The Changing Landscape of the Hesi Region and Its Implications for Archaeological Research

Abstract

ABSTRACT Key to understanding a site and its environs, or maybe a region and its sites, is understanding its landscape and environment. In the case of the Hesi region to the east of Gaza, the region has been misunderstood by Western scholars since they first began investigating it in the mid-nineteenth century. For the Hesi region, the soldiers involved in the Great War were the last to see it largely untouched by modern technology and, at the same time, the first to record it in sufficient detail to preserve details of land usage. Records from this unique moment in time were crucial for the scholarly reconstruction of past landscape usage. This study identifies drilled wells and both kerosene- and gasoline-powered water pumps as the key technological introductions that transformed the region from being a traditional pasturage to the productive agrarian region seen today.