A well is an excavation or structure created in the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn up by a pump, or using containers, such as buckets or large water bags that are raised mechanically or by hand. Water can also be injected back into the aquifer through the well. Wells were first constructed at least eight thousand years ago and historically vary in construction from a simple scoop in the sediment of a dry watercourse to the qanats of Iran, and the stepwells and sakiehs of India. Placing a lining in the well shaft helps create stability, and linings of wood or wickerwork date back at least as far as the Iron Age.
A dug well in a village in Faryab Province, Afghanistan
The difference between a well and a cistern is in the source of the water: a cistern collects rainwater where a well draws from groundwater.
Camel drawing water from a well, Djerba island, Tunisia, 1960
Neolithic Linear Pottery culture well, 5300 BC, Erkelenz, Germany
Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil, sand or rock on the surface of Earth. Digging is actually the combination of two processes, the first being the breaking or cutting of the surface, and the second being the removal and relocation of the material found there. In a simple digging situation, this may be accomplished in a single motion, with the digging implement being used to break the surface and immediately fling the material away from the hole or other structure being dug.
Movements of the ploughman when digging
A dog digging on a beach.
Twelfth century illustration of a man digging.
A group of men digging for Kauri gum in New Zealand.