from Part IV - Human settlement, climate change, hydrology and water management
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2011
ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the archaeological evidence for water management in the Jordan Valley between the Last Glacial Maximum at 21,000 years ago and the annexation of the Nabataean Kingdom into the Roman Empire at AD 106 – the chronological bounds of the Water, Life and Civilisation project. It summarises the human need for water and available sources in the region before addressing the archaeological evidence for water management in the Epipalaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Nabataean, with some consideration of the environmental, demographic social and economic influences that were either a cause or a consequence of changes in water management strategies. Greatest emphasis within the chapter is placed on the Neolithic period in light of relatively new archaeological discoveries that have not previously been drawn together in a review, and on the key role that water management may have played in the transition from hunting and gathering lifestyles. In contrast, the evidence for Nabataean water management has already received extensive consideration from other authors and is succinctly summarised towards the end of this chapter with a set of references leading to further information. As a whole, this chapter seeks to provide the archaeological background for the case studies that follow in Chapters 15–19 of this volume.
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