Water and Power. Early cities in Jordan and water control in the 3rd millennium BC: the case of Batrawy

The rise of an urban society in Early Bronze Age Jordan is characterized by the capability of new territorial polities to control the access and use of freshwater. Early cities (or “walled communities”) arisen in the Jordan Valley or along the eastern tributaries of the Jordan River in the Jordanian Highlands exploited the rivers for their waters and as tracks for interregional trade. Their power was extended over a territory marked by wadis, which bordered respective catchment areas. The earliest territorial polities of 3rd millennium BC Jordan, thus, exercised a direct control on waters also because intensive agriculture and grazing, the basis of their economy, were only possible in a riverine environment. From this perspective, the walled town of Khirbet al-Batrawy in the Upper Wadi az-Zarqa may thoroughly epitomize such phenomenon, its peculiarities, development, and successive crisis.