Gravity dam and water harvesting system
Presa de gravedad y sistema de captación de agua
- Date
- c. 3500 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Jawa, Black Desert, Jordan
- Credited to
- Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age community of Jawa
- Field
- Tools
What it is
An 80 m gravity dam of stone and earth with reservoirs, diversion channels and cisterns that sustained a city of thousands in the middle of a basalt desert. The oldest known hydraulic structure.
Jawa was abandoned within a generation, probably from overexploitation of its water system.
What it led to
- Urban occupation of arid zones through runoff harvesting
- A dam-engineering tradition continued at Sadd el-Kafara (Egypt, c. 2650 BCE)
- Centralised water control as a basis of political power
Built on
- Stone wall and tower of Jerichoc. 8000 BCE
- Dug water wellc. 8000 BCE
- Canal irrigationc. 6000 BCE
- Wall and tower of Jericho
Made possible
- Qanatc. 800 BCE
- Great Dam of Maribc. 700 BCE
- Kebar arch damc. 1300
- Sadd el-Kafara Dam
- Cistern