Extensification in a Mediterranean semi-arid marginal zone: An archaeological case study from Early Iron Age Jordan's Eastern Karak Plateau

Porter, Benjamin W.; Routledge, Bruce; Simmons, Ellen; Lev-Tov, Justin

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2014.01.015

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Those settlements where faunal evidence has been sampled reveal that animal husbandry practices were organized at local levels and based on sheep, goat, cattle, and sometimes pigs; wild animals and fish supplemented diets (Hesse 1986;Lev-Tov 2006;Lev-Tov et al 2011, table 2;Sasson 2010). Paleoethnobotanical studies of plant remains, admittedly limited in their number, demonstrate a reliance on cereals, namely wheat and barley, olives, grapes, and fruits (Kislev 1993;Porter et al 2014). This trend in ruralization extended beyond the fertile areas of agricultural production into more marginal environments where production was challenged by poor soils and lower amounts of precipitation (Porter 2013).…”

Section: Ethnicity Politics and Subsistencementioning

confidence: 99%

Assembling the Iron Age Levant: The Archaeology of Communities, Polities, and Imperial Peripheries

Porter

2016

J Archaeol Res

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Archaeological research on the Iron Age (1200-500 BC) Levant, a narrow strip of land bounded by the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Desert, has been balkanized into smaller culture historical zones structured by modern national borders and disciplinary schools. One consequence of this division has been an inability to articulate broader research themes that span the wider region. This article reviews scholarly debates over the past two decades and identifies shared research interests in issues such as ethnogenesis, the development of territorial polities, economic intensification, and divergent responses to imperial interventions. The broader contributions that Iron Age Levantine archaeology offers global archaeological inquiry become apparent when the evidence from different corners of the region is assembled.

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Section: Ethnicity Politics and Subsistencementioning

confidence: 99%

Assembling the Iron Age Levant: The Archaeology of Communities, Polities, and Imperial Peripheries

Porter

2016

J Archaeol Res

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“…Thus, a working hypothesis for future research may be that for the arid zones of the Levant-even in an improved ecological niche such as the Negev Highlands-sedentarization was a result of opportunities created by economic powers centered outside of the desert. In the Iron IIA, stimulation came from international trade, including the demand for Arabah copper following the decline of production in Cyprus (Knauf 1995:112-3), while in the Byzantine/Early Islamic period expansion of settlement into semi-arid margins (extensification sensu Porter et al 2014) was probably related to population growth, intensification of production, and thus expansion of dry farming into marginal areas utilizing agrarian technological innovations such as terraces. Future research should thus focus on gaining a deeper understanding of other waves of settlement in the Negev Highlands, as well as a better understanding of the available agricultural and water management installations.…”

Section: Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Settlement Oscillations in the Negev Highlands Revisited: The Impact of Microarchaeological Methods

Shahack‐Gross

Finkelstein

2015

Radiocarbon

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Microarchaeological methods, especially those focused on geoarchaeology and radiocarbon dating, have revolutionized the manner in which the Iron Age settlement peak in the Negev Highlands is interpreted. We review here results from field and laboratory studies conducted at two Iron Age sites (Atar Haroa and Nahal Boqer) compared to one Byzantine/ Early Islamic site (Wadi el-Mustayer)-all located near Sede Boqer. We present our methodology, which is based on smallscale but detailed excavations, study of sediments, and identification of livestock dung remains and their utility as indicators of past subsistence practices. To this we add meticulous 14 C dating, ceramic petrography, and identification of botanic and zoological remains. We conclude that subsistence during the Iron Age included tending livestock but did not include agriculture. We further propose that the long-distance trade of copper from the Arabah Valley under Egyptian auspices and possibly the trading of cinnamon, dates, and other Arabian/Indian commodities were the driving force in the initiation (and later decline) of the Iron Age settlement system. We hypothesize that the agricultural settlement peak during the Byzantine/Early Islamic period was also influenced by an imperial power from outside of the Negev and that large-scale agriculture was enabled due to the adoption of new agricultural techniques, including terracing of ephemeral streams along with water diversion systems and possibly water storage facilities such as advanced cisterns. Future studies are expected to shed additional light on the complexity of settlement oscillations in the Negev Highlands region in key periods such as the Early and Intermediate Bronze Ages.

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“…Depending on researchers' disciplines, their work has passed scholarly review in ecology, economics, political science, geomorphology, hydrology, sociology, planning, geography, engineering and archeology. Scientific and professional purposes have included, e.g., the survival of a species or habitat [13][14][15][16][17], the production of food [23,29], safe and equitable water supply for mass consumption [21,52], flood and drought hazard reduction [22,42] and forest water storage and supply [35,36,[53][54][55] Sites and scales have extended from localized and isolated circumstances in specific habitats of California's Russian River [15,16,29,30] and ancient settlements in the Levant [56] to large scale technocratic modes of governance in California [21,22,42] the European Union [42] and, the Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin [57][58][59][60][61][62][63].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilient Governance of Water Regimes in Variable Climates: Lessons from California’s Hydro-Ecological Zones

Romm

Conrad

Måren

2018

Water

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Abstract:Highly variable water regimes, such as California's, contain distinctive problems in the pursuit of secure timing, quantities and distributions of highly variable flows. Their formal and informal systems of water control must adapt rapidly to forceful and unpredictable swings on which the survival of diversified ecosystems, expansive settlement patterns and market-driven economies depends. What constitutes resilient water governance in these high-variability regimes? Three bodies of theory-state resource government, resilience and social mediation-inform our pursuit of governance that adapts effectively to these challenges. Using evidence drawn primarily from California research and participation in the policy and practice of water governance, we identify two stark barriers to learning, adaptation and resilience in high-variability conditions: (1) the sharp divide between modes of governance for ecological (protective) and for social (distributive) resilience and (2) the separation between predominant paradigms of water governance in "basins" (shared streamflow) and in "plains" (minimized social risk). These sources of structural segregation block adaptive processes and diminish systemic resilience, creating need for mediating spaces that increase permeability, learning and adaptation across structural barriers. We propose that the magnitude and diversity of need are related directly to the degree of hydro-climatic variability.

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Extensification in a Mediterranean semi-arid marginal zone: An archaeological case study from Early Iron Age Jordan's Eastern Karak Plateau

Cited by 10 publications

References 57 publications

Assembling the Iron Age Levant: The Archaeology of Communities, Polities, and Imperial Peripheries

Assembling the Iron Age Levant: The Archaeology of Communities, Polities, and Imperial Peripheries

Settlement Oscillations in the Negev Highlands Revisited: The Impact of Microarchaeological Methods

Resilient Governance of Water Regimes in Variable Climates: Lessons from California’s Hydro-Ecological Zones

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