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15 - From global climate change to local impact in Wadi Faynan, southern Jordan: ten millennia of human settlement in its hydrological context

from Part IV - Human settlement, climate change, hydrology and water management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2011

By
Sam Smith ,
Andrew Wade ,
Emily Black ,
David Brayshaw ,
Claire Rambeau  and
Steven Mithen
Edited by
Steven Mithen  and
Emily Black
Sam Smith
Affiliation:
Oxford Brookes University
Andrew Wade
Affiliation:
University of Reading
Emily Black
Affiliation:
University of Reading
David Brayshaw
Affiliation:
University of Reading
Claire Rambeau
Affiliation:
University of Reading
Steven Mithen
Affiliation:
University of Reading
Steven Mithen
Affiliation:
University of Reading
Emily Black
Affiliation:
University of Reading
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Summary

ABSTRACT

Wadi Faynan, southern Jordan, provides an archaeological record of human settlement from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Islamic period, and indeed into the present day. As for any long-term record of settlement, an understanding of the changes in economy and society requires knowledge about the impacts of climate and environment change on human communities, especially when dealing with settlement in arid landscapes. This chapter attempts to place the 10,000 years of Holocene settlement in Wadi Faynan between c. 12,000 and 2,000 years ago into its hydrological context. A rainfall-runoff model is used to examine the potential impacts of both Holocene climatic change and human behaviour on the hydrological behaviour of the wadi and then on human settlement. Wade et al. (this volume, Chapter 12) have shown that rainfall-runoff models can successfully simulate the behaviour of the present-day wadi system, demonstrating how such behaviour is sensitive to variability in rainfall and infiltration rates. Here we use the results of regional climate modelling to determine statistical properties of palaeo-rainfall for the Wadi Faynan and then use a stochastic weather generator (this volume, Chapter 5) to create a rainfall series which is used to drive the hydrological model. Results are used to explore the potential impacts of climatic variability on human communities from 12,000 to 2,000 years ago, demonstrating that palaeohydrology may provide a bridge between regional-scale climate data and local-scale cultural developments.

Type
Chapter
Information
Water, Life and Civilisation
Climate, Environment and Society in the Jordan Valley
 , pp. 218 - 244
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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