The Ways of an Empire: Continuity and Change of Route Landscapes Across the Taurus During the Hittite Period (Ca
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Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 62 (2021) 101293 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Anthropological Archaeology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaa The ways of an empire: Continuity and change of route landscapes across the Taurus during the Hittite Period (ca. 1650–1200 BCE) Alvise Matessi Universita` degli Studi di Verona, Italy ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Routes are part of broader ’landscapes of movement’, having an impact on and being impacted by other socio- Connectivity cultural processes. Most recent studies on connectivity networks remain highly topographic in scope, incidentally Dynamics of transformation resulting in the restitution of a long term fixity. The anachronistic transposition of best known route networks Inter-regional interactions across various ages, irrespective of context-specificcircumstances, further enhances this static approach. On the Hittite other hand, when changes in connectivity are considered, trends are generally analysed over ’big jumps’, often Late Bronze Age Settlement histories spanning several centuries. Trade This article aims to contextualise dynamics of change in route trajectories within shorter and well-defined Landscape monuments chronological boundaries with a case study on the evolution of route landscapes across the Taurus mountains Historical geography under the Hittite kingdom and empire (ca. 1650–1200 BCE). I will adopt an integrated approach to multiple datasets, aiming to investigate variables operating at different time depths. In the conclusions, I will argue that, while the Hittite route system in the target area was in part rooted on previous patterns of connectivity, some eventful shifts can also be individuated and historically explained. This enables, in turn, an enhanced perspective on the formation and transformation of Hittite socio-cultural landscapes. 1. Introduction transportation affected urban landscapes through the late pre- Columbian and the early Spanish colonial period, in tandem with Starting from the Roman Via Appia, moving to the Achaemenid major shifts in economic interests. Moving to the Mediterranean area, ’Royal Road’, thence to the ’Straight Road’ of the Qin Empire, or to the Jason Dowdle (1987) shows how the existence of developed road net ~ advanced Qhapaq Nan network of the Inca, one can hardly escape the works in pre-Roman Gaul contributed to a relatively rapid economic impression that great civilisations of the past were built on roads. A close growth of the region after Caesar’s conquest and to its tight integration relationship between routes and political landscapes is indeed implied in within the Roman power network. These and other studies along similar much theoretical work on pre-modern empires. Michael Mann (1986) lines led to a general revaluation of routes as something more than mere often regards routes as a key factor in securing social cohesion within an lattices binding nodes in a network, advocating instead a more holistic empire through their enabling regular communications between distant approach to routes as part of broader ’landscapes of movement’ inter communities and individuals. Moreover, in Mann’s view, the success of acting at various scales with other socio-cultural processes (Wilkinson, empires very much depended on the capacity authorities had to mobilise 2014; Alcock et al., 2012; Snead et al., 2009). ’compulsory cooperation’, that is to integrate subject territories in a Within this understanding, political, social, cultural, and economic multi-faceted core-periphery dialectic through wholesale material and transformations may have a deep impact on mobility patterns and on the ideal infrastructures (Mann 1986: 130-77). With their role in enhancing organisation of route landscapes, while changes in the use and disposi the circulation of armies, goods, men, and ideas, routes represented the tion of roadways might in turn trigger new phases of political and eco true backbone of this infrastructural system. nomic interaction. However, in spite of this renewed focus, most of the More case-oriented studies have emphasised the mutual interaction recent studies on route networks remain highly topographic in scope, between communication logistics, socio-cultural landscapes, and eco incidentally resulting in the restitution of a long term fixity.In the Near nomic models. In his extensive work on 16th century CE Central Mexico, East particularly, landscape-oriented research of the past decades, aided for example, Ross Hassig (1985) stresses how changing patterns of by remote sensing imagery and paleo-environmental data, has E-mail address: [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2021.101293 Received 29 July 2020; Received in revised form 1 March 2021; Available online 8 April 2021 0278-4165/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). A. Matessi Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 62 (2021) 101293 contributed immensely to the recognition of pre-modern connectivity alternating success. In the following phase, termed the Empire period, systems, often obscured by taphonomic processes (Ur 2003; Wilkinson the Hittites acquired considerable geopolitical prestige by expanding 2003: 60-62). For the Roman and Byzantine periods, the amount of data their hegemony over much of Western Anatolia, the Northern Levant so produced has augmented an already-rich corpus of historical infor and parts of Upper Mesopotamia (Fig. 1). During the Empire period, the mation, thus encouraging full-fledged diachronic approaches to con Hittites were also able to entertain intense military, diplomatic and nectivity dynamics (e.g. Turchetto 2018). By contrast, research on pre- commercial contacts on equal terms with the great powers of the time, Roman route networks relies more strongly on the archaeological re such as Egypt, Assyria, and the Mycenaean world. The Hittite empire cord, mostly represented by unstratified data derived from surveys. In then collapsed at the turn of the 12th century due to an inner political the best scenario, this allows the reconstruction of long term palimp crisis coupled with social and economic instability. sests, with little chronological resolution. Existing gaps are often filled Episodically in the Old Kingdom and more steadily later, the Taurus through the anachronistic transposition of later route networks (e.g. mountains (Turkish Toros Dagları)˘ ranged in the sphere of Hittite he modern, Ottoman, Medieval, Roman, etc.), thus further enhancing a gemony and control, especially in their central and eastern sectors. In static view (T. C. Wilkinson 2014: 88-94). Even when changes in route the present target area, the Taurus chain forms a sort of diagonal strip patterns are considered, data are generally classified in large meshed separating two regions, defined by very different ecosystems (Fig. 2). periodisation grids by which trends can only be analysed over ’big The north-western sector comprises the Anatolian Plateau, rising to a jumps’, often spanning several centuries. Comparatively few attempts, mean elevation of 1100 m and mostly characterised by extensive arid or however, have been made in order to contextualise dynamics of change semi-arid zones (300–400 mm mean annual precipitation), interspersed in route networks within shorter and well-defined chronological with greener niches