Environment and Land Use in the Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan: the Second Season of Geoarchaeology and Landscape Archaeology (1997)

Abstract

This report describes the second season of fieldwork by an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and geographers integrating geomorphological, palaeoecological, archaeological and hydrological studies to construct a model of landscape development for the past 10,000 years in the Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan. Geomorphological fieldwork has provided further understanding of the sedimentary fills of the survey area, and underlined the importance of tectonic activity as a controlling environmental process. Over half of the complex field system WF4 has been recorded in terms of wall construction, surface artefacts, and hydrological features. A complex sequence of settlement and land use is emerging from these studies, especially regarding systems of floodwater farming over the past three thousand years. Field observations of wadi downcutting and preliminary pollen analysis both suggest that one factor in this development has been considerable environmental change over the same period.