Hydrological Modeling and Management of Water Ressources in the Syrian Steppe during the Early Bronze Age, the Case of the Fortified City of Al-Rawda

Bertrand Moulin (1) , Olivier Barge (2)

1 CRGA - Centre de Recherche sur l'Environnement et l'Aménagement
2 Archéorient - ARCHEORIENT - Environnements et sociétés de l'Orient ancien

During the end of the third millenium, populations settled in the Syrian steppe in the arid margins of the fertile crescent. The presence of series of settlements, often fortified, raises the question of means subsistence in a context of marked aridity. A prospection planned over 5 years, centered around the sedentary site of the end of the Early Bronze Age, Al Rawda, located in a fayda, aimed to chart precisely the vestiges presents in this pioneer territory. The first results have made it possible to identify hydro-agricultural installations. A geoarcheologic survey of ground was initiated coupled to a space analysis with GIS. It aims to specify the functionality of installations. The construction of an DEM using statements in mesh carried out using a differential GPS Trimble Pro XRS made it possible to identify clearly, through a fine hydrological analysis, the hydrographic network as well as the contributive surface of the basin’s slopes. This one made allowed to show that: The stock management of the water resources was probably articuled around a hydraulic installations system, making it possible alternatively to use the flows available of the main wadi and those of its tributary. The hydraulic system, of which remains only a palimpsest, was to make it able to optimize all flows available and to direct them, using a distributor, in a differentiated way towards zones of culture for which the vegetative needs have varied temporalities, The stock management of water resources seems to have determined for a great part the organization of space around the site, Lastly, of the measurements carried out following the observation of a pluviometric event, by the intermediary of the DEM, allowed to quantify and then to modelise the constributions of possible water and to measure the flooded surfaces.

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire; Géographie

Bertrand Moulin, Olivier Barge. Hydrological Modeling and Management of Water Ressources in the Syrian Steppe during the Early Bronze Age, the Case of the Fortified City of Al-Rawda . Archaeology and Computer (CHNT9), Nov 2004, Vienna, Austria. ⟨hal-01839359⟩