Rural Settlements, temples and inscriptions of Eastern Rough Cilicia

Rural Settlements, temples and inscriptions of Eastern Rough Cilicia. The geological-geomorphological structure, geographic location, climate, flora and fauna as well as the resources both over the ground and underground of Rough Cilicia have been determinative factors in the region’s political, cultural and economic development. Constructional activities are observed in the region as of the Hellenistic period accelerating in the Roman period due to urbanisation policies of the Romans and continuing up to the 6th-7th centuries. In parallel to the urbanisation process in the Roman period, an important increase is also observed in the number of village-farm type settlements in the region. This only means that Rome not only showed an “ urbanisation process” but also changed and restructured its agricultural policies in parallel to this urbanisation. The aim of this study is to research the settlement history of the region by identifying the agricultural farmstead-village type settlements in the hinterland of the ancient cities like Korykos, Diokaisareia, Olba, Seleukeia (ad Calycadnum) and Korasion, and their interrelationships. Another aim of the study is to explore the qualities, formations, functions and production activities of these settlements. In this context, population and settlement density are also included within the scope of our research. The positive or negative developments of these settlements went through in parallel to the political, cultural and economic developments of the time also informs agenda. In order to identify the “ time range of settlement history” of the sites, we employed various criteria, such as the masonry techniques employed, inscriptions, reliefs and pottery. The concepts of polis, kome, and chora prominent in research on settlement history have interactions between them. The agricultural settlements located in the hinterlands of the poleis were the most important industrial-economic units feeding the ancient cities. These features of the komai and “ small size agricultural settlements” arose from production and made them an inseparable part of ancient cities. Cities with strong production and commerce, too, depended on the agricultural produce coming from their chora. The threshing fields and work-areas in the settlements provide us with evidence regarding production relations and variety of produce in the hinterland of the poleis.Sahin Hamdi. Rural Settlements, temples and inscriptions of Eastern Rough Cilicia. In: L'Anatolie des peuples, des cités et des cultures(IIe millénaire av. J.-C. – Ve siècle ap. J.-C.). Colloque international de Besançon - 26-27 novembre 2010. Volume 2. Approches locales et régionales. Besançon : Institut des Sciences et Techniques de l'Antiquité, 2013. pp. 289-300. (Collection « ISTA », 1277