Of Rocks and Water: An Archaeology of PlaceÖmür Harmanşah People are drawn to places where geology performs its miracles: ice-cold spring waters gushing from the rock, mysterious caves which act as conduits for ancestors and divinities traveling back and forth to the underworld, sacred bodies of water where communities make libations and offer sacrifices. This volume presents a series of archaeological landscapes from the Iranian highlands to the Anatolian Plateau, and from the Mediterranean borderlands to Mesoamerica. Contributors all have a deep interest in the making and the long-term history of unorthodox places of human interaction with the mineral world, specifically the landscapes of rocks and water. Working with rock reliefs, sacred springs and lakes, caves, cairns, ruins and other meaningful places, they draw attention to the need for a rigorous field methodology and theoretical framework for working with such special places. At a time when network models, urban-centered and macro-scale perspectives dominate discussions of ancient landscapes, this unusual volume takes us to remote, unmappable places of cultural practice, social imagination and political appropriation. It offers not only a diverse set of case studies approaching small meaningful places in their special geological grounding, but also suggests new methodologies and interpretive approaches to understand places and the processes of place-making. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 13 | |
On Ancient Placemaking | 40 |
Origins and Fertility Mesoamerican Caves in Deep Time | 47 |
Topographies of Power Theorizing the Visual Spatial and Ritual Contexts of Rock Reliefs in Ancient Iran | 53 |
Other Monumental Lessons | 93 |
RockReliefs of Ancient Iran Notes and Remarks | 98 |
The Significance of Place Rethinking Hittite Rock Reliefs in Relation to the Topography of the Land of Hatti | 101 |
Living Rock and Transformed Space | 134 |
Event Place Performance Rock Reliefs and Spring Monuments in Anatolia | 140 |
Ruins within Ruins Site Environmental History and Landscape Biography | 169 |
Archaeological Landscapes Pushed Towards Ruination | 204 |
DisContinuous Domains A Case of MultiSited Archaeology from the Peloponnesus Greece | 213 |
Moving On A Conversation with Chris Witmore | 242 |
| 247 | |
Places in the Political Landscape of Late Bronze Age Anatolia | 128 |
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Achaemenid Anatolia Ancient Maya Anthropology antiquity archaeological landscapes architecture Arsacid associated Assyrian Belize Bishapur Bīsotūn Bisutun boleoi lithoi Canepa Cara Blanca carved caves cenotes century B.C. Classic Maya Commagene connected context Darius I’s dynasty edited empire Encyclopaedia Iranica environment environmental Epidauros Ermioni excavations Figure geography Glatz gods Gordion Harmanşah Hattusa Hermion Hittite human images imperial inscriptions interactions Iran Iranian Iranica Iron Age king of kings Kinkella land landscape archaeology landscape biography landscape monuments Late Bronze Age located Lucero material Mediterranean memory Mesoamerican military mound mountains multi-sited archaeology Naqš-e Rostam natural networks Olmec Pausanias Persian political Pool portraying practices region ritual river rock reliefs rock-cut Rostam royal ruins sacred Sakarya River sanctuary Šāpūr Sasanian sculpture sedimentation settlement significance soil space spatial stelae stone survey symbolic Tarhuntassa Teotihuacan Tigris tombs topography Ullmann University Press valley visual Witmore Yazılıkaya