Water, Life

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Water, Life Civilisation Annual meeting 22
January 2006
First, a reminder of the proposal to the
Leverhulme Trust
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Climate, Water and Civilisation Model,
Predictions and Evaluations by  University of
Reading 
A project with five components Climate
modelling Hydrological modelling Palaeoenvironment
al studies Archaeological studies Development
studies
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Aim To assess the impact of changes in the
hydrological climate on past, present and future
societies in the semi-arid regions of the Middle
East and North Africa, with a case study of the
Jordan Valley
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The five sub-projects and their links
Climate modelling To describe annual and seasonal
changes in climate for the Middle East and North
Africa Region, 20,000 BC AD 2100
Archaeological studies To understand human
history within the Jordan Valley, and MENA region
as a whole
Hydrological modelling To describe the spatial
and temporal variations in water flow of the
Jordan River system
Palaeoenvironmental studies To reconstruct
prehistoric, historic and modern landscapes of
the Jordan Valley
Development studies To understand current and
future demands on water usage and supply
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Project management
Project Management Board
Steven Mithen Project PI
Jane Burrell Clerical support
Bill Finlayson Jordan Valley Project manager
(CBRL)
Emily Black UoR Project manager
Lead Researchers
Post-docs Ph.D students
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Emily Black UoR Project manager
Process of project integration
Informal day-to-day contact by sub-project
leaders and staff Ongoing project website
Efficient methods of sharing data and information
Bi-monthly discussion seminars
Formal annual meeting
Outputs
Publications Refereed journal articles in
multiple disciplinary areas Final
monographs Website Media output (eg BBC Horizon
programme)
Reports to Government and non-government
agencies e.g. IPCC and WCRP Jordanian
Ministries of Water and Culture
People knowledge
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WLC PDRAs and Ph.D students
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2.00pm Introduction Annual reports of the WLC
sub-projects 2.10 Archaeology 2.40
Palaeoenvironments 3.10 Tea break 3.30
Hydrology 4.00 Development 4.30
Meteorology 5.00 Plans for 2007 5.10
Break 5.30 Comments from discussants and
general discussion 6.00pm Close wine  
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Archaeology sub-project report
Regional site specific studies
Palaeo health diet studies
Archaeobotanic studies
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Dr Sam Smith
Landscape study of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age
settlement distribution
1. Regional site specific studies
Population and sustainability of Jawa
Multi-period study in Wadi Faynan
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By Jaimie Lovell, CBRL (2006)and Andrew Bradley
Landscape study of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age
settlement distribution
A study of altitude, settlement patterns and
water resources at the transition from the
Chalcolithic EBA in the southern Levant as a
whole, using JADIS and IAA databases Lovell
Bradley, submitted to Journal of Field Archaeology
Data was broken up into drainage basins and
analysed basin by basin.
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The population and sustainability of Jawa
How do archaeologists estimate the size of
prehistoric populations? Our approach based on
carrying capacity of natural resource-
water Our approach uses archaeological,
hydrological and paleoenvironmental data Model
incorporates uncertainty
Early Bronze Age 1 (5600-5000 BP) An urban
centre? Population of 6000? (Helms 1987)
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How much water was available?
Use GCM and observed data to estimate
palaeorainfall Suggests that EB1 may have been a
short wet phase.
Model simulates effect of changes in
precipitation on water available in catchment
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Paper (Whitehead et al) submitted to Journal of
Archaeological Science
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Wadi Faynan

• Long term, regional study
• Arid/semi-arid at present
• Water defines settlement opportunities
• Requires modelling of long term paleohydrology
• Key periods
• Bronze Age to Byzantine field system (WF4)
• Early Neolithic

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WF4 Field system
Complex multi period water management Which
sources of water were exploited? How efficient
was irrigation? What crops were grown?
Excavated 10 trenches to collect samples for
geochemical and phytolith analysis
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Plans for Year 3

• Analyses of sediment samples from WF4
• Gather palaeoclimate data from Wadi Faynan
  travertines
• Run hydrological model of Wadi Faynan under range
  of climatic conditions- assess implications for
  human activity
• New study analyses of Neolithic settlement in
  Jordan Valley

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2. Botanical indicators for irrigation 1. Test
the following claims by crop growing
experiments Rosen Weiner 1994 The form and
structure of phytoliths inform about past
irrigation practices Araus Febrero 1997 The
carbon isotope composition of grains inform about
past irrigation practices 2. Undertake phytolith
and carbon isotope analysis of archaeobotanical
material from the key sites in the Jordan Valley
Dr Emma Jenkins
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Experimental plots at Samra, Dair Alla and Ramtha
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Progress with phytoliths during Year 2

