Reproduced with permission of the publisher. © 1997 Council for British Research in the Levant. Details of the publication are available at: http://www.cbrl.org.uk/Publications/publications_default.shtmThe Wadi Faynan Project of the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History (BIAAH) has as its principal objective the provision of a detailed case study in the relationship between environmental change and human history in the arid zone, from prehistory to the present day. This report describes the preliminary findings of an initial campaign of fieldwork in geomorphology and landscape archaeology conducted by an inter-disciplinary team in 1996. A preliminary sequence of fluvial events has been established, represented by the Ghuwayr and Shayqar Beds dated to the Late Pleistocene, and the Faynan and Dana Beds dated to the Holocene. Methodologies have been trialed for recording, dating and interpreting the ancient field system assumed to be of Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine date; initial findings confirm its longevity of use and complexity of purpose. There are also indications that floodwater farming began in the Wadi Faynan in the Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Ag

Barker, G.W

Creighton, O.H

Gilbertson, D.D

Hunt, C.O

Mattingley, D.J

McLaren, S.J

Morgan, G.C

Thomas, D.C

Levant

English

Open Research Exeter

The Wadi Faynan Proiect, Southern jordan: a Prelirninary Report onGeornorphology and Landscape ArchaeoloryG.'fry. Barker*, O.H. Creightons, D.D. Gilbertsonf , C.o. Hunt#,D.J. Mattingly*, S.J. Mclaren$ and D.C. ThornaslT, with an appendixby G.C. Morgans* School of Archaeological Studies, Uniztersity of Leicester, Leicester LEl 7RH, UK.! Institute of Earth Sciences, Uniztersity of Wales, Aberystwyth, Llandinam Building, Aberystwyth,Dyfed SY23 3DB, UK.#School of Geographical and Enaironmental Sciences, Uniaersity of Huddersfietd, Queensgate,Huddersfield HDl 3DH, UK.$ Department of Geography, Uniaersity of Leicester, Leicester LEI 7RH, UK.ll British Institute at Ammanfor Archaeologt and HistoU, PO Box 519, Jubaiha, Amman 11941, Jordan.The Wadi Faynan Project of the British Institute at Amman for Archaeologt and History(BIAAH) has as irs principal objectizte the proaision of a detailed case study in the relationshipbetween enzsironmental change and human history in the arid zone, from prehistory to the presentday. This report describes the preliminary findings of an initial campaign of fieldwork ingeomorphologt and landscape archaeologt conducted by an inter-disciplinary team in 1996. Apreliminary sequence of fluvial eaents has been established, represented by the Ghuwayr andShayqar Beds dated to the Late Pleistocene, and the Faynan and Dana Beds dated to theHolocene. Methodologies haz;e been trialed for recording, dating and interpreting the ancient fieldsystem assumed to be of Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine date; initial findings confirm itslongeztity of use and complexity of purpose. There are also indications that floodwater farmingbegan in the Wadi Faynan in the Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Age.L E V A N T  X X I X  I 9 9 7Introduction (Gtil7B)The Wadi Faynan Project of the British Institute atAmman for Archaeology and History (BIAAH) hasas its principal objective the provision of a detailedcase study in the relationship between environmen-tal change and human history in the arid zone, fromprehistory to the present day. The project is address-ing fundamental issues in the history of desertexploitation in Jordan, with wide relevance for arid-land studies in general. This report describes thepreliminary findings of an initial campaign of field-work in geomorphology and landscape archaeologyconducted by an inter-disciplinary team directed byProf. G. Barker in April and May 1996.Systems of land use in antiquity have frequentlybeen identified as the primary culprits to be blamedfor the legacy of the apparently exhausted, depletedand degraded desert environments seen today.However, contemporary ecological theory for aridand semi-arid lands (Beaumont 1989; Middletonand Pye 1994; Thomas and Middleton