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.)
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So basically the water table isn’t a layer of pure water under some dirt.
Ever been to the beach? And dug a deep enough hole that the sand got wet even though no waves had gotten in? That’s the water table. It’s just dirt that’s wet, and digging a well means removing the dirt. It’s usually sea level but can go up higher if there’s rocks underneath it stopping it from seeping down further.
So using that logic, you can dig a hole anywhere near a source of water, and once you’re level with that water you’ll hit it. If you don’t have a source of water to go by you start in a valley so you don’t have to dig as far.
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