The potential of historical cisterns as paleoenvironmental and geoarchaeological archive: The Negev Highlands, Israel

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Markus Fuchs
• Subject Area: Physical Geography
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 420073466

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

Ancient open water reservoirs and subterranean cisterns are frequently occurring archaeological installations in drylands like the Negev Highlands, Israel. The former type are round open water reservoirs, which were dug into impermeable layers in foot slope areas and wadis. They may reach 10 m to 12 m in diameter and 4 m to 5 m in depth and were lined internally with unhewn stones and clay or marl that served as an aquiclude. In comparison, subterranean cisterns are rock-cut, excavated into soft limestone or chalk formations with a capacity of up to several hundred cubic meters. These two types of installations to collect and store water can sustain settlements, agriculture, and nomadic pastoralism under dry conditions. Despite the large number of cisterns and reservoirs in the Negev Highlands, they have scarcely been studied systematically. Crucial for investigating water harvesting systems and their sediments is the establishment of robust chronologies of their life cycles. When the cisterns and water reservoirs are constructed, material is removed and deposited on an adjacent spoil pile. During precipitation events surface runoff from adjoining slopes erodes and transports sediments, which are then deposited in the reservoirs and cisterns. As long as they are maintained, the material is removed and also deposited on the spoil pile. After the cessation of maintenance, the installations were filled up with sediments. The transport and deposition of sediments enables the application of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) as the preferred dating method to determine the time of construction, utilization and abandonment of reservoirs and cisterns. The interpretation of OSL ages is supported by micromorphological analyses and provides insights into the life cycles of the different installations, enabling a discussion about their chronology, the circumstance of construction and their purpose. The age determinations of ten studied installations allow the conclusion that the open water reservoirs were introduced into the Negev Highlands latest during the Intermediate Bronze Age with a continuing construction until Medieval times, while the construction of subterranean cisterns started during the Roman period, without interrupting the construction of further reservoirs. From this, it can be derived that the construction of different types of water collection and storage systems occurred in different contexts. While the construction of reservoirs could be carried out by small groups in a relatively short time, the building of cisterns required more technological knowledge, more individuals, and longer periods, facilitated by central authorities.

Publications

• Geoarchaeological Investigation at the Intermediate Bronze Age Negev Highlands Site of Mashabe Sade. Tel Aviv, 43(1), 43-75.
  Dunseth, Zachary C.; Junge, Andrea; Fuchs, Markus; Finkelstein, Israel & Shahack-Gross, Ruth
  
• Dating archaeological sites in an arid environment: A multi-method case study in the Negev Highlands, Israel. Journal of Arid Environments, 144, 156-169.
  Dunseth, Zachary C.; Junge, Andrea; Lomax, Johanna; Boaretto, Elisabetta; Finkelstein, Israel; Fuchs, Markus & Shahack-Gross, Ruth
  
• Chronology of an ancient water reservoir and the history of human activity in the Negev Highlands, Israel. Geoarchaeology, 33(6), 695-707.
  Junge, Andrea; Lomax, Johanna; Shahack‐Gross, Ruth; Finkelstein, Israel & Fuchs, Markus
  
• Ancient cisterns as a palaeoenvironmental archive: A case study from the Negev Highlands (Israel). Poster. INQUA (International Union for Quaternary Research, 25.-31. July 2019, Dublin, Ireland
  Junge, A., Dunseth, Z.C., Shahack-Gross, R., Finkelstein, I. & Fuchs, M.
  
• Ancient water reservoirs and cisterns in the Negev Highlands (Israel): Building a chronology. Vortrag. INQUA (International Union for Quaternary Research, 25.-31. July 2019, Dublin, Ireland
  Junge, A., Dunseth, Z.C., Shahack-Gross, R., Finkelstein, I. & Fuchs, M.
  
• Crowdfinding: the search for the perfect proxy. Vortrag. Junge Geomorphologen (Young Geomorphologists), 17.-19. May 2019
  Junge, A.
  
• Establishing a novel palaeoenvironmental archive: Ancient cisterns in the Negev Highlands (Israel). 2019. Vortrag. Arbeitskreis Geomorphologie (Working Group Geomorphology), 28.-29. September 2019, Kiel, Germany
  Junge, A., Lomax, J., Shahack-Gross, R., Finkelstein, I. & Fuchs, M.
  
• Updating the chronology of ancient water reservoirs and cisterns in the Negev Highlands (Israel). Vortrag. Arbeitskreis Geoarchäologie (Working Group Geoarchaeology), 24.- 26. May 2019, Heidelberg, Germany
  Junge, A., Dunseth, Z.C., Shahack-Gross, R., Finkelstein, I. & Fuchs, M.
  
• Construction and use of rock-cut cisterns: a chronological OSL approach in the arid Negev Highlands, Israel. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 13(9).
  Junge, Andrea; Dunseth, Zachary C.; Shahack-Gross, Ruth; Finkelstein, Israel & Fuchs, Markus
  
• OSL dating of ancient water reservoirs in the Negev Highlands, Israel. Vortrag. German LED Meeting Bonn, 2022
  Lomax, J., Junge, A. & Fuchs, M.
  
• The Archaeology and History of Rock-cut Cisterns and Open Water Reservoirs in the Negev Highlands. Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research, 389, 191-216.
  Junge, Andrea; Dunseth, Zachary C.; Shahack-Gross, Ruth; Finkelstein, Israel & Fuchs, Markus
  
• The importance of ancient water reservoirs for the study of the history of human activities in the Negev Highlands, Israel. Vortrag. Arbeitskreis Wüstenränder, 10.-12. Februar 2023, Rauischholzhausen
  Fuchs, M., Junge, A., Lomax, J., Shahack-Gross, R. & Finkelstein, I.