How did people know where to dig a well before they had access to technology we have today (or the possibility to use drills we have now that you can use pretty much everywhere and drill deep enough that you’ll find water anyway)?
If you’re only using manual labour, you cannot dig very deep so finding water isn’t guaranteed. So how did they figure out where they should dig to find water? (I mean especially in the context of wells on farms or communal wells in villages.)
In: 4698
They didn’t, they simply walked around with woo-woo sticks and picked a spot based on gut feeling calling it divination. Luckily, it doesn’t much matter which specific spot you pick, water table is locally same height and ground water is abundant almost anywhere so you are more likely than not to reach water pretty quick giving quick confirmation of the amazing power of the woo-woo sticks.
In modern times there is actually not much technology involved, you just pick a convenient spot and dig or drill, you might have some idea about the geology under your feet, but that can only be based on prior digs in the same area. Shallow wells are still usually hand dug, drilling buckets exist but if you are going to bring in the required equipment for that, you might as well drill much deeper.
Not finding water isn’t much of a hazard, most places people live at has plenty of groundwater. The real hazard is that you dig and there is a bloody boulder in the way, good luck with that.
Latest Answers