l9g4)emphasizes that there are not necessarily the simplelinear relationships today between changes in envi-ronment and land use of the kind implied by manyarchaeological theories about interactions betweenpeople and dryland environments in the past (fordiscussion, see Gilbertson 1996). In order to under-stand the relationship between people and desertstoday - and in order to model such relationships inthe future - we have to have a far better understand-ing of how people have interacted with drylandenvironments in the past. To do this, we need theintegrated methodologies of geo-archaeology, inparticular linking geomorphology and landscapearchaeology (Barker et al. 1996).1 9L E V A N T  X X I X  1 9 9 7Figure 1. The location of the Wadi Faynan within the region.l-akcHaifa TiberiasJerusalem I--/'\'\.\Nt1-IWADI FAYNANSurvev Area -4\ <l<I d/,4/ Rz$/Aqaba0  1 0 2 0  3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 0  8 0kms-The Wadi Faynan was selected by BIAAH as thecase study for three principal reasons. First is thefact that it is a typical desertic region in terms of itsclimate, environment and landforms. The study arealies at the edge of a mountain front in south-westernJordan, immediately east of the trough of the $(radiAraba, which runs south from the Dead Sea to theGulf of Aqaba (Fig. 1). The prirrcipal area of inter-est is the confluence of three wadis, the Ghuwayr (orGhuweir on some maps of Faynan), Shayqar (orSheger or Asheiar on some maps), and Dana, whichmerge to form the Faynan (Fig. 2). The \7adiFaynan is typically, but not always: ? broad lowbasin 100-200 metres above sea level (Fig. 3), whichopens onto the low plain of the Wadi Araba, but theterrain of the upper wadis immediately to the eastand south-east is of notable relief, very rugged andinhospitable, rising dramatically to the fringe of theJordanian upland plateau over 1100 metres abovesea level (Fig.  ).The \(radi Faynan has a dry desertic climate:Rabb'a (1994) records a mean monthly rainfall of17 millimetres for January, falling to 0-0.1 milli-metres from June through to September, rising to17 millimetres in December, whereas rainfall on theplateau - only three to four hours walk from theFaynan confluence - is more than 200 millimetres ayear. In the rugged mountain terrain, the steep,rock-strewn slopes of the ancient faulted bedrockslead down to gravel-bed wadi floors in which power-ful discharges occur at times of floods. To the west,these mountain slopes give way to long, low-angleaprons of colluvial and fluvial fans which merge toform the floor of the desert basin.The second reason for the selection of the regionwas that the wadi has long been known for a remark-able suite of archaeological remains (Glueck 1935;Lagrange 1898; Musil 1907), indicating a variery oflevels of intensity of human exploitation from pre-historic to recent times. The evidence included asuite of settlement and burial sites from the neolithic(Najjar et al. 1990) to the Islamic periods (King1989). The complex is dominated by the major siteof Khirbat Faynan ('the Ruin of Faynan') on a hilloverlooking the wadi confluence. The whole hill iscovered by a dense tumble of sandstone masonry,amidst which can be discerned a large central rec-tangular structure surrounded by a complex of sub-sidiary buildings, streets and lanes, and with twochurches and other structures on a terraced platformto the northeast. Khirbat Faynan has yielded surfaceartefactual evidence for occupation in (at least) theNabataean, Roman and Byzantine periods, and isassumed to be associated with other major monu-ments in the vicinity of the confluence, includingG.\ f  .  