SpringerLink
Log in

“He who revives dead land”: groundwater harvesting agroecosystems in sand along the southeastern Mediterranean coast since early medieval times

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Mediterranean Geoscience Reviews Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

During the Early Islamic period, groundwater-harvesting agroecosystems in sand appeared along the southeastern Mediterranean coast in the form of plot and berm (P&B) agroecosystems. P&B agroecosystems are agricultural utilizations of shallow, perched rainfall-fed groundwater tables within loose aeolian sand sheets of agricultural hinterlands. These systems involve man-made sand berms that delimit sunken agricultural plots in which refuse-enriched sand transformed into distinct anthrosols. Groundwater table is easily accessible to crop roots and/or humans for water extraction and can support several annual crop cycles. P&B agroecosystems demonstrate innovative adaptations to aeolian and fluvial erosion. Despite the lack of written records, these agroecosystems apparently developed in response to religio-administrative calls for a type of mawāt (Arabic: “dead”) land reclamation. Mawāt are unowned wastelands, which were an important religion-based matter in Islamic economic history. Contemporary mawasi agroecosystems along the northeastern Sinai Peninsula and Southern Gaza Strip Mediterranean coast are similar to the Early Islamic systems. They are reclaimed today by sedentary Bedouins using mechanized water drilling and modification of plot and soil surface levels to compensate for fluctuating groundwater levels. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, Arab peasants cultivated grapes and fruit trees in interdune plantations along the Gaza Strip and southern Israeli coast where the groundwater table was several meters beneath the surface. These three groundwater harvesting agroecosystems in sand are resourceful rainfall-fed agrotechnologies that are independent of the physical and juridical constraints of surficial water supply systems. The unique concentration of these agroecosystems along the southeastern Mediterranean coastal strip implies that biocultural memories were probably transmitted by Islamic culture since their hypothesized inception in coastal Israel. Preservation of these sustainable agroecosystems is a matter of geoethical responsibility and should be treated like other endangered archaeo-landscape elements of the Mediterranean past.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The fourth, rounded structure was identified as a limekiln, whose construction likely post-dated the abandonment of the discussed agroecosystem.

References

  • Aarusi N (1993) Criteria for irrigation of greenhouse tomatoes in the Katif region, Hassada, Israel

  • Abd Rabou AN (2019a) The mammalian, reptilian and amphibian fauna of Al-Mawasi ecosystem, south-western Gaza strip—Palestine. Agric Res Technol Open Access J 23(1):00301–00314

    Google Scholar 

  • Abd Rabou AN (2019b) Ornithofauna prevailing at Al-Mawasi ecosystem of the Gaza strip. Palestine. Open Ecol J 9(9):360–400

    Google Scholar 

  • Abrunhosa M, Chambel A, Peppoloni S, Chaminé HI (eds) (2021) Advances in geoethics and groundwater management: theory and practice for a sustainable development. Proceedings of the first congress on geoethics and groundwater management (GEOETH&GWM'20), Porto, Portugal 2020, Springer, Berlin

  • Abū Yūsuf Y (1969) Taxation in Islam 3. Abū Yūsuf’s Kitāb al-kharāj, ed. and trans. by Ben Shemesh A. Brill, Leiden

  • Abu-Alnaeem MF, Yusoff I, Alias Y, Raksmey M (2018) Assessment of groundwater salinity and quality in Gaza coastal aquifer, Gaza Strip, Palestine: an integrated statistical, geostatistical and hydrogeochemical approaches study. Sci Total Environ 615:972–989

    Google Scholar 

  • Ackermann O, Zhevelev HM, Svoray T (2019) Agricultural systems and terrace pattern distribution and preservation along climatic gradient: from sub-humid Mediterranean to arid conditions. Quat Int 502:319–326

    Google Scholar 

  • Al Farraj A, Harvey AM (2004) Late Quaternary interactions between aeolian and fluvial processes: a case study in the northern UAE. J Arid Environ 56(2):235–248

