Settlement Pattern Study of Chalcolithic Sites in the Gamasb River Basin of Central Zagros, Western Iran

Abstract

The Gamasb River Basin survey project carried out from 2004 to 2006 in the Central Zagros West of Iran was aimed at obtaining the occurrence of Chalcolithic sites across the area. In discussion of archaeological landscape, human activities have generally been regarded as external forces to either landscape changes or changes in archaeological material structures. An important aspect of any approach to natural and archaeological resource problems lies with the ability to represent spatially those resources and elements of the environment. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide a suitable base for such a representation and one which establishes the necessary analytical tool. The main goal of present paper is to make a contribution toward application of GIS to map the distributions of archaeological materials on the cultural landscape as well as examining the role of GIS for spatial analyses. Through the use of statistics based on findings from a case study in Iran this study found that the location of archaeological sites exhibit non-random tendencies or patterning throughout a landscape. This patterning is a result of past people’s tendency to interact with the landscape in “favorable” settings. Changes in land use patterns diminish the archaeological site distribution patterns and consequently the archaeological landscape values.