Rainwater harvesting in ancient civilizations in Jordan

One might think that locations of settlements through history depended on the existence of a nearby permanent water source. Wåhlin thinks that anthropologists and geographers seem to have missed that people in settlements in many parts of the Middle East were able to create for themselves a near-per...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inWater science & technology. Water supply Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 85 - 93
Main Authors AbdelKhaleq, R.A., Alhaj Ahmed, I.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London IWA Publishing 01.01.2007
Subjects
Arid climates
Arid lands
Arid zones
Aridity
Canals
Castles
Cisterns
Freshwater
Harvesting
Historic sites
Hydraulic systems
Rain
Rain water
Rainwater recovery systems
Reservoirs
Rivers
Water harvesting
Water management
Water resources
Water shortages
Water supply
Middle East
Jordan, Petra
Indonesia, Jawa
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Summary:One might think that locations of settlements through history depended on the existence of a nearby permanent water source. Wåhlin thinks that anthropologists and geographers seem to have missed that people in settlements in many parts of the Middle East were able to create for themselves a near-permanent water supply in places where nature was not kind enough to place a river or a spring. Several sites in Jordan provide examples of these creations. Despite an arid to semi-arid climate, several civilizations have started and flourished in these conditions. This paper summarizes the types of systems that people have used through history to develop reliable water supplies in this part of the world. Jawa was a settlement in northern Jordan during the Bronze Age that built an extensive hydraulic system. At Um El Jimal, a city in northern Jordan during the Byzantine era, deflection dams, canals and reservoirs provided a local water supply. Neabateans excelled in water management using cut-stone reservoirs in their capital, Petra, and their empire flourished more than 2500 years ago in what is now southern and central Jordan. Underground cisterns found in Umayyad desert castles in different parts of the country reveal similar activities during the Islamic era. Examining how water resources were managed long ago can provide relevant information in facing the water-resources challenges of today in arid lands.
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ISSN:1606-9749
1607-0798
DOI:10.2166/ws.2007.010