STRATIGRAPHY, ARCHAEOSEISMOLOGY, AND PALEOENVIRONMENT IN A MID-SIXTH TO SEVENTH CENTURY WATER RESERVOIR AT QASR ET-TILAH, WADI ‘ARABAH, JORDAN

Qasr et-Tilah in the Wadi ‘Arabah of Jordan, south of the Dead Sea, has been a site of interest for archaeological study due to its location along the Wadi ‘Arabah fault, a segment of the Dead Sea Transform. The subject of this study is a mid-sixth to seventh century water reservoir (birkeh), built directly on the Wadi ‘Arabah fault and showing evident damage from fault rupture. In order to capture environmental information from the stratigraphic record of birkeh infill, and also to determine if an earlier phase of birkeh construction underlies the existing structure, a 2 x 2 meter archaeological trench was excavated near the center of the birkeh to a depth of 2.12 meters. The excavated section includes sedimentary infill, a plaster floor, a sequence of floor bedding consisting of mortared cobbles and boulders, and a secondary plaster surface of variable thickness. The lower plaster surface appears to have been constructed directly above the Plio-Pleistocene Dana Conglomerate, and may be evidence of an earlier structure. The sedimentary sequence consists of several silty, subaqueous deposits, the most recent of which should represent the last period when the birkeh held water. The silt deposition is punctuated by two periods of dessication and capped by a surface soil, which suggest intervals of subaerial exposure that may correlate with seismic damage. Radiocarbon samples collected from anthropogenic and sedimentary layers of the trench will aid in correlating the history of the birkeh with environmental and historical events.