Climate change in Mesopotamia led to the development of a new shared identity. And the societies of the Zerqa Valley in Jordan have been building irrigation systems for 13,000 years, but the irrigation systems also built societies. Thus the conclusions of two theses in archeology.
Although increasing drought often leads to competition and conflict, this does not seem to have happened in northern Mesopotamia. The climate change that took place in the third millennium BC did not lead to war, but rather to the development of a new shared identity. This is apparent from the research by Arne Wossink. Eva Kaptijn was able to establish on the basis of more than 100,000 finds that the Zerqa Valley has been alternately inhabited and irrigated for more than 13,000 years.
Multidisciplinary project
The studies of Wossink and Kaptijn are part of the multidisciplinary project Settling the steppe. The archaeology of changing societies in Syro-Palestinian drylands during the Bronze and Iron Ages. This NWO-funded project aims to provide insight into the variety and stability of human habitation in marginal areas in the Near East. Both will be promoted on November 28th consecutively.
Closer
Wossink investigated how the farmers and nomads in Northern Mesopotamia – the current border region of Turkey, Syria and Iraq – reacted to climate change between 3000 and 1600 BC. He expected to find a lot of evidence of competition:of course, as food and water become scarcer, this could lead to conflict. However, he discovered that the farmers are actually becoming much closer to the semi-nomadic livestock farmers.
Population growth
Wossink analyzed previous finds from the area and ancient texts. His research shows that it is important not to see the climate as the sole cause:human reactions play a major role. He studied three areas, and only one of those areas showed signs of competition between settlements. But it was precisely in that area that a strong population growth was taking place at the same time, which probably caused the competition.
Adjustment
The farmers in Northern Mesopotamia chose not to compete, but to adapt. Wossink shows that the rise of the Amorites, who until now were seen as (semi-) nomads, was not just a process of infiltration. This rise should be seen as the spread of an identity that linked farmers and cattle ranchers. By adopting the Amorite identity, the farmers gained access to a large trade network, which was necessary to get through the dry period.
100,000 finds
Kaptijn does not dig but collects. Together with her colleagues, she applied an intensive field reconnaissance technique:the researchers walk a distance of 50 meters at a distance of 15 meters from each other. On the way there they picked up all the pottery, on the way back all the other material. This yielded more than 100,000 finds, ranging from about 13,000 years old to finds several decades old. Based on further research on these finds and the sites, she was able to determine to what extent the Zerqa Valley in Jordan had been inhabited over the past thousands of years.
Jord Valley
The area where Kaptijn conducted her research is called the Zerqa Triangle, bordered by the Zerqa River, which forms part of the Jordan Valley. The area covers about 72 square kilometers. She discovered that the triangle had been inhabited on and off for thousands of years. But this habitation always depended heavily on the irrigation methods used by the inhabitants. Although the soil in the valley is very rich, there was usually too little rain to grow crops without additional irrigation.
Capitalist sugar cane cultivation
The way of irrigation had a great influence on the inhabitants of the valley; power often depended on controlling the distribution of water. Kaptijn discovered that the nature of the irrigation system could provide for a society of internally egalitarian tribes, in which the tribes were connected to each other in a strong hierarchical order. In other periods, however, the valley was dominated by large-scale, almost capitalist sugar cane cultivation.
- Arne Wossink will receive his PhD on Wednesday 28 October at 3 p.m. under the title Challenging climate change
- Eva Kaptijn will receive her PhD on Wednesday 28 October at 4.15 pm under the title Life on the watershed