    Google Scholar 

  • Al Naber M, Molle F (2017) Water and sand: is groundwater-based farming in Jordan’s desert sustainable? Groundw Sustain Dev 5:28–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Almagor G, Perath I (2012) The Mediterranean Sea coast of Israel. Survey of Isr Report GSI/28/2012

  • Almog R (2011) The water regime at the interdune of the Southern coastal plain, Israel. Ph.D. dissertation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Hebrew with English abstract)

  • Alsahhar AM (2015) Impacts of using treated wastewater in irrigated agriculture on efficiency of farming resources and activities in almwasi-Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, Palestine. PhD Dissertation, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza Strip

  • Al-Saud MM (2018) The effect of construction on feeding the groundwater reservoir in Al-Mawasi area in the Gaza Strip. In: Gaza: converting crises into opportunities, disaster and crisis management, directorate general of libraries and manuscripts, Ministry of Culture, Palestine, pp 183–193‏

  • Ashkenazi E, Avni Y, Avni G (2012) A comprehensive characterization of ancient desert agricultural systems in the Negev Highlands of Israel. J Arid Environ 86:55–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Avner U (2016) Desert farming in the southern ‘Araba Valley, Israel, 2nd century BCE to 11th century CE. In: Retamero F, Schjellerup I, Davies A (eds) Agricultural and Pastoral landscapes in pre-industrial society: choices, stability and change, 3. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 19–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Avni G (2014) The Byzantine–Islamic transition in Palestine: an archaeological approach. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Avni G (2018) Early Islamic irrigated farmsteads and the spread of qanats in Eurasia. Water History. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-018-0225-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Avni G (2020) Terraced fields, irrigation systems and agricultural production in Early Islamic Palestine and Jordan: continuity and innovation. J Islam Archaeol 7(2):111–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Avni G, Porat N, Avni Y (2013) Byzantine-Early Islamic agricultural systems in the Negev Highlands: stages of development as interpreted through OSL dating. J Field Archaeol 38(4):332–346

    Google Scholar 

  • Avni Y, Avni G, Porat N (2019) A review of the rise and fall of ancient desert runoff agriculture in the Negev Highlands—a model for the southern Levant deserts. J Arid Environ 163:127–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachir K, Salah B, Youcef H (2016) Some agricultural techniques to cope with the fluctuation of the groundwater level in arid environments: case of the Souf Oasis (Algerian Sahara). J Arid Agric 2:26–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Yosef B (1977) Trickle irrigation and fertilization of tomatoes in sand dunes: water, N, and P distributions in the soil and uptake by plants 1. Agron J 69(3):486–491

    Google Scholar 

  • Beckers B (2014) Ancient food and water supply in drylands. Dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin‏

  • Beckers B, Berking J, Schütt B (2013) Ancient water harvesting methods in the drylands of the Mediterranean and Western Asia. eTopoi J Ancient Stud 2:145–164

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergman N, Sholker O, Roskin J, Greenbaum N (2014) The Nahal Oz Reservoir dam-break flood: geomorphic impact on a small ephemeral loess-channel in the semi-arid Negev Desert, Israel. Geomorphology 210:83–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Berman A, Stark H, Barda L (2004) Archaeological survey of Israel: map of Ziqim, vol 91. Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem

  • Bohle M (2015) simple geoethics: an essay on daily earth science. Geol Soc Lond 419(1):5–12. https://doi.org/10.1144/SP419.3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bohle M, Sibilla A, Graells RCI (2017) A concept of society-Earth-centric narratives. Ann Geophys. https://doi.org/10.4401/ag-7358

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolens L (2016) Agriculture in the Islamic World. In: Selin H (ed) Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-western cultures

  • Butzer KW (1994) The Islamic traditions of agroecology: crosscultural experience, ideas and innovations. Ecumene 1(1):7–50

  • Carmi I, Stiller M, Kronfeld J (2018) Dynamics of water soil storage in the unsaturated zone of a sand dune in a semi-arid region traced by humidity and carbon isotopes: the case of Ashdod. Israel Radiocarbon 60(4):1259–1267

