Water Shall Flow from the Rock

Transcription

1

2 Arie S. Issar Water Shall Flow from the Rock Hydrogeology and Climate in the Lands of the Bible With 51 Figures Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo Hong Kong

3 Professor Dr. ARIE S. ISSAR Water Resources Center The Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research and the Department of Geology and Mineralogy Ben Gurion University of the Negev Sede Boqer Campus, Israel ISBN-13: e-isbn-13: DOl: / This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is only permitted under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its version of June 24, 1985, and a copyright fee must always be paid. Violations fall under the prosecution act of the German Copyright Law. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1990 The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. 2132/ Printed on acid-free paper

4 To Margalit, my wife, who "followed me in the desert through a land unsown. tt

5 Preface Many times when the author saw the bedouins of southern Sinai excavate their wells in the crystalline rocks, from which this part of the peninsula is built, the story of Moses striking the rock to get water came to mind. The reader will, indeed, find in this book the description for a rather simple method by which to strike the rock to get water in the wilderness of Sinai. Yet this method was not invented by the author nor by any other modem hydrogeologist, but was a method that the author learned from the bedouins living in the crystalline mountains of southern Sinai. These bedouins, belonging to the tribe of the Gebelia (the "mountain people"), live around the monastery of Santa Katerina and, according to their tradition, which has been conftrmed by historical research, were once Christians who were brought by the Byzantine emperor, Justinian, from the Balkans in the 6th century A.D. to be servants to the priests of the monastery. They know how to discern places where veins of calcite filled the fractures of the granites; such places are a sign of an extinct spring. They also know how to distinguish an acid hard granite rock, and hard porphyry dike from a soft diabase dike. The latter indicated the location at which they should dig for water into the subsurface. In Chapter 9, the reader will ftnd a detailed description of how they used this knowledge to extract water from the rock. The moral of this story is that when the Sheik of the Gebelia Abu-Heib was asked to explain how water is found in a rock, his answer was "min Allah," which, literally translated, means "from God." Apparently he did not bother to delve into the problem of the flow of water through fractured media, not because it is much more complicated than that of flow in porous media, but because, for him, as for his ancestors and the ancestors of the author, all phenomena, especially those connected with water in the desert, involved the direct intervention of a divine power. The author received a similar answer when he asked the mullah of an Iranian village in the mountains of Kashan to explain the pulsations of the karst spring irrigating the orchards of the village. A Zoroastrian shrine, still standing above the cave from which the spring emerges, was evidence that the Persian ancestors of the mullah and his congregation also believed that a divine power, and not merely a hydraulic siphon, was involved in causing the spring to pulsate. Whether this power

6 VIII came.directly from Ahurmazda, or whether the responsibility was bestowed on a minor divine power, needs further investigation. In the western countries of the Fertile Crescent, the pulsations are attributed to the presence of a gin or genie (a goblin or little devil) inside the spring. Such a spring is the Gihon spring, which was Jerusalem's main source of water and, as will be told later, the water that the Canaanites, and later the Jews of Jerusalem, used for libation. When speaking about calcite veins in fractured crystalline rocks and about divine powers that affect springs, the author cannot refrain from telling about his experience in Mexico, although Mexico geographically is rather far from the lands of the Bible. In 1981, the author spent his sabbatical in Mexico, collaborating with Dr. J.L. Quijano of the Science Division of the Ministry of Water Resources. The main research being, the isotope hydrology of the groundwater of Central Mexico [1]. While surveying the hills built of volcanics west of Mexico City, a profusion of mineralized calcite veins was observed in the fractures of the basalt rocks. A conclusion was reached, which was later confrrmed by the oxygen-i8 content of the calcites, that a thermo-mineral spring had once emerged in this place, apparently rather recently, given that the calcites were not weathered Dr. Quijano said that he would investigate whether any records of such a spring could be found. A few weeks later, he related that his friend, a historian, had told him that, according to maps and records of the time of the conquest of Mexico by Cortes, such a spring did exist. The Aztec priests used the spring for divination in the following manner. After a priest removed the heart from the bosom of a human sacrifice, the priest would throw the heart into the water of the hot spring. The priest could then divine the future according to the bubbling of the spring's water. Such close interaction between water, faith, and fate can hardly be found in any other place or deed Connections, though not so dramatic, between hydrology, water resources, faith, and the fate of people were observed again and again by the author while working throughout the arid countries of the world. These observations have accumulated for about 30 years. The decision to publish them came when the author discovered that many of the traditions and stories, as well as observations, can be explained in a geohydrological conceptual model, making climatic change as a basic key. How and when such a key works will be explained in the following chapters. The reader should, however, bear in mind that the author is not an archeologist, or a theologist, or an expert in linguistics or in Bible research. He is just a hydrogeologist who believes he is rather well versed in the Bible in its original Hebrew edition. He has also studied the hydrogeological and engineering aspects of ancient water works, especially those in Israel, Sinai, and Persia. He has studied many of the translations of Mesopotamian mythologies and documents in which there were interesting references to water, in some of which he could even follow the linguistic relation between the Akkadian and the Hebrew languages, as both are Semitic. Although he has studied many books on the archeology and religions of the Middle East, still, without false humility, he regards h.imself as a layman in all these branches of science, except hydrogeology and Quaternary geology. He put to himself

