Omur Harmansah

DR. ÖMÜR HARMANŞAH, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago IL, USA, was awarded a grant in October 2018 to aid research on "Holocene and Anthropocene Landscapes in Anatolia: The Political Ecology of Water in the Hittite Borderlands." Investigating the political ecology of water in the southern borderlands of the Hittite Empire (central Turkey), this landscape archaeology project used systematic fieldwalking, GIS-based mapping of surface architecture, geophysical prospection (GPR), and geomorphology, to document the diachronic history of land use in the vicinity of two inscribed monuments of the Hittite king Tudhaliya IV (1237-1209 BCE): the Sacred Pool of Yalburt Yaylası and the Earthen Dam of Köylütolu Yayla. The field season supported by the grant (2021) focused on the survey of two major Hittite cities: the 16th century BCE fortress, citadel, and lower town settlement of Kale Tepesi in the Bulasan River Valley, and the 13th century BCE settlement of Uzun Pınar in the Kurugöl Basin. Documentation of architecture and surface ceramics at Kale Tepesi has shown that this early Hittite settlement served as the seat of power in the survey region, whereas the terraced structures and water management system at Uzun Pınar, dating to Late Hittite Empire suggest a military establishment associated with Tudhaliya’s campaigns recounted in the Yalburt Inscription.