The Kahramanmaraş Valley Survey: A Crossroads Along the Syro-Anatolian Frontier

This volume presents a study of local landscape histories in the Kahramanmarash valley—a previously understudied, but pivotal, crossroads along the Syro-Anatolian frontier. It provides a detailed outline of the myriad ways that the ancient residents of this region between Syria and Anatolia made it their home for over seven thousand years. The book is a final report on the surface surveys carried out in the Kahramanmaraş region of southeastern Turkey between 1993 and 2000 that several thousand years ago was removed from the centers of political power, pulled between Antioch to the south and the areas along the Euphrates to the east. An overview of the environmental factors affecting settlement in the survey area includes a record of settlement patterns beginning with the Neolithic and ending with the Islamic era, and the results of intensive full coverage and transect surveys around Domuztepe. These various lines of inquiry are integrated into a broadly based picture of how the ancient residents of the valley made this zone between Syria and Anatolia their home. Each of the seven data chapters presents a study of settlement patterns, followed by the ceramic indicators used to date the sites. The Holocene vegetation history of central southern Turkey is presented in relation to climatic changes and human impact through the pollen analytical results of a deep core obtained from a former Sağlık (Gavur) lake bed. This data contributes to the study of Near Eastern palynology as well as revealing the environmental factors affecting local settlements over time. Of note is the change from a lacustrine to marshy conditions in the central lake that denote increased drying from 1250 BCE.