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen-Shacham E, Andrade A, Dalton J, Dudley N, Jones M, Kumar C, Maginnis S, Maynard S, Nelson CR, Renaud FG, Welling R (2019) Core principles for successfully implementing and upscaling nature-based solutions. Environ Sci Policy 98:20–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Conder CR, Kitchener HH (1880) Maps of Western Palestine, in 26 sheets, from surveys conducted for the committee of the Palestine exploration fund (PEF) during the years 1872–1887. Survey of Western Palestine

  • Contreras DA, Robin V, Gonda R, Hodara R, Dal Corso M, Makarewicz C (2014) (Before and) after the flood: a multiproxy approach to past floodplain usage in the middle Wadi el-Hasa, Jordan. J Arid Environ 110:30–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Cultural Heritages of Water (2007) The cultural heritages of water in the Middle East and Maghreb, 2nd edn. UNESCO, UNESCO, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Cytryn-Silverman K (1996) The Islamic period in north Sinai: the pottery evidence. MA thesis, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

  • Dagan Y, Sharon I (2011) “Perspectives and Methodology.” In Dagan Y (ed) The Ramat Bet Shemesh regional project: landscape of settlement: from the paleolithic to the Ottoman periods (IAA Reports 47). Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, pp 21–45

  • Danin A (1981) Vegetation around Caesarea and its uniqueness. Kardom 18:115–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Debs RA (2010) Islamic law and civil code. In: The law of property in Egypt. Columbia University Press, New York

  • Decker M (2009) Plants and progress: rethinking the Islamic agricultural revolution. J World Hist 20(2):187–206

  • Dominguez S, Kolm KE (2005) Beyond water harvesting: a soil hydrology perspective on traditional Southwestern agricultural technology. Am Antiq 70:732–765

    Google Scholar 

  • Doolittle W (1998) Innovation and diffusion of sand-and gravel-mulch agriculture in the American southwest: a product of the eruption of Sunset Crater [Invention et diffusion de l’agriculture avec «paillage» de sables et graviers dans le sud-ouest des Etats-Unis: une conséquence de l’éruption de Sunset Crater]. Quaternaire 9(1):61–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Eger AA (2011) Early Islamic Syria: an archaeological assessment‏

  • El-Eini RIM (2006) Mandated landscape: British imperial rule in Palestine, 1929–1948. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Erasmus CJ (1965) Monument building: some field experiments. Southwest J Anthropol 21(4):277–301

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson CL (2006) Intensification, political economy, and the farming community; in defense of a bottom-up perspective of the past. Department of Anthropology Papers, University of Pennsylvania

  • Evenari M, Shanan L, Tadmor N (1982) The Negev: the challenge of a desert. Harvard University Press, Harvard

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer M, Taxel I (2007) Ancient Yavneh: its history and archaeology. Tel Aviv 34(2):204–284

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer M, Taxel I (2021) Life in the dunes. The western hinterland of Yubna/Yavneh in late Ottoman and British Mandate times. J East Mediterr Archaeol Heritage Stud 9(1–2):29–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Forste KM (2021) An intrasite analysis of agricultural economy at early Islamic Caesarea Maritima. Isr Ethnobiol Lett 12(1):58–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Frantzman SJ, Kark R (2013) The Muslim settlement of late Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine: comparison with Jewish settlement patterns. Dig Middle East Stud 22(1):74–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Friman Y (1983) Challenges and advantages for agricultural development in Gush Katif. Seminal paper (advised by Prof. D. Grossman). Department of Geography Bar-Ilan University, Israel

  • Fuks D, Amichay O, Weiss E (2020) Innovation or preservation? Abbasid aubergines, archaeobotany, and the Islamic Green Revolution. Archaeol Anthropol Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00959-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gadot Y, Davidovich U, Avni G, Avni Y, Piasetzky M, Faershtein G, Golan D, Porat N (2016) The formation of a Mediterranean terraced landscape: Mount Eitan, Judean Highlands, Israel. J Archaeol Sci Rep 6:397–417

