[asa] Archaeologists in Israel have unearthed an ancient water system

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20060823/2006-08-23T072129Z_01_L23266972_RTRI
DST_0_NEWS-MIDEAST-WATER-DC.html

Aug 23, 3:21 AM (ET)

By Corinne Heller
RAMAT RACHEL, Israel (Reuters) - Archaeologists in Israel have unearthed an
ancient water system which was modified by the conquering Persians to turn the
desert into a paradise.
The network of reservoirs, drain pipes and underground tunnels served one of
the grandest palaces in the biblical kingdom of Judea.
Archaeologists first discovered the palace in 1954, a structure built on a
six-acre (2.4 hectare) site where the communal Ramat Rachel farm now stands.
Recent excavations unearthed nearly 70 square meters (750 square feet) of a
unique water system.
"They had found a huge palace ... even nicer than the palaces in Jerusalem,
(dating) from the late Iron Age to the end of the biblical period in the 7th
century," Oded Lipschits, a Tel Aviv University archaeologist, said.
The infrastructure of the palace was remodeled throughout the centuries to
fit the needs of the Babylonians, Persians, Romans and Hasmoneans who ruled the
Holy Land, said Lipschits, who heads the dig with an academic from Germany's
University of Heidelberg.
But it was the Persians, who took control of the region around 539 BC from
the Babylonians, who renovated the water system and turned it into a thing of
beauty.
Lipschits said they added small waterfalls to try to turn a desert into a
paradise.
"Imagine on this land plants and water rushing and streaming here," Lipschits
said. "This was important to someone who finds aesthetics important, for
someone who wanted to feel as though they are not just in some remote corner in
the desert."
Yuval Gadot, a biblical archaeology expert from Tel Aviv University who is
taking part in the excavation, said it was unclear exactly how the water system
worked.
"Probably rainwater came down on the roof of the houses (in the palace
complex)," he said. "From there, it was collected by drains into pools or to the
underground reservoir and taken to nearby fields for crops or nice gardens."
For centuries water supplies have been one of the most sensitive issues in
the Middle East, where most of the region is desert.

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Thu Aug 24 07:43:19 2006