Jawa, Jordan facts for kids
View of Jawa from the south
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 Location in Jordan
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| Location | Jordan |
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| Region | Mafraq Governorate |
| Coordinates | 32°20′06″N 37°00′12″E / 32.33500°N 37.00333°E |
Jawa is an amazing ancient place in Jordan. It was one of the very first "proto-cities" or early towns ever built there. This happened around 6,000 years ago, during the Early Bronze Age. Jawa is located in a super dry area of eastern Jordan, known as the Black Desert.
People who lived here built incredible dams. One of them is the oldest known dam in the entire world! They used these dams to protect their town from sudden, powerful floods.
How Was Jawa Discovered?
Jawa was first seen from the sky in 1931 by a French explorer named Antoine Poidebard. He took photos but thought the ruins were from ancient Rome.
Later, other explorers came close but didn't realize how important Jawa was. In 1947, Nelson Glueck visited. He thought it was just a small, unimportant place.
Finally, in 1950, a team led by F. V. Winnett reached the site. Lankester Harding, a member of the team, realized the ruins were much older than Roman. He guessed they were from the Early Bronze Age.
Harding told Svend Helms about Jawa. Helms visited in 1966 and then led excavations (digs) from 1972 to 1976. Helms discovered that Jawa was "the best preserved fourth-millennium town yet discovered anywhere in the world." This was surprising because it was in such a harsh desert!
Life in Ancient Jawa
Jawa was built by a group of about 2,000 people. They likely came from the North or East. These people knew a lot about city life and how to manage water.
The town covered a huge area, about 100,000 square meters. It had strong walls and special earthworks. These earthworks helped to move winter floods from the nearby dry riverbed, called a wadi, into storage areas.
This water system had to be finished before the first winter. If not, the people wouldn't have survived the hot, dry summer. Experts think it would have taken at least 700 workers to build it.
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Jawa was built on the edge of a basalt rock area. This rock doesn't let much water soak into the ground. So, any rain in the mountains caused fast, strong floods in the Wadi Rajil. This wadi was a dry riverbed that flooded in winter.
The people of Jawa needed to store enough water to last through four dry summer months. They needed it for their population, which grew to 3,000 to 5,000 people. They also needed water for their many animals. They had about 10,000 sheep and goats, plus 800 cattle. They also had horses and dogs.
They used some water for farming. They grew barley, wheat, chickpeas, lentils, and grapes.
Experts believe Jawa was only lived in for a short time, maybe just one generation. It seems the town was violently destroyed.
Later, a fortified building was built in the center of the old town. This building is from a much later time, between 2000 and 1500 BC.
Jawa's Amazing Water System
| Jawa Dam | |
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 Location of Jawa Dam in Jordan
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| Location | Jawa, Mafraq Governorate, Jordan |
| Coordinates | 32°20′06″N 37°00′12″E / 32.33500°N 37.00333°E |
| Construction began | ~3500 BC |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Gravity, masonry |
| Impounds | Wadi Rajil |
| Height | 4.5 m (15 ft) |
| Length | 80 m (260 ft) |
| Width (base) | 4.5–5 m (15–16 ft) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Jawa Reservoir |
| Total capacity | 31,000 m3 (1,100,000 cu ft) est. |
The people of Jawa built a very clever water system. It included three dams across the Wadi Rajil. There were also smaller dams, channels, and deflectors (things that change the direction of water flow).
Two of the dams were "deflection dams." They were built to guide water into several reservoirs (storage pools). The third dam was meant to completely block the floodwater to create a reservoir. However, it probably didn't last more than one season. The other two dams likely stopped working within a generation.
The largest dam is a masonry gravity dam. This means it was built from stone and used its own weight to hold back water. It's the oldest known dam in the world! Scientists used carbon-14 dating to find out it was built between 3500 and 3400 BC.
This big dam was designed to send water into three low areas west of the town. A special canal also helped fill a natural cave with water. Even if the dam only held back water for a short time, it still helped divert some water to the reservoirs.
The biggest reservoir had a double wall, 80 meters long and 4 to 5 meters high. It was filled with sand and ash. The builders also tried to build an even bigger wall to hold more water, but they didn't finish it.
The people of Jawa also collected the small amount of local rainfall. They used long, simple canals to guide this water into their reservoirs. This helped keep water levels up between the big floods.
See also
