List, Assuming this is not now a dead thread, I have some preliminary results of my informal and unscientific search for water facts: Personal hydration: Minimum needs, 2.5 quarts/litres *per day* (Winter, low activity level) Maximum needs, 32 (possibly up to the toxicity level - about 48) quarts/litres *per day* (Summer, high activity level) Other uses: 7.5 quarts/litres per day for cooking (not certain whether this includes water in the food consumed, but I do not think so. It may include food preparation, such as washing produce prior to cooking) 40.0 quarts/litres per day for hygiene (which seems a bit high to me for that time period, and may carry with it several modern assumptions, as the average modern day shower consumes something like 8 gallons of water, etc) A gentleman on the Archeology Method list suggested Evenari, M., Shanan, L. & Tadmor, N. _The Negev: the challenge of a desert._, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971. Per his recollection, the min & max human per-capita water budgets for the Negev under different temperature conditions were 2 litres a day in winter, 7 litres a day in summer. Dr. Daniel K. Falk noted that: >>[T]his matter [of water requirements] does not help decide who lived there, but possibly may help with the question of how many persons--Essene or otherwise--could be supported by the water installations there. It _might_ be relevant to the debate about how many of the installations were used as miqvaot rather than water reservoirs, and this might indirectly factor into the debate about identity, but IMHO it is not possible to make all of the putative miqvaoth go away--these have physical characteristics distinctive to miqvaot.<< I suppose there must be estimates of the quantity of water that could be held in each cistern/pool, as well as the amount of available water that could be collected into them, but was unable to obtain any details from the web. You could have a container that holds 100,000 gallons, but not have enough rainfall, or the ability to effectively collect it, to ever fill it up. My guess would be that the cisterns/pools were designed to collect and hold enough water, under normal climatic conditions, to serve the maximum normal personal needs (drinking, cooking & hygiene) of the occupants. Even if some of them were mikvaot, you *could* use that water for drinking, cooking or bathing in an emergency, thus serving as a form of reserve. That leaves a LOT of wiggle room, though, doesn't it? Regards, Dave Hindley Cleveland, Ohio, USA For private reply, e-mail to "David C. Hindley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.