    Google Scholar 

  • Galai A (1984) Report on the hydrogeological condition of the (mawasi) pond, Gush Katif. Hydrological Dept., Tahal (Hebrew)

  • Gendelman P, Ad U (2019) Caesarea Maritima—a view from outside: the periphery of the Roman and Byzantine Metropolis. In: Judaea/Palaestina and Arabia: cities and hinterlands in Roman and Byzantine Times: Panel 8, pp 6–19‏

  • Given M (2018) Conviviality and the life of soil. Cambridge Archaeol J 28(1):127–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg D, Gornat B, Ben-Asher J (1970) Background material for the agricultural development of the al-Arish region and Nahal Sinai (The Society for Scientific Publications, Bet Dagan, Israel, Bulletin 136). Volcani Center, Bet Dagan (Hebrew)

  • Griffiths D (2011) The archaeology of sand landscapes looking for an integrated approach. Scottish Archaeol Internet Rep 48:9–23

    Google Scholar 

  • GuoYu R (1997) Formation and environmental significance of the buried soil under sand dunes on the major sand lands in northeast China [J]. Arid Land Geogr 2

  • Guttmann-Bond E (2010) Sustainability out of the past: how archaeology can save the planet. World Archaeol 42(3):355–366

    Google Scholar 

  • Guttmann-Bond E (2019) The ethics of sustainable archaeology. Antiquity 93(372):1666–1668

    Google Scholar 

  • Gvirtzman H, Shalev E, Dahan O, Hatzor YH (2008) Large-scale infiltration experiments into unsaturated stratified loess sediments: monitoring and modeling. J Hydrol 349(1–2):214–229

    Google Scholar 

  • Haiman M (2012) Dating the agricultural terraces in the southern Levantine deserts—the spatial-contextual argument. J Arid Environ 86:43–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellström B (1953) The ground water supply of North-Eastern Sinai. Geogr Ann 35(2):61–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Huster Y (2015) Ashkelon 5: the land behind Ashkelon. Antiquity 93:1653–1660. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.139

  • Hutchings RM, La Salle M (2019) Sustainable archaeology: soothing rhetoric for an anxious institution. Antiquity 93:1653–1660. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Issar A (1968) Geology of the central coastal plain of Israel. Isr J Earth Sci 17:16–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacotin (1799) Mémoire sur la construction de la carte de l'Égypte

  • Jones R (2009) Manure and the medieval social order. In: Allen MJ, Sharples N, O’Connor T (eds) Land and people: papers in memory of John G. Evans. Prehistoric Society/Oxbow, Oxford, pp 215–225

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahlown MA, Ashraf M (2005) Effect of shallow groundwater table on crop water requirements and crop yields. Agric Water Manag 76(1):24–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Kass A, Gavrieli I, Yechieli Y, Vengosh A, Starinsky A (2005) The impact of freshwater and wastewater irrigation on the chemistry of shallow groundwater: a case study from the Israeli coastal aquifer. J Hydrol 300(1):314–331

    Google Scholar 

  • Kedar Y, Ziv Y (1964) The water supply of ancient Caesarea. Yediot Bull Isr Explor Soc 28:122–131 (Hebrew)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kendal J, Tehrani J, Odling-Smee FJ (2012) Human niche construction in interdisciplinary focus. Philos Trans R Soc Biol Sci 366:785–792

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy H (2011) The feeding of the five hundred thousand: cities and agriculture in Early Islamic Mesopotamia. Iraq 73:177–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Khalidi T (1984) Tribal settlement and patterns of land tenure in early Medieval Palestine. In: Khalidi T (ed) Land tenure and social transformation in the Middle East. American University, Beirut, pp 181–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Kluiving SJ (2015) How geoarchaeology and landscape archaeology contribute to niche construction theory (NCT). Water Hist 7(4):557-571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirchner H (2019) Water management and irrigation in medieval mediterranean societies: an overview. Convivencia and Medieval Spain, pp 65–98

