The Archaeology of Earthen-Mud Bricks Dam and a Structure for Surface Water Utilization in Damghani Archaeological Site, Northeastern Iran

Earth dams can be a prehistoric phenomenon. These structures are designed to exploit surface water resources in certain positions in natural landscapes. In the plateau of Iran, surface water sources are generally seasonal. Seasons, when surface water flows abundantly, are late winter to the first half of spring. Meanwhile, according to the agricultural calendar, the peak demand for water for most agricultural products is the last month of spring and the first month of summer. According to this calendar, earth dams are generally made of natural materials such as soil and stone and are used temporarily for several months. As long as the earthen dams are made of natural materials without any changes in them, due to the naturalness of all the materials used, it is not possible to identify them not only from prehistory but also from recent centuries. But in a special case that is introduced and analyzed in this article, the construction of earthen dams with molded mud bricks in a prehistoric settlement has caused that in contemporary times, after about five thousand years, it is possible to identify and introduce the remains of the mud bricks dam with a function exactly similar to the earthen dams. This article introduces the analysis of the location and possible functions of the earth-mud bricks dam in the Damghani prehistoric site on the southeastern edge of the contemporary city of Sabzevar in Razavi Khorasan province. The earth-mud bricks dam is a mud bricks structure that is placed on a clay soil foundation and the two ends of the structure lead to natural soil mounds. In general, for such a structure, exploitation of surface water sources is suggested, but the exact type of exploitation, as will be discussed, requires additional studies. Exploitation for drinking water purposes of the Damghani prehistoric settlement, exploitation for agriculture, and simultaneous exploitation for drinking water purposes, air conditioning of settlement spaces, agriculture and animal husbandry are hypotheses that can be investigated and evaluated. Based on today's and near-contemporary examples, the third hypothesis is more likely.