Abstract
The fertile alluvial plain of Cilicia is bordered by the Taurus and Amanus mountain ranges to the west, north and east and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Since the Neolithic Period, Plain Cilicia was an important interface between Anatolia and the Levant. The alluvial plain is dominated by three rivers: Tarsus, Seyhan and Ceyhan. The avulsion history of the lower course of the rivers Seyhan and Ceyhan during the Holocene remains an unresolved issue. The knowledge about how former river courses have changed is essential for the identification of ancient toponyms with archaeological sites. The analysis of silted up riverbeds based on high-resolution digital elevation models (TanDEM-X) and historic satellite imagery (CORONA) in this paper provide the first indications for the reconstruction of former river channels. Further evidence is given by the evaluation of the settlement patterns from 3rd to 1st millennium BC.
Highlights
The changes of river courses, which have had a strong influence on the development of sites and is important for the localization of sites has not been investigated in Cilicia in detail so far
Correspond to late Holocene river terraces while the surrounding plain was built during the middle correspond to late Holocene river terraces while the surrounding plain was built during the middle
This shift of the river Seyhan to the west must have an influence to the distribution of sites
Summary
The changes of river courses, which have had a strong influence on the development of sites and is important for the localization of sites has not been investigated in Cilicia in detail so far. For the identification of toponyms known from written sources with archaeological sites, precise knowledge about the changes of river courses is essential. Due to the lack of available coring data, this will be done by the analysis of remote sensing data in combination with a study of changes of the settlement cluster in Plain Cilicia. In southern Mesopotamia, studies about ancient watercourses on which all communication moved and along which all settlement ranged itself were undertaken already in the 1960s and 1970s on the basis of archaeological data and remote sensing data (LANDSAT) [5]. Much more data has become available e.g., CORONA and TanDEM-X
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