Figure 1

Studied area. (a) A location map. (b) The boundaries of the Eastern Mountain Aquifer are drawn over a shaded relief map⁴⁶, including the recharge areas into the two sub-aquifers, as well as the seven natural discharge zones in the Jordan-Dead Sea rift valley: F - Fazael, A - Auja, J - Jericho, Z – Zuqim, Q - Qane-Samar, G - Ein-Gedi and B -Boqeq. The lake that existed within the rift valley is drawn under four lake stands: high Lake Lisan at −160 mbsl, low Lake Lisan at −250 mbsl, Transition Lake at −350 mbsl, and the Dead Sea at −400 mbsl. (c) Zooming into the lower Jordan rift valley, where three groups of prehistoric settlements were identified. All were located adjacent to Lake Lisan or Transition Lake and had a continued presence over four climatological periods (Supplementary Table 1). Although today no springs exist near these settlements, during the pre-historic higher lake stands, considerable quantities of groundwater discharged there, sometimes creating a freshwater marsh. All coordinates are of the Israeli Transverse Mercator (ITM) system.