• Wheat, barley and sorghum have all been harvested
  
• Lab work has focused on the methodology for
  processing modern plants to extract the
  phytoliths-i.e wet oxidation or dry ashing and
  processing wheat samples from Khirbet as Samra
• Alongside this we have begun to explore
  taphonomic processes that may affect the
  formation or breakdown of con-joined phytoliths
• Wheat, barley and sorghum have been replanted for
  the next growing season with an additional 40
  irrigation plot

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Single and Multi-celled phytoliths
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Extracting the phytoliths from the modern plant

• Using the 100 irrigated wheat plants from
  Khirbet as Samra three different phytolith
  extraction methods were compared
• Dry ashing
• Dry ashing with a subsequent rinse in 10
  hydrochloric acid
• Wet oxidation using nitric acid and potassium
  chlorate

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Comparison of dry ashing and wet oxidation
Dry ashing with no acid
Wet oxidation

• The results of the comparison of the wet
  oxidation and the dry ashing demonstrate that
  taphonomy does affect multi-celled phytolith
  breakdown
• As a result all processes from formation to
  analysis need to be considered

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Plans for Year 3

• Continue dry ashing the plants from the modern
  crop growing experiments
• Conduct another year of crop growing experiments
  with an additional 40 plot
• Design and conduct taphonomic experiments using
  modern phytoliths
• Process and analyse phytoliths from
  archaeological sites (Wadi Faynan 4)
• Begin work on the carbon isotopes
• Submission of publications to Quaternary
  International, World Archaeology and Journal of
  Archaeological Science

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3. Palaeo health diet studies
Dr Gundula Mueldner
Michela Sandias
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2006 Samples Collection Lab Work

• Material Obtained So Far (sampling partly in
  cooperation with Yarmouk University, Irbid)
• Human Bone samples from 114 human individuals
• Human Teeth from 31 individuals
• Faunal Bone 25 samples
• 83 bone samples were processed
• Collagen Extraction was successful for more than
  half of the samples

• Sites in North JordanTell Yaamun (Bronze Age to
  Byzantine Time)
• Saad (Byzantine Agricultural Site)
• Khirbet Yajuz (Byzantine Agricultural Site)
• Queen Alia International Airport (Roman Site
  South to Amman)

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2006 Preliminary Resultsd13C d15N values for
Human Collagen samples from Tell Yaamun, Khirbet
Yajuz Queen Aliavs Egyptian values (Thompson
et al 2005)

• North Jordan sites (in the oval) show
• more positive d13C than Egyptian sites
• lower d15N values than Egyptian sites
• Queen Alia (yellow square) shows
• more positive d13C values than Yaamun Khirbet
  Yajuz
• higher d15N values than Yaamun Khirbet Yajuz
• More human and faunal data are needed to account
  for the observed differences

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2007 Field Visit to Jordancollection of Second
Sample SeriesPella Jerash (in cooperation with
Pella Excavation Project Jerash Artefacts Study
Centre)

• Pella, in the North of the Jordan Valley, will
  provide skeletal material from the Bronze Age to
  Byzantine Time
• Jerash, a florid city during Roman and Byzantine
  time, will provide comparative material for Pella
  in the Jordan Valley and for the Byzantine sites
  already sampled
• Contacts will be sought to locate Archaeological
  Faunal Bones Assemblages

http//www.atlastours.net/jordan/pella.html
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Plans for Year 3, 2007

• Processing of Samples and Measuring of
• d13C and d15N values in bone collagen
• d18O values in tooth enamel
• Comparative Analysis of Data
• Jordan Valley vs Northern Jordan
• Agricultural Sites vs Urban Sites
• Oxygen Data to be cross-compared with those from
  the Palaeoenvironmental Section of the WLC project

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Overview

• Good progress in all three components of the
  archaeological sub-project
• There has been far greater integration of the
  archaeology and hydrology sub-projects that has
  been anticipated at this stage similarly the
  phytolith project has facilitated access of soil
  samples for Gemma Carrs project
• A constraint on the Jawa and Wadi Faynan studies
  has been the absence of palaeoclimatic models
  from the meteorology sub-project this should be
  overcome during year 3
• Regarding the isotope studies, collaborations
  with some Jordanian archaeologists have been more
  challenging that anticipated
• High field work demands provide a challenge to
  the Archaeology sub-project finances