  • Kutiel PB, Katz O, Ziso-Cohen V, Divinsky I, Katra I (2016) Water availability in sand dunes and its implications for the distribution of Artemisia monosperma. Catena 137: 144–151

  • Lev B (1988) Camelus. In: Arnon I (ed) Encyclopedia of plans and animals of the land of Israel, vol 12. Ministry of Defence/The Publishing House Society for Protection of Nature, Tel Aviv, pp 242–243 (Hebrew)

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin N (2006) The Palestine Exploration Fund map (1871–1877) of the Holy Land as a tool for analysing landscape changes: the coastal dunes of Israel as a case study. Cartogr J 43(1):45–67

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin N, Ben-Dor E (2004) Monitoring sand dune stabilization along the coastal dunes of Ashdod-Nizanim, Israel, 1945–1999. J Arid Environ 58(3):335–355

    Google Scholar 

  • Lightfoot DR (2000) The origin and diffusion of qanats in Arabia: new evidence from the northern and southern peninsula. Geogr J 166(3):215–226

    Google Scholar 

  • Liphschitz N, Bigger G (2004) Green dress for a country: afforestation in Eretz Israel. The first hundred years 1850–1950. Ariel, Jerusalem

  • Lucke B, Al-Karaimeh S, Schorner G (2019) Channels, terraces, pottery, and sediments—a comparison of past irrigation systems along a climatic transect in northern Jordan. J Arid Environ 160:56–73

    Google Scholar 

  • Macpherson GL, Johnson WC, Liu H (2017) Viability of karezes (ancient water supply systems in Afghanistan) in a changing world. Appl Water Sci 7(4):1689–1710

    Google Scholar 

  • McKee ED (1979) Introduction to a study of global sand seas. In: McKee ED (ed) A study of global sand seas, vol 1052. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, pp 1–19‏

  • Milwright M (2010) An introduction to Islamic archaeology. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitra BK, Sasaki C, Enari K, Matsuyama N, Fujita M (2007) Suitability assessment of shallow groundwater for agriculture in sand dune area of northwest Honshu Island Japan. Appl Ecol Environ Res 5(1):177–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Muhs DR, Roskin J, Tsoar H, Skipp G, Budahn JR, Sneh A, Porat N, Stanley JD, Katra I, Blumberg DG (2013) Origin of the Sinai-Negev erg, Egypt and Israel: mineralogical and geochemical evidence for the importance of the Nile and sea level history. Quat Sci Rev 69:28–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Naim AN (2010) Potential of solar pum** in Palestine. In: International Water Technology Conference (IWTC), pp 1–11‏

  • Neber A (2002) Sedimentological properties of quaternary deposits on the central coastal plain. PhD. diss., University of Haifa

  • Nicoll K (2018) A revised chronology for Pleistocene paleolakes and Middle Stone Age-Middle Paleolithic cultural activity at Bîr Tirfawi-Bîr Sahara in the Egyptian Sahara. Quat Int 463:18–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Nol H (2014) Settlement and rule in the eighth-ninth centuries: the Arava as a case study. Cathedra 153:734 (Hebrew)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nol H (2015) The fertile desert: agriculture and copper industry in Early Islamic Arava (Arabah). Palest Explor Q 147(1):49–68

    Google Scholar 

  • Nosetto MD, Jobbágy EG, Jackson RB, Sznaider GA (2009) Reciprocal influence of crops and shallow ground water in sandy landscapes of the Inland Pampas. Field Crops Res 113(2):138–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Omran ESE (2017) Land and groundwater assessment for agricultural development in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. In: Negm AM (eds) Conventional water resources and agriculture in Egypt. The handbook of environmental chemistry, vol. 74. Springer, Champaign

  • Pintó J, Martí C, Fraguell RM (2014) Assessing current conditions of coastal dune systems of Mediterranean developed shores. J Coastal Res 30(4):832–842

