Production requires water: Material remains of the hydrosocial cycle in an ancient Anatolian city

Abstract

Kerkenes is the largest pre‐Hellenistic city in Turkey. It covers 2.5 square kilometers and is enclosed by a 7‐km‐long stone wall. This Iron Age, Phrygian city was well planned, only inhabited for forty to sixty years, and then purposefully destroyed and abandoned. Not only were the city wall and architecture planned but interconnected water management features for the city were also part of how the city was conceived. While some might view the management of water in the city as an indication that the social elite wanted to control the water, the available evidence does not support this idea. Drawing on Linton and Budds's hydrosocial cycle, this article uses water as a lens to examine hydrosocial relations at Kerkenes, specifically instances where water is part of the dialectical and relational process in the production of food, crafts, health, and politics. This article argues that using water as a lens can help archaeologists find traces of sociocultural, economic, and political relationships and may not only reveal insights into water negotiations in the past but also inform contemporary water concerns.