Experimental crop growing in Jordan to develop methodology for the identification of ancient crop irrigation

Abstract

Crop irrigation has long been recognized as having been important for the evolution of social complexity in several parts of the world. Structural evidence for water management, as in the form of wells, ditches and dams, is often difficult to interpret and may be a poor indicator of past irrigation that may have had no need for such constructions. It would be of considerable value, therefore, to be able to infer past irrigation directly from archaeo-botanical remains, and especially the type of archaeo-botanical remains that are relatively abundant in the archaeological record, such as phytoliths. Building on the pioneering work of Rosen and Wiener (1994), this paper describes a cropgrowing experiment designed to explore the impact of irrigation on the formation of phytoliths within cereals. If it can be shown that a systemic and consistent relationship exists between phytolith size, structure and the intensity of irrigation, and if various taphonomic and palaeoenvironmental processes can be controlled for, then the presence of past irrigation can feasibly be inferred from the phytoliths recovered from the archaeological record.

An investigation into the archaeological application of carbon stable isotope analysis used to establish crop water availability: solutions and ways forward

“…The Water, Life and Civilisation project's crop growing experiments in Jordan are described in detail by Jenkins et al (this volume, Chapters 21 and 23) and Mithen et al (2008). In brief, native land races of durum wheat were grown over three consecutive years (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008) at three crop growing stations on the Jordanian plateau (Khirbet as Samra and Ramtha) and in the Jordan Valley (Deir 'Alla) (Figure 22.2).…”

“…Scarborough, 2003). Unfortunately, they are often difficult to detect archaeologically (see Mithen et al, 2008). A reliable method for establishing whether artificial crop irrigation existed at an ancient settlement would therefore be invaluable.…”

“…This observation is neither surprising nor new, given the Values shown are average of up to three years of cultivation and overall average of all available samples, and standard deviation (1s) for each site across all irrigation regimes. Some years did not produce sufficient cereal crop for analysis because of the dry conditions and attack by birds (see Mithen et al, 2008).…”

“…A central question concerns the extent to which environmental variables other than water stress affect 13 C discrimination in plants and whether these effects can be sufficiently accounted for in past environments. Addressing this issue was one of the key aims of the Water, Life and Civilisation project's experimental crop growing programme in Jordan (Mithen et al, 2008). This chapter reports on the first results of this investigation, by first discussing how carbon stable isotope analysis of cereal remains is currently used within archaeology and then presenting the outcomes of a pilot study into the effect of water stress on carbon stable isotope signatures under different environmental conditions using wheat from three crop growing stations in Jordan.…”

Carbon stable isotope analysis of cereal remains as a way to reconstruct water availability: preliminary results

“…For a more detailed description of irrigation and harvesting strategies, see Mithen et al (2008) and Jenkins et al (2011).…”