ABSTRACT
Studying irrigation history is studying the history of civilisation in dry areas where the natural environment and water infrastructure are closely connected. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the ways irrigation provided the material base for civilisations to prosper. Our knowledge how irrigation developed as interplay between hydraulic and humans is limited, presumably because that kind of knowledge is highly interdisciplinary in nature. Several aspects of water use in irrigation systems need to be explored, including timing and distribution, in order to study how water fluxes on different time scales could be incorporated in archaeological research. This paper discusses irrigation in the Zerqa triangle in the Jordan Valley where water tapped from the Zerqa River was transported to the fields through open canals under gravity. The settlement patterns found in the valley suggest close connections to the canal system from the Iron Age onwards. Physical aspects of the irrigated landscape will be explored by basic hydrological and hydraulic modelling.