    Google Scholar 

  • Porath Y (1975) The gardens of Caesarea. Qadmoniot 30–31:90–93 (Hebrew)

    Google Scholar 

  • Porath Y (2016) Tunnel-well (qanat) systems and settlements from the Early Islamic period in the Arava. Atiqot 86:1–81 (Hebrew)

    Google Scholar 

  • Porat N, Davidovich U, Avni Y, Avni G, Gadot Y (2018) Using OSL measurements to decipher soil history in archaeological terraces, Judean Highlands, Israel. Land Degrad Dev 29(3):643–650

  • Prawer J (1972) The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: European Colonialism in the middle ages. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Puy A, Herzog M, Escriche P, Marouche A, Oubana Y, Bubenzer O (2018) Detection of sand encroachment patterns in desert oases. The case of Erg Chebbi (Morocco). Sci Total Environ 642:241–249

    Google Scholar 

  • Quickel AT, Williams G (2016) In search of sibākh: digging up Egypt from antiquity to the present day. J Islamic Archaeol 3(1):89–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramsay J, Holum K (2015) An archaeobotanical analysis of the Islamic period occupation at Caesarea Maritima. Israel Veg Hist Archaeobot 24(6):655–671

    Google Scholar 

  • Ravikovitch S (1981) The soils of Israel. Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv (Hebrew)

  • Ravikovitch S (1992) The soils of Israel: formation, nature and properties. Tel Aviv: Hakibbuts Hamehuchad (Hebrew)

  • Reifenberg A (1950) Caesarea: a study in the decline of a town. Isr Explor J 1:20–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Remini B, Kechad R (2011) Impact of the water table razing on the date degradation of el Oued palm plantation (Algeria): mechanisms and solutions. Geogr Techn 13:1

    Google Scholar 

  • Ribeiro L (2021) Revisiting ancestral groundwater techniques as nature-based solutions for managing water. In: Abrunhosa M, Chambel A, Peppoloni S, Chaminé HI (eds) Advances in geoethics and groundwater management: theory and practice for a sustainable development. Proceedings of the first congress on geoethics and groundwater management (GEOETH&GWM'20), Porto, Portugal 2020, Springer, Berlin

  • Rosenan N (1955) One hundred years of rainfall in Jerusalem: a homotopic series of annual amounts. Isr Explor J 5(3):137–153

    Google Scholar 

  • Roskin J, Taxel I (2021) Groundwater-Fed Plot-and-Berm Agroecosystems in Aeolian Sand in the Mediterranean Basin. In: Abrunhosa M, Chambel A, Peppoloni S, Chaminé HI (eds) Advances in geoethics and groundwater management: theory and practice for a sustainable development. Proceedings of the first congress on geoethics and groundwater management (GEOETH&GWM’20), Porto, Portugal 2020, Champaign, pp 473–478

  • Roskin J, Sivan D, Shtienberg G, Roskin E, Porat N, Bookman R (2015) Natural and human controls of the Holocene evolution of the beach, aeolian sand and dunes of Caesarea (Israel). Aeolian Res 19:65–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Roskin J, Sivan D, Shtienberg G, Porat N, Bookman R (2017) Holocene beach buildup and coastal aeolian sand incursions off the Nile littoral cell. In: EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, p 844

  • Salasal SMMS (1998) The concept of land ownership: Islamic perspective. Buletin Geoinformasi 2(2):285–304

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez R, Cuellar M (2016) Coastal interdune agroecosystems in the Mediterranean: a case study of the Andalusian Navazo. Agroecol Sustain Food Syst 40(9):895–921

    Google Scholar 

  • Sasson A (2019) Historical geography of the Palestine southern coastal plain in the late Ottoman period—the Ashkelon region as a case study. Middle Eastern Stud 55(6):974–1004

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumacher G (1886) Researches in Southern Palestine. Palest Explor Q 18(4):171–194

