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 interdisciplinaty team of archaeologists and geographers integrating geomorphological, palaeoecological, archaeological and hydrological studies to consttuct a model of landscape deaelopment for the past 10,000 years in the Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan. Geomorphological fieldwork has proaided further understanding of the sedimentary fills of the survey area, and underlined the importance of tectonic actiaity as a controlling environmental process. Oaer 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 oaer the past three thousand years. Field obsensations of wadi downcutting and preliminary pollen analltsis both suggest that one factor in this deztelopment has been considerable enztironmental change ozter the same period.