Long-term management of water in the Central Levant: the Hawran case (Syria)

• Published in: World archaeology Vol. 41; no. 1; pp. 36 - 57
• Main Authors: Braemer, F., Genequand, D., Maridat, C. Dumond, Blanc, P.-M., Dentzer, J.-M., Gazagne, D., Wech, P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01-03-2009; Taylor & Francis Group; Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Agriculture; Ancient civilizations of the near east; ancient Syria; Archaeology; Art and archaeology; Bronze age; Canals; Case studies; Floods; Groundwater; hydraulic systems; Hydraulics; Innovation; Mesopotamia and Near East; Natural reservoirs; Natural springs; Social archaeology; Social organization; Spring water; Stream flow; Sustainability; Syria; Wadis; Water management; Water planning; Water resources; Water supply; Watersheds; Roman antiquity; Antiquity; Byzantin period; Umayyad dynasty; Levant; Near East; Asia; Syria; Water; Hydraulics; Village; Water planning; Tank; sustainability; System; Land use; Settlement; ancient Syria; Environment; River; Social organization; hydraulic systems
• ISSN: 0043-8243; 1470-1375
• DOI: 10.1080/00438240802666424

Apart from hydraulic systems linked to major rivers, the control of water in the Near East is exercised by exploitation of complementary seasonal resources: springs and temporary river floods. Southern Syria preserves many traces of this exploitation. The principal techniques of water catchment and storage were elaborated during the fourth millennium bc. The waterworks of the two following millennia constituted the basic and sustainable infrastructure of the water supply of the area. The technical innovations and the political reorganizations of the Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad times built a second layer of structures. All these systems were in use until the first half of the twentieth century. One can thus follow over six millennia the processes of technical innovation, the periods of collective investment in large-scale waterworks and the reasons for the resilience or the disappearance of the technical systems and their attached social organization.