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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To add to what everyone is already saying: In most places water isn’t actually that hard to find even without special instruments, education, or magical abilities. If you just start digging, there’s a great chance the hole will eventually start to flood with water for the reasons explained by many others here. Whether it’s the best source of water around is another question. But even a bad well is still a well.
Basically, as long as you don’t live in one of the driest places on earth, it’s possible you could have almost no knowledge at all and still find water. I’m guessing at the dawn of mankind, some caveman got bored, started digging deep into the ground, and was eventually greeted by a big puddle. Other cavemen caught on and started to realize this was a handy way to get water when you didn’t live right beside a river.
Seriously, even chimps know how to dig wells. https://www.newsweek.com/chimpanzees-dig-holes-water-new-behavior-1715201
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