ABSTRACT
The presence of sophisticated, large-scale, agricultural systems dating to classical times in the arid regions of the central Negev, southern Jordan and Sinai has long served both to illustrate the ingenuity of the ancient peoples of the region and as an inspiration to modern peoples as to the potential of wise exploitation of the desert. Archaeological survey has demonstrated that agriculture was practised throughout the Irano-Turanian desert steppe zone in areas that today receive as little as 75 mm average annual rainfall (compare Evenari, et al., 1982:32, fig. 13 to Kedar, 1967). Virtually every wadi worthy of the name shows terrace systems for the damming of flash-floods and their exploitation for farming (Fig. 3.1).
