Hydrological and Environmental Factors in Settlement Growth and Decline: ‘En Esur in the Early Bronze Age

The Early Bronze Age settlement of ‘En Esur, located on Israel’s eastern coastal plain, thrived in an area characterized by abundant perennial freshwater sources and fertile alluvial soils. Despite this hydrological wealth, the site was abruptly abandoned by the end of the Early Bronze Age IB (ca. 3000 BCE). This study examines the environmental dynamics, particularly the hydrological thresholds that governed the growth and decline of this proto-urban settlement.

An integrated paleoenvironmental reconstruction combining pedosedimentary profiles, stable isotope analyses (δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O), palynological sequences, and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating reveals that increasing rainfall, superimposed on already high water availability, overwhelmed the floodplain’s drainage capacity. This led to widespread waterlogging, marsh formation, and deterioration of agro-pastoral productivity. Botanical and isotopic proxies document a marked rise in hydrophilic vegetation and a decline in ruderal cover, indicating soil saturation and reduced cultivability.

These findings suggest that ‘En Esur’s abandonment was driven not by water scarcity, but by ecological oversaturation when environmental abundance crossed critical hydrological thresholds. The case of ‘En Esur thus exemplifies how shifts in water regimes can transform a thriving settlement into an unsustainable marshland, offering key insights into human–environment interactions on the southern Levantine coastal plain.