7 the question whether he would rather choose an expert in one of the former sciences, but a layman in geosciences, not to say hydrogeology, to deal with the influence of abundance or lack of water on the fate and faith of his ancestors. As expected, the answer he gave himself was negative, not so much because of his mistrust in the abilities of other scientists to deal with this subject, but because a positive answer would have deprived him of the pleasure of reading the results of the archeological investigations, the study of the history and the religions of the Middle East, and last but not least, of the pleasure he has derived from writing this book. He now invites the reader to share these pleasures with him. Before the reader begins, some words of explanation are needed in regard to the dates and ages used ij:1 this book. When discussing geological and prehistorical events the B.P. (Before Present) scale, had to be used. On the other hand, when dealing with historical events the conventional B.C.-A.D. were, of course, the more appropriate ones. Yet, in proto-historical periods or in the case of historical events to which a geoscientific scale was applied, the author decided to give the two dates. Though the addition or reduction of 2000 to turn one date to the other looks trivial, the author knows from experience that the need to shift from one scale to the other distracts the mind from the trend of reading. The helpful remarks and suggestions of Mr. Ezra Orion, editor of Sevivot (Environments), are thankfully acknowledged. Thanks are due to Mrs. Rona Roth and Mrs. Sally Alkon for typing and improving the English and indexing the book and special thanks go to Ms. Jean von dem Bussche for copyediting the book. The professional camera-ready copy was prepared by "Wordbyte", Beer-Sheva. The helping hand and patience, in listening to the lectures by the author on climate change and its influence on history, of the members of the Water Resources Center of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research are thankfully acknowledged. IX The J. Blaustein Institute for Desert Research Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sede Boqer Campus, Israel ARIE S. ISSAR

8 Contents 1 A Hydrogeologist Reads the Bible 3 2 Rocks, Water, and Soils The Eyes of Tiamat and the Ark of Noah Adam and Eve Depart, Enter Cain and Abel The Two Rivers, Givers of Life and Law Water in the Land of El and Baal A Land Like a Garden of Herbs The Ten Plagues - Change of Climate That Great and Terrible Wilderness 10 Wars and Rivers, Walls and Wells Kings, Tunnels, and Canals Water, Monarchs, and Martyrs Epilogue General Bibliography and References Appendices Index... 2fJ7

9 WHO LAYETH THE BEAMS OF HIS CHAMBERS IN THE WATERS; WHO MAKETH THE CLOUDS HIS CHARIOT; WHO W ALKTH UPON THE WINGS OF THE WIND. WHO MAKETH WINDS HIS MESSENGERS; FLAMING FIRES HIS MINISTERS. WHO LAID THE EARTH UPON HER FOUNDATIONS, THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE MOVED FOR EVER. THOU COVERDST IT WITH THE DEEP AS WITH A GARMENT; THE WATERS STOOD ABOVE THE MOUNTAINS. AT THY REBUKE THEY FLED; AT THE VOICE OF THY THUNDER THEY HASTED AWAY. THEY WENT UP BY THE MOUNTAINS; THEY WENT DOWN BY THE VALLEYS UNTO THE PLACE WHICH THOU HAST FOUNDED FOR THEM. THOU HAST SET A BOUND THAT THEY MAY NOT PASS OVER; THAT THEY TURN NOT AGAIN TO COVER THE EARTH. HE SENDETH THE SPRINGS INTO THE V ALLEYS, WHICH RUN AMONG THE HILLS." (psalms, 104,3-10)