Israel and Palestine form the geographical center linking three continents which has given rise to mankind and human civilization. The area is the only through-road from the Nile Valley and Central Africa to Asia Minor, and from there, to the vastness of Asia and Europe. Early human ancestors appear to have already passed through the area millions of years ago and traces of human activity spanning hundreds of thousands of years can be found there. The Hura area is strategically located, whereby roads from the rich coastlands cut inland towards the ancient settlement of Beer Sheba, and from there to Arad or the fertile highlands of Judea, Hebron or Jerusalem, bypassing the hostile Negev Desert.

The climate in the Northern Negev has for the last 10,000 years been rather constant: a semi-arid to arid Mediterranean type with cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Rainfall averages from 150 – 300 mm per year. Though some fluctuations appear to have occurred, with interchanging wetter and drier periods (Fig. 2), the steep precipitation gradient in the West-East and North-South directions in the area of Project Wadi Attir means that the critical 200 mm per year isohyet probably never shifted by more than 10 – 20 km north or south (Fig. 3), leaving the Judean Mountain foothills and the Wadi Attir area always within precipitation ranges acceptable for human subsistence, and allowing for simple field crops, grazing, and the cultivation of dryland tree crops. Nevertheless, those fluctuations in precipitation may have provided the necessary incentives for developing more resilient and sustainable dryland agroforestry systems, reliant on terraces, floodwater harvesting, simple irrigation systems and adequate dryland tree and crop species.

Fig. 2: Indicators for Middle Eastern climate history as deduced from four independent parameters (Issar and Zohar 2007, Climate Change: Environment and History in the Near East). The blue lines indicate present-day levels (except for the Dead Sea level, where a last century level of -380 m was applied). While clear, dry, and wet periods are evident, no disastrous climate changes seem to have occurred, allowing settlement of the Northern Negev throughout this period. During the Neolithicum, when first civilizations were established in the area, climate was apparently somewhat more humid, favoring the rapid expansion of early settlements and civilizations.

Fig. 3: The current climate at Project Wadi Attir is located at the interface between arid and semi-arid conditions, with around 200 mm of precipitation annually. Precipitation can vary significantly, indicated by the fact that averages produced from 1) 1948 – 1987 and 2) 1961 – 1990 give a significant difference as to the location of the annual 200 mm isohyet. While this is of little significance to the Beer Sheba and Wadi Attir locations, for the city of Arad, those fluctuations have led to several periods of abandonment, apparently due to excessive drought.

Palestine-Israel-Mesopotamia saw the onset of Eurasian civilization more than 10,000 years ago, with the emergence of the Natufian culture. Vegetation in the area is centered on Mediterranean forests and woodlands, or maquis, and open savannas and grasslands, featuring more than a hundred species of edible cereals, fruits, nuts and other plant parts. Restored woodland areas in the Northern Negev feature Pistacia, carob, oaks, Ziziphus and other dryland fruit tree species, together with many edible weeds, seeds, cereals and mushrooms (Fig. 4), making the area a veritable “Garden of Eden” for man and animals alike, even under the semiarid or arid climates typical to the area. A central objective of Project Wadi Attir is restoring patches of such diverse, productive dryland vegetation for the purposes of demonstration and biodiversity conservation. Civilization was initiated de facto by the Natufian Culture that ruled the Middle East between 13,000 and 8,000 years ago. The Natufian culture is considered to be responsible for establishing the first towns and settlements, and for the domestication of dogs, grains and livestock. Wheat, barley, cattle, goats and grapes were all domesticated in the area between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago. Possibly the most decisive pillar of Mediterranean cultures, the olive tree, was domesticated in the Middle East over 6,000 years ago, together with many additional fruit and vegetable species.

The Project Wadi Attir site bears witness to intensive agricultural use in the distant and not-so-distant past, with abundant remains from both the Neolithic and the Byzantine period (Fig. 5).

The evidence for human activity during the Stone Age at the confluence of Wadi Attir and its major side valley are the numerous flint artifacts (Fig. 6) found there. Apparently, flint was a valuable resource available at the transition from the Judean Mountains to the Negev’s loess plains, which attracted early inhabitants to the area for collection and tool preparation.

Fig. 6: Pottery remains and Stone Age tools are abundant along the slopes of the valley

There are multiple indications of intensive agricultural use of the Wadi Attir area during the Byzantine period. An impressive mosaic floor from the same period was recently detected near Hura, indicative of advanced settlement activities and dense agricultural exploitation of the area.

At least four former farmhouses, and possibly a whole settlement, have been found along the rocky slopes of the site (Fig. 7 and 8), apparently exploiting the wadi by maintaining an advanced system of irrigated agroforestry terraces along the riverbed (Fig. 9 and 10), while also farming field crops and raising livestock. This successful combination has been maintained in the Middle East for thousands of years and guarantees quality food and high resilience during both wetter and drier periods.

Fig. 9: An ancient rock dam apparently built to stabilize agricultural terraces along the river. A rock barrage across the river was likely exploited to create a temporary reservoir during winter, and used for irrigation (left). The large rocks embedded in the riverbank (right) are remains of large terrace structures that were likely used for intensive, seasonally-irrigated agriculture or agroforestry, as modelled in Fig. 10.