<< Our Photo Pages >> Humeima - Ancient Village or Settlement in Jordan
Submitted by motist on Wednesday, 26 May 2010 Page Views: 5940
DigsSite Name: Humeima Alternative Name: AUARACountry: Jordan Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: aqaba Nearest Village: Quweira
Latitude: 29.952908N Longitude: 35.348162E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Kuba visited on 13th Apr 2022 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 3 Access: 5
It was to serve as a center for sedentarisation of the local nomadic Nabataean shepherds at a time when regional trade routes were shifting elsewhere, and as a strategy of state formation by a developing monarchy. Through careful management of the meager spring water and precipitation, the community was able to enjoy a settled existence based on agriculture, stock-raising, and passing caravans. Soon after the Roman conquest of the Nabataean kingdom in 106 AD and formation of the Provincia Arabia, Trajan's forces built a major fort at the site to administer this region and suppress any local resistance. A modest prosperity continued through the Byzantine and early Islamic periods, until the site was abandoned around 750 A.C.
The settlement is located at the conflux of several run-off fields that provide a reliable supply and manageable amount of water to two public reservoirs and numerous private, domestic cisterns. Furthermore, it sits at the southernmost point that could conveniently be reached by a gravity flow aqueduct fed by springs on the escarpment 15 km to the north, and it is near good agricultural soil and a route to the Wadi Arabah. The scale of the first-century B.C. or A.C. public reservoirs and aqueduct indicate central, probably royal, planning and sponsorship.
The aqueduct
The aqueduct is a great example of Nabataean hydraulic skill. Built in the first century BC it consisted of a main line 18,9 km long, from the 'Ain al-Qanah at an elevation of 1425 m to the Nabataean reservoir in the city center at 995 m. A branch line of 7,625 km connected the springs of 'Ain ash-Sharah and 'Ain aj-Jamam with the main line, joining at 6,557 km downstream from 'Ain al-Qanah. This branch was furnished with 6 settling basins.
The main line - 0,12 m wide and 0,14 m deep - followed the ground level and occasionally made use of bridges and viaducts. The maximum possible flow was 150 m3/day, the overall slope 2,45 %. However, the level of the slope varied from less than 1% to 20% and at the ash-Sharah escarpment even 45 %.
The aqueduct consisted of a heavy rubble foundation wall that supported the long stone conduit blocks framed by rubble packing set in mortar. The conduit blocks were made of yellow marl or white sandstone depending of the region; the material was quarried locally. On the upper edges of the conduit blocks fist size rubble was set in hard mortar and smoothed over with stucco/plaster on the interior. The whole structure was topped with flat slabs of limestone. This is a typical Nabataean technique, with parallel cases found on almost all Nabataean sites, although the 'Ain al-Quanah is the longest aqueduct by far.
Roman reservoir
The large Roman fort at the N edge of Auara is one of the most prominent features at the site. The rectangular plan of the fort with a gate in each of the four walls, measured 500 x 700 Roman feet (206 x 148 m), the reservoir in its NW corner (100 x 50 x 10 Roman feet; 29 x 14 x 3 m) had a capacity of about 1250 m3, presumably built in the same period as the fort.
The aqueduct entered the fort from the NW. The distance to the presumed intersection with the main al-Qanah aqueduct is about 100 m but here ploughing had obliterated all traces of the aqueduct conduit. At the SW corner remains of another sandstone conduit slab suggest a continuation of the water in the reservoir to a place more close to the inhabited areas. The further absence of any arrangement for handling overflow from the reservoir suggests that the main aqueduct line did not terminate in the Roman reservoir but continued S of the Nabataean reservoir
Nabataean reservoir
The second reservoir was placed on a ridge 6 m above and 350 m NE of the settlement center / 75 m W of the fort, and was designed to be fed by the al-Qanah aqueduct and was of Nabataean design, half so deep as the Roman one. It measured 27,5 x 17 x 1,75 m (capacity 800 m3) and was made waterproof by a layer of hard, white sandy plaster. The aqueduct entered the reservoir in the middle of the N wall. The overflow was at the W end of the S wall (zie photo), about 1,35 m over the floor of the reservoir, could be stopped by means of a slot cut in one of the wall blocks. Thereafter the water was led into a conduit of mark blocks identical to the ones used in the al-Qanah aqueduct and could be traced for 85 m to the S. Originally there must have been a kind of basin on the place the water left the reservoir.
At a later date the basin was removed and the conduit replaced by a bronze pipe cut through the wall at the level of the interior floor (see photo). The flow was regulated by a massive bronze stopcock (precisely measuring 1 Roman foot in length) after which the water was brought into a (pressurized) lead pipe (outside diameter 0,05 m) laid in the conduit channel, in the direction of the small bath building (2nd c AD), 100 m S of the reservoir. Still later, the lead piping was roughly replaced, the valve plugged with mortar and the reservoir by-passed by a terracotta pipeline (diameter 0,082 m).
Cisterns
Apart from the reservoirs, there were 11 (private ?) cisterns inside the settlement and 51 more in the surroundings. The houses seemed to have been laid out around two larger ones, identical in design and built at right angles to each other, with capacities of 445 and 487 m3, both roofed with flat stone slabs carried by 16 transverse arches, 20 m apart en 50 m W of a funnel-shaped depression that allow them to harvest the water run-off of the large, gently-sloping fields that spread out over approximately 100 ha N of Auara.
One cistern (67) was filled by a 25 m long intake channel, which was rebuilt in the 1960's including a settling tank. The other cistern (68) is still in condition and was also refurbished with an intake channel and a deep settling tank (3,18 x 2,58 m; 1,6 m below the floor of the intake). Oleson suggest that a municipal authority built them, for public use. The other ones - mostly of circular shape - had a capacity less than 200 m3 each, were for private use and built by individual families, according to Oleson.
The cisterns with their dependable water supply would have attracted some permanent inhabitants, while the fresher but also more vulnerable supply of aqueduct water might have been intended to service both caravans using the Nabataean north/south road and nomadic or semi-sedentarized Bedouins drawn to the site for occasional trade or seasonal agriculture.
(mainly based on numerous reports of prof. J.P. Oleson)
For more, see HUMEIMA and THE HISTORY AND GOALS OF THE HUMAYMA EXCAVATION PROJECT.
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