    Google Scholar 

  • Shtienberg G, Dix JK, Roskin J, Waldmann N, Bookman R, Bialik OM, Sivan D (2017a) New perspectives on coastal landscape reconstruction during the late Quaternary: a test case from central Israel. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 468:503–519

    Google Scholar 

  • Shtienberg G, Shalev S, Sivan D, Shahack-Gross R, Dix J, Waldmann N, Roskin J, Yasur-Landau A, Bookman R (2017b) Anthropogenic overprints on natural coastal aeolian sediments: a case study from the periphery of ancient Caesarea, Israel. Anthropocene 19:22–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Stavi I, Ragolsky G, Shem-Tov R, Shlomi Y, Ackermann O, Rueff H, Lekach J (2018) Ancient through mid-twentieth century runoff harvesting agriculture in the hyper-arid Arava Valley of Israel. CATENA 162:80–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Taxel I (2013a) Rural settlement processes in central Palestine, ca. 640–800 C.E.: the Ramla-Yavneh region as a case study. Bull Am Schools Orient Res 369:157–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Taxel I (2013b) The Byzantine-Early Islamic transition on the Palestinian coastal plain: a re-evaluation of the archaeological evidence. Semitica Et Class 6:73–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Taxel I (2014) Luxury and common wares: socio-economic aspects of the distribution of glazed pottery in Early Islamic Palestine. Levant 46(1):118–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Taxel I (2018) Early Islamic Palestine: toward a more fine-tuned recognition of settlement patterns and land uses in town and country. J Islamic Archaeol 5(2):153–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Taxel I (2021) Towards an integration of historical trees into the Mediterranean archaeological record: case studies from central Israel. Environ Archaeol. https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2021.1877512

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taxel I, Roskin J (2021) Revision and preliminary excavation finds of the Early Islamic Plot-and-Berm groundwater harvesting agroecosystem by ancient Caesarea, Israel (No. EGU21-9542). Copernicus Meetings‏

  • Taxel I, Sivan D, Bookman R, Roskin J (2018) An Early Islamic inter-settlement agroecosystem in the coastal sand of the Yavneh dunefield. J Field Archaeol, Israel. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2018.1522189

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tear FJ (1925) Sand dune reclamation in Palestine. Empire for J 4(1):24–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsoar H (1990) The ecological background, deterioration and reclamation of desert dune sand. Agric Ecosyst Environ 33(2):147–170

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsoar H (1995) Desertification in Northern Sinai in the eighteenth century. Clim Change 29(4):429–438

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsoar H, Cohen-Zada AL (2020) The conflict between urban planning and the preservation of sand dunes—the case of the Big Dune in the city of Ashdod, Israel. City Environ Interact 5:100034

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsoar H, Zohar Y (1985) Desert dune sand and its potential for modern Agricultural development. In: Gradus Y (ed) Desert development. Man and technology in sparselands. D. Reidel, Dordrecht, pp 184–200‏

  • Van der Veen M (2014) The materiality of plants: plant–people entanglements. World Archaeol 46(5):799–812. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2014.953710

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vetter T, Rieger AK, Nicolay A (2014) Disconnected runoff contributing areas: evidence provided by ancient watershed management systems in arid north-eastern Marmarica (NW-Egypt). Geomorphology 212:41–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Walmsley A (2007) Early Islamic Syria: an archaeological assessment. Duckworth, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren C (1871) The plain of philistia. Palestine Explor Quart 3(2):82–96

  • Watson AM (1983) Agricultural innovation in the Early Islamic world. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinstein Y (2021) Submarine groundwater discharge along the Israeli Eastern Mediterranean Coast and in Inland Basins. The many facets of Israel’s hydrogeology. Springer, Champaign, pp 99–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson TJ (2003) Archaeological landscapes of the near East. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson

  • Yaalon DH (1967) Factors affecting the lithification of eolianite and interpretation of its environmental significance in the coastal plain of Israel. J Sediment Res 37(4):1189–1199

