Palestinian dune agriculture


Palestinian dune agriculture refers to traditional methods of cultivating the sandy dunefields of the southern Levant, particularly along the coastal plain of Palestine from Sinai to Yibna. These techniques, locally known as mawāṣī, transformed marginal sandy environments into productive gardens and orchards. Revived during the Late Ottoman and British Mandate periods, dune agriculture provided subsistence crops, fruit, and vegetables for surrounding villages, while also integrating into regional markets.

Historical background

Archaeological and geoarchaeological research has shown that the practice of interdune cultivation in Palestine originated during the Early Islamic period. Excavations near Caesarea revealed a distinctive plot-and-berm agroecosystem: farmers excavated shallow plots into the dunes and surrounded them with raised sand berms that acted as windbreaks and water-harvesting structures. These berms intercepted rainfall runoff and rising groundwater, while the depressed plots created a moist microenvironment that could support vines, vegetables, and fruit trees. In the Yavne dunefield, archaeologists documented a similar inter-settlement complex of intersecting berms and pits, suggesting that neighboring communities shared resources in cultivating interdune plots.
The berms were often filled with refuse, ash, and architectural debris, deliberately enriching the sterile sands with organic material and creating anthropogenic soils. Botanical remains, including seeds and pollen, indicate cultivation of vegetables, cereals, and orchard crops adapted to the moisture regime of the plots. Optically stimulated luminescence dating and ceramic finds place the expansion of these systems in the 9th–10th centuries CE, corresponding with the late Abbasid and early Fatimid periods.
The plot-and-berm fields appear to have gone through phases of expansion and decline. Initial dune stabilization and intensive cultivation were followed by gradual abandonment, likely due to hydrological changes, climatic variability, or socio-political disruptions in the medieval period. Some areas were later reused during the Ottoman era under the name mawāṣī, representing a long tradition of dune-edge cultivation on Palestine’s coastal plain.
In Islamic law, dunefields were classified as mawāt and considered uncultivable, typically used for grazing by Bedouin tribes. Archaeological and textual evidence, however, show that specialized interdune farming existed from the Early Islamic period, notably near Ashkelon, Caesarea, and the Yavne-Yam dunefields.
By the 19th century, migration from Egypt and demographic growth in villages such as Isdud and Ḥamāma encouraged renewed exploitation of sandy soils. British Mandate cadastral records and aerial surveys document extensive planting of vines, figs, sycamores, olives, and vegetables in interdune depressions between the 1920s and 1940s.

Techniques

The characteristic method was mawāṣī : farmers excavated shallow plots into the sand until reaching clayey layers above the groundwater table, bordered them with berms to resist drifting sand, fertilized with animal dung or household refuse, and irrigated from shallow wells or natural seepage springs. Oral traditions describe the initial clearing as jaldihā. Crops included tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and seasonal vegetables, alongside fruit trees. Seasonal huts were often used for summer residence near the plots.

Regional examples

  • Rimāl Isdūd : Between the 1920s and 1940s, grid-like vineyards and fig orchards were planted in dunes west of Isdud, linking production to the village’s weekly market.
  • Rimāl Yibnā : Villagers of Yibnā and al-Nabī Rūbīn cultivated interdune patches, balancing improvement with constant sand encroachment. British cadastral files record the Mandate-era expansion.
  • Hamama: Between Isdud and al-Majdal, extensive mawāṣī gardens developed near Wādī al-ʾAbṭaḥ, with oral and cartographic evidence indicating high cultivation levels along dune margins by the 1930s.
  • Al-Mawasi, Gaza.

    Social and economic role

Dune agriculture underpinned subsistence and market integration. Produce from the rimāl was sold in Isdud, al-Majdal, and Gaza markets. During the Mandate, demand from Allied camps and urban centers boosted profitability. Investment in artesian wells and roads further expanded output in villages such as Ḥamāma. Scholarship argues that these practices challenge colonial-era portrayals of dunefields as barren wastelands, highlighting indigenous environmental knowledge and dynamic adaptation to marginal landscapes.

Legacy

Most dune agricultural landscapes were disrupted or erased following the depopulation of Palestinian villages in 1948 and subsequent afforestation and urban development programs. Surviving vines, figs, and sycamore-figs among the dunes testify to the former agricultural system.