam is the remains of an ancient masonrygravity dam on Wadi Rajil at Jawa in Mafraq Governorate, Jordan, 58 kilometres (36 mi) north of Azraq. It is the oldest known dam in the world, dating back to the fourth millennium BC. The dam was part of a water supply system that included other smaller dams, channels and deflectors across the wadi to support the short lived local town of Jawa. (约丹的加瓦坝是世界上最早的水坝，主要用于供水)