  • Yaḥyā ben Ādam (1967) Taxation in Islam 1. Yaḥyā ben Ādam’s Kitāb al-kharāj, ed. and trans. by Ben Shemesh A. Brill, Leiden

  • Yang X, Ma N, Dong J, Zhu B, Xu B, Ma Z, Liu J (2010) Recharge to the inter-dune lakes and Holocene climatic changes in the Badain Jaran Desert. Western China Quat Res 73(1):10–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Yannai E (2014) Yavne. Hadashot Arkheologiyot: excavations and surveys in Israel

  • Yechieli Y, Reich R, Galili E, Tsuk T, Dahari U, Avni G, Sivan D (2020) Hydrogeology in archeological perspective: what did people in ancient times know about hydrogeology?. In: The many facets of Israel’s hydrogeology. Springer, Champaign, pp 417–443

  • Yizrael R (1979) Madrich Yisrael - the encylopedia of the knowledge of the land of Israel. Volume on the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza strip

  • Zilberman E, Faershtein G (2018) The Middle-Late Pleistocene sequence of the Kurkar Group along the Gaza Strip border. Geological Survey of Israel Report GSI/03/2018. 48 pp

  • Zourb A (2013) Strategies for the development of coastal areas—case study: Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis and Rafah Governorates (Doctoral dissertation, M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Architecture, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza Strip)

  • Zviely D, Kit E, Klein M (2007a) Longshore sand transport estimates along the Mediterranean coast of Israel in the Holocene. Mar Geol 238(1–4):61–73

    Google Scholar 

  • Zviely D, Klein M, Basson U (2007b) The Mawasi in the Caesarea sand—a 100-yr old sand trap. Israel Geographical Association Meeting, Tel-Aviv University (Abstract)

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors warmly thank Yosef Porath for his rich knowledge and recollections of finds and ideas related to his pioneering excavation at the Caesarea P&B agroecosystem. Dov Zviely (Rupin Academic College) is warmly thanked for exposing JR to this understudied topic. We thank Gilad Shtienberg (SCRIPPS) for his helpful comments and for providing data from Caesarea. We appreciate the open access provided by Orah Ohana (The Gush Katif and Northern Samaria Commemoration Center archive) to the archive and for locating material on the mawasi. Oren Ackermann (Ariel U.) is also thanked for photos of the mawasi. Ruben Sanchez readily provided unpublished information regarding the Iberian agroecosystems. Revital Bookman and Mihail Markin (U. of Haifa) are thanked for the initial faunal analyses. Nitzan Amitai-Preiss (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) reviewed ancient Islamic agricultural literature. Amir Bar (U. of Haifa) is thanked for field and lab assistance. We appreciate Ruth Freedman’s editing. Prof. Avi Sasson (Ashkelon Academic College) is thanked for the fruitful discussion. Elena Delerzon and Moria Abu (IAA) provided helpful graphical assistance. Helder I. Chaminé, (ISEP-Polytechnic of Porto and IAH-PC) and Manuel Abrunhosa (IAH-PC and CITEUC, Porto) are warmly appreciated for promoting this study at the GEOETH&GWM'20 meeting. The study was supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation grant No. AZ 42/F/19 and Israel Science Foundation grant No. 355/20. Ruth Friedman is thanked for editing.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Analytical Laboratory, The Artifacts Treatment, Conservation and Laboratories Department, Israel Antiquities Authority, Har Hotzvim, P.O.B. 586, 91004, Jerusalem, Israel

    Joel Roskin

  2. Department of Geography and Environment, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Joel Roskin

  3. Archaeological Research Department, Israel Antiquities Authority, Har Hotzvim, P.O.B. 586, 91004, Jerusalem, Israel

    Itamar Taxel

Authors
  1. Joel Roskin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Itamar Taxel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joel Roskin.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Roskin, J., Taxel, I. “He who revives dead land”: groundwater harvesting agroecosystems in sand along the southeastern Mediterranean coast since early medieval times. Med. Geosc. Rev. 3, 293–318 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42990-021-00058-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42990-021-00058-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation