Management of water resources over time in semiarid regions: The case of Gerasa/Jerash in Jordan

Abstract

This article tackles ways in which archeological research can give perspectives on the development of water management and the strategies behind such management systems in ancient societies of historical periods. It focuses on the city Gerasa/Jerash in northern Jordan, which was one of the middle‐sized Decapolis cities that flourished from the Roman period (first century CE) until the end of the Umayyad period, when a devastating earthquake hit the city in 749 CE bringing urban life to an almost complete halt. Only in the middle Islamic period (13th century CE) the site was resettled. The article focuses on how scattered archeological evidence–which is usually not published by archeological projects due to its feeble nature—can bring new knowledge to light about the ways in which water was managed in urban contexts, in particular in semiarid regions, such as the region in which Gerasa was located. Pushing borders for how we can frame and interpret archeological evidence in wider diachronic perspectives is a necessity in archeology—not least in regions where archeology is under threat due to modern urban development and the general lack of resources to develop cultural heritage management plans. This article is categorized under: Human Water > Methods Human Water > Water Governance

Reading an Urban Palimpsest: How the Gradual Loss of an Urban Stream Impacts Urban Form's Connections and Ecosystem Functions

“…Indeed, from their earliest formation in the Near East during the Chalcolithic (4500-3300 BC) and Early Bronze Age (3300-2100 BC), human settlements mostly developed near streams (Albright, 1925;Cordova, 2007). During the subsequent Hellenistic and Roman periods access to water was closely tied to long-term prosperity (Lichtenberger and Raja, 2020) and as such, formed a central and integral part of urban form. This is most aptly discerned through the morphological arrangement of urban settlements like the Decapolis Cities where archaeological evidence reveals how major civic structures and thoroughfares (like the north-south Cardo and the east-west Documani) were aligned with the streams.…”

“…This is most aptly discerned through the morphological arrangement of urban settlements like the Decapolis Cities where archaeological evidence reveals how major civic structures and thoroughfares (like the north-south Cardo and the east-west Documani) were aligned with the streams. For instance, Gadara (modern-day Jerash in Jordan) was also known as Antioch on the Golden River (Lichtenberger et al, 2019;Lichtenberger and Raja, 2020) to underscore its strong ties with the river. Moreover, Gadara's land relief-a shallow north-south valley where the river ran surrounded by hills on both sides-shaped its urban form.…”

Water and ancient cities: Urban supply systems

“…However, there are ample examples of past water systems integrating the management of groundwater reserves, water catchment stability, and soil moisture together with capturing and storing technologies to secure water supply for subsistence, food production, and resource processing. This is particularly well illustrated by examples from the Jordan desert (Raja & Lichtenberger, 2019), the Mediterranean island of Sardinia (Cespa, 2018), and Scandinavia (Poulsen &…”

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“…Evidence here revealed that the on-site red horizons are either intact pedogenic or moved by human endeavor to create a placed red horizon. The related ancient urban water management is discussed by Stott et al (2018), Lichtenberger and Raja (2020) and Passchier et al (2021).…”