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How did a shadoof raise water in ancient Egypt and India?

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A diagram displays six types of simple machines with labeled illustrations: inclined plane, wedge, screw, lever, wheel and axle, and pulley, each shown with real-world examples like ramps, axes, screws, seesaws, door handles, and pulleys lifting objects. — simple machine Six simple machines for transforming energy into work.

The shadoof (also spelled shaduf) is a simple machine based on the principle of the lever. It consists of a long, tapering pole mounted on a pivot, functioning like a seesaw.12

In ancient Egypt and India, the device was used to raise water for irrigation by utilizing a counterweight. A bucket or skin was suspended from a rope at the long end of the pole, while a heavy counterweight was attached to the short end. To operate it, a person would pull down on the rope to lower the bucket into the water source; the counterweight would then assist in lifting the filled bucket, allowing the operator to raise water with significantly less effort than lifting it manually.132

In India, this device is also known as a denkli or paecottah. To reach higher elevations, multiple shadoofs were sometimes arranged in a series, one above the other.1