The fertile alluvial plain of the Cilicia Pedias is surrounded by the Taurus and Amanus mountain ranges in the West, North and East and the Mediterranean Sea in the South. Since the Neolithic period the Cilician Plain was an important connection between Anatolia and the Levant. This paper examines the settlement history of the Cilician Plain based on survey and excavation data, written sources and remote sensing. Thus, a database was built with up to 1000 sites from Neolithic to the Byzantine period. This dataset is combined in GIS with an analysis of remote sensing data such as Corona and TanDEM-X to reconstruct also the natural environment of the Cilician plain.

1. Settlement history of the Cilician Plain
from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age
November 21, 2015ASOR Annual Meeting 2015
Susanne Rutishauser

2. 2November 21, 2015
wikimedia
Cilician Plain

3. 3November 21, 2015
wikimedia
Cilician Plain

5. 5November 21, 2015
Kilikia Pedias – Kilikia Tracheia

6. 6November 21, 2015
frontier vs bridge
Lucas Stephens (University of Pennsylvania)
“Network Analysis of Anatolian Land Routes”
Meyer, M.; Ehling, K.; Pohl, D.; Sayar, M. H.:
Kulturbegegnung in einem Brückenland,
2004.
Trémouille, Marie-Claude
Kizzuwatna, Terre de frontière,
2001.

7. Tarsus
Seyhan
Ceyhan
Göksu

9. 9November 21, 2015
DEM
Çukurova
Yukarıova
based on SRTM data

10. 10November 21, 2015
Population density
based on OSM (open street map) data and ABPRS (address based population registration system) 2010 provided by TurkStat (Turkish Statistical Institute)

11. 11November 21, 2015
Road network
Türkiye Fiziki Haritasi, www.hgk.msb.gov.tr

12. 12November 21, 2015
Settlement database with 999 sites
TanDEM-X
Excavation
Survey
Corona
mod.opt.Data
0
200
400
600
800
1000
TDXOpt DatCoronaSurveyAusgrabung

13. 13November 21, 2015
Surveys
Seton-Williams 1951
TIB 1968–1990
Edwards 1973–1987
Bilkent Survey 1991
Hrouda 1994
Girginer 2002–2006
Osmaniye Survey 2005–
Mopsos Survey 2006–2009

14. 14November 21, 2015
Distribution of settlements
Roman Empire
69 BC – 395 AD
Byzantine I
395–712 AD
Byzantine II
965–1073 AD
Abbasid
712–965 AD
Neolithic/
Chalcolithic
8000–3000 BC
Bronze Age
3000–1200 BC
Iron Age
1200–540 BC
Achaemenid/
Hellenistic
540–69 BC
Armenian
Kingdom
1073–1375 AD
Islamic Period
1375 AD –
S P Q R
Roman Empire
69 BC – 395 AD
Byzantine I
395–712 AD
Byzantine II
965–1073 AD
Abbasid
712–965 AD
BC
e
BC
C
Achaemenid/
Hellenistic
540–69 BC
Armenian
Kingdom
1073–1375 AD
Islamic Period
1375 AD –
S P Q R
Abbasid
712–965 AD
Armenian
Kingdom
1073–1375 AD
Islamic Period
1375 AD –

15. 15November 21, 2015
Kernel Density Estimation (KDE)

16. 16November 21, 2015
Surveys

17. 17November 21, 2015
Bronzeage

18. 18November 21, 2015
Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age

19. 19November 21, 2015
Central places

20. 20November 21, 2015
Central places
Walter Christaller

21. 21November 21, 2015
Mersin Tarsus Adana Misis Sirkeli Tatarli Issos
30 km 40 km 30 km 15 km 40 km 40 km
30 40 30 15 40 40
Distances between central places
km

22. 22November 21, 2015
Main Bronze- and Iron Age sites, modern cities
Mersin (Yumuktepe)
+ Neolithic Period
Tarsus (Gözlükule)
+ Bronze/Iron Age, Hellenistic
and Roman Period
— Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
Adana
Misis / Mopsuhestia
Sirkeli Höyük
Tatarlı Höyük
Issos (Kinet Höyük)
+ Bronze/Iron Age, Hellenistic
Period
— Earthquake, silting-up

23. 23November 21, 2015
«To the eastward of Pompeiopolis there are some small hills, which looked like artificial tumuli; and farther on, to
the eastward of a small river, we came to Mersyn, the name given by the natives to a few huts on the shore. Several
large stones and ancient tiles, which lie contiguous to this place, seem to shew that there was formerly some respec-
table building there.»
Beaufort 1817: 256.

24. 24November 21, 2015
Main Bronze- and Iron Age sites, modern cities
Misis (Yumuktepe)
+ Neolithic Period
Tarsus (Gözlükule)
+ Bronze/Iron Age, Hellenistic
and Roman Period
— Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
Adana
Misis / Mopsuhestia
Sirkeli Höyük
Tatarlı Höyük
Issos (Kinet Höyük)
+ Bronze/Iron Age, Hellenistic
Period
— Earthquake, silting-up

25. 25November 21, 2015
Cluster

26. 26November 21, 2015
Palaeo-channels and Palaeo-rivers

27. 27November 21, 2015
Corona Imagery (1967–1970)

28. 28November 21, 2015
TanDEM-X data (2010–)

29. 29November 21, 2015
Palaeo-rivers

30. 30November 21, 2015
Palaeo-canal

31. 31November 21, 2015
Palaeo-rivers, soil map

32. 32November 21, 2015
Remote-Sensing Survey

33. 33November 21, 2015
Flachsiedlung erhalten
Flachsiedlung beschädigt
Flachsiedlung zerstört
Tell-Siedlung erhalten
Tell-Siedlung beschädigt
Tell Siedlung zerstört
2%
54,9%
9,8%
2,7%
20,9%
9,5%

35. Thank you for your attention
Prof. Dr. Mirko Novák
Dr. Simone Mühl
Ralph Rosenbauer M.A.
Prof. Dr. Mustafa H. Sayar
Dr. Stefan Erasmi
Ralf Buchbach
Göttingen University
İstanbul Üniversitesi
susanne.rutishauser@iaw.unibe.ch
www.iaw.unibe.ch/rutishauser
www.virtual-cilicia.org
Prof. Dr. Tony Wilkinson
Prof. Dr. Graham Philip