About 4,000 years ago, at a site called Pingliangtai in eastern China, Neolithic people had to deal with frequent and unpredictable flooding, driven by summer monsoon rains. These stone age people responded very resourcefully: they built a wall around their community, surrounded by a moat to capture rain water; they dug ditches around their homes; and, most impressive, they built an elaborate system of ceramic drainage pipes, made of interconnected clay segments.

And they did it all without any indication of state authority.

1/ #thread

https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/111/079/318/833/603/457/original/5c10062d09521de8.jpeg