BARKER ET AL. The \7adi  Faynan Project ,  Southern Jordan 2lan aqueduct, a major reseryoir and a water mill, allassumed to be of Roman data, and cemeteries(Fig. 2).As he travelled down the Wadi Faynan followinghis visit to Khirbat Faynan, Glueck noted "largestretches of formerly cultivated fields . . . strewnwith Nabataean sherds" (1935, 35). These fieldswere marked out by boulder walls and stretched forseveral kilometres down-wadi along the south side ofthe wadi floor from the confluence. Several com-mentators noted that the surface pottery includedmuch Roman and Byzantine as well as Nabataeanmaterial, suggesting a long history of ancient culti-vation, presumed to be primarily in suppon of thepopulation of Khirbat Faynan. The area is alsoextremely rich in minerals, and extensive research inrecent years, especially by the Bochum MiningMuseum, has demonstrated a rich prehistory andhistory of mineral extraction and exploitation(Adams 1991; Hauptmann 1989 and 1992;Hauptmarun et al. 1992). Khirbat Faynan is assumedto have been the principal focus of this activity in theNabataean, Roman and Byzantine periods, andthe site is commonly identified with references to thecopper mines of Phaino, to which Christians ofPalestine and Egypt were transported in the thirdand founh centuries A.D. Given the wealth ofarchaeological evidence, therefore, the tVadi Faynanseemed ideal for an inter-disciplinary investigationof a desert landscape and of the long-term exploita-tion of its plant, animal and mineral resources.The third reason for the study is that the remark-able archaeological landscapes of the \7adi Faynanare increasingly threatened by modern development:the lower part of the Wadi Faynan has been turnedover to intensive vegetable production irrigated bywater piped down from a major spring in the $(radiGhuwayr and year by year the system is extendingfurther up-wadi. Cemetery sites are also being pil-laged by grave-robbers, the context for an on-goingrescue excavation by a BIAAH team.It must be emphasized that this is not a case studyin environmental determinism: the $fadi Faynanoffered particular opportunities and set particularconstraints for human settlement, but how humansocieties have responded to these has dependedespecially on their social institutions. Also, in nosense can the wadi system be understood as a closedcultural system: the exploitation of mineralresources and trade in metal have of course inextri-cably linked the area with the outside world, whilstin terms of agriculture, for example, the Bedouinpastoralists who currently winter their flocks in thewadi take them up to their villages on the plateauedge in the summer, whilst the market gardening---I2 2  L E V A N T  X x I X  1 9 9 7Figure 2. Detqiled map of the Dana/Ghuwayr/Shayqar confluence, showing the principal archaeological sites and features.l').lv') JY\ ?en| rffirii},1ffii JTower Q{llq.t't\T\tttiil,,.. t! i:ayrNeolithic SiteSouthen-rcemeteryc r ran r re r  1 l  r \  / t\ ="r[-l u/".*l6AQuedtrctCisternMil l t2(X)rn-G.\7.  BARKER ET AL. The Wadi  Faynan Project ,  Southern JordanFigure 3. View west from Khirbat Faynan down the Wadi Faynan towards the Wadi Araba. (Photograph: G. Barkery.F F q - ; * | 1,  * ^ : a :  q232 4  L E V A N T  x x r x  1 9 9 7now expanding in the lower wadi is a cash economydeveloped to meet the expanding urban market ofAmman. Nevertheless, the wadi forms a very attrac-tive focus for an integrated study in landscapearchaeology, precisely to be able to understand thevariety of ways in which its cultural ecology hasadapted to environmental change on the one handand to the outside world on the other.The BIAAH conducted reconnaissance survey inthe \(radi Faynan in the spring of 1995 (Barnes et al.1995): three transects of terrain across the mainwadi below its confluence were investigated byintensive'field-walking'. This fieldwork demon-strated the likelihood of considerable time depth inthe settlement record: the team located numerouslithic scatters likely to be of palaeolithic, epipalae-olithic and neolithic date, a number of concentra-tions of pottery and lithic material of chalcolithicand early bronze age date, possibly associated withburial cairns, and a variety of Nabataean) Romanand Byzantine structures. Furthermore, they alsonoted that the field system in the transects was car-peted with Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine pot-tery, pima facie evidence for a period of use ofsimilar antiquity. Further information has beenobtained by the BIAAH from rescue excavationsundertaken in a major cemetery south-east ofKhirbat Faynan, and from survey around Dana atthe head of the wadi system for the Royal Society forthe Conservation of Nature (Finlayson and Baird1995). The purpose of the fieldwork described inthis report, however, was to begin the process ofdeveloping an integrated geo-archaeological frame-work for the $fadi Faynan Project, by using thetechniques of geomorphology to investigate land-scape evolution and those of landscape archaeologyto investigate the nature and function of the fieldsystem that forms the primary evidence for past landuse. The team worked in the \7adi Faynan in Apriland May 1996, alongside a team directed by DrKaren Wright (University College, London) con-ducting an initial investigation of a setrlement site ofearly bronze age date located by the 1995 BIAAHsurvey within the field system (now designated assite $7F100 in the survey record), though this workis not reported on in detail here.The geornorphic developrnent of the archaeo-logical landscape (DDG, COH, SJM)The study area is immediately to the east of one ofthe fundamental discontinuities of the Earth's crust,the STadi Araba and Dead Sea Transform FaultSystem. The latter forms part of the boundarybetween the African and Arabian tectonic plates,which since the Miocene has accumulated approxi-mately 105 kilometres of left-lateral movement(Quennell 1984). A detailed and referenced accounrof the geology of the region is provided by Rabb'a(ree4).This initial report sets out our present under-standing of the geomorphological development ofthe desertic area defined by the confluence of theWadis Dana, Ghuwayr and Shayqar. The LateQuaternary deposits in the immediate study areahave been described, mapped and interpreted byRabb'a (L994), who recorded the presence of LatePleistocene fluviatile gravels and alluvial fans; LatePleistocene to Holocene alluvial fans; and Holoceneaeolian sands and dunes, and alluvium and wadisediments.It is clear from previous work (for example: Marcoet al. 1994; Quennell 1984) and from our ownunpublished work that the Late Quaternary in thisregion witnessed major climatic, tectonic and relatedenvironmental changes. At times in the LatePleistocene, the wadis in the present study area werecharacterized by the presence of powerful, aggradingrivers, which led to the development of largealluvial fans and boulder-rich terrace deposits.Subsequently, these alluvial fans were subject tosubstantial vertical and lateral erosion. Theseprocesses produced those major elements of the pre-sent basic topography comprised of surficialdeposits. The 1996 fieldwork has further subdividedthese Pleistocene deposits (Fig. 5). Several substan-tial bodies of ancient - presumed Pleistocene -bodies of fluviatile sands and gravels have been pro-visionally recognized in the survey area, though weneed further information before they can bedescribed and interpreted in more detail.In the area of the ancient field system and theassociated complex of archaeological remains, wehave mapped and named a particularly complex setof these alluvial, fluvial and fanglomerates as theGhuwayr Beds. These reach up to fony metresabove the present wadi floor in the study area, andcan be equated with the Pleistocene PLG2 fluviatiledeposits identified by Rabb'a Q999. An early (Pre-Pottery B) neolithic settlement being excavated byMohammad Najjar of the Jordanian Department ofAntiquities, dated to the later eighth and seventhmillennia n.c., is located on the surface of an easternextension of these deposits in the \fadi Ghuwayr(site'Wadi Ghuwayr 1').More generally, within theimmediate study area, neither flint artefacts likely tobe later than palaeolithic in date, nor traces of fieldsystems, have been found resting on surfaces devel-oped on the Ghuwayr Beds. Unrolled artefacts ofG.'$7. BARKER ET AL. The Vadi Faynan Project, Southern Jordan 25Figure 5. Simpffied geomorphological map of the study area.

The Wadi Faynan Project, Southern Jordan: a Preliminary Report on Geomorphology and Landscape Archaeology

https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/10036/28552/1/Pages%201-7%20from%20Wadi%20Fayan.pdf

The Wadi Faynan Project, Southern Jordan: a Preliminary Report on Geomorphology and Landscape Archaeology

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Open Research Exeter