Studying the ancient settlement of Hacılar Büyük Höyük with integrated methods

Abstract

Archaeology has great potential to illustrate the long-term human-environment interactions especially when it is supported by other disciplines and computational modeling. This holistic perspective provides a detailed analysis of landscape with a multidisciplinary framework that might provide an understanding of complex systems, including land use, interactions of the elements, and adaptation. The Hacılar Büyük Höyük, a major Early Bronze Age-I (ca. 3100 – 2900 BC) site in Burdur, (Turkey), has been the focus of this thesis. It has significant contribution to the knowledge of the Early Bronze Age-I (EBA-I, hereafter) and II phases in Southwest Anatolia with its settlement plan, defense system, archaeological remains, and its material culture. The primary goal of this research is to assess the long-term human-environment interactions at the site from an interdisciplinary perspective. In this research, three different digital-computational approaches have been used to assess the long-term changes in landscape around the site; GIS-based morphometric analysis, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR, hereafter), and Agent Based Modelling (ABM, hereafter). Data was collected via unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, hereafter) photography, and sub-surface geophysical measurements. Through the use of GPR and GIS-based morphometric analyses, I will calculate the scale of settlement and its agro-pastoral (i.e., farming and herding) catchment areas. I will then integrate cultural, economic, and environmental parameters into an agent-based modeling platform where I will visualize the spatio-temporal impacts of human activities (e.g., de-vegetation, erosion, deposition) at the site. The geomorphometric analysis is used to figure out how geomorphological features on and around the settlement are distributed. To gain a better understanding of the landscape, the sky-view factor (SVF, hereafter) map and red relief image mapping (RRIM, hereafter) approaches were applied. A combination of morphometric analysis and field observation provides complementary information about the site, land, and surroundings. Then, GPR data were implemented and results analyzed. The geomorphic units are mapped and the estimated agricultural catchment area is identified based on the slope of the area and distance from the settlement as the flat area limited by the river considering the geomorphic units were similar with modern data. Based on the site's layout, it is possible to calculate the approximate population of the settlement considering that the casemates surround the mound. ABM is used to evaluate the effects of land use on surface processes as well as to calculate agricultural catchment areas based on precipitation and population data. The Macrophysical climate model (MCM) results were used in the model as the input climate data. The ABM used in this study is Medland Modeling Laboratory (MML, hereafter) to simulate how dry farming and ovicaprid-based, site-tethered pastoralism affected the landscape around the site. As a result of the study, possible archaeological structures buried underground were determined by using GPR. Then, model results show agricultural exploitation of the landscape and husbandry practices between 3100-2900 BC had varying degrees of impact on the environment and that population density is the most critical factor. Within the scope of the study, GPR and geomorphological analyses enabled to visualize to combine incorporate unearthed archaeological remains in the ABM for calculating the approximate human and animal population of the settlement. Then, four scenarios have been tested by changing the climate and increasing population variables for 200 years. The cumulative changes in the woodland vegetation, erosion, and deposition provide critical information about the land use patterns and anthropogenic impacts around the Hacılar Büyük Höyük during EBA-I. This thesis study illustrates that integrating the existing archaeological and anthropological data with the numerical models can benefit the interpretation of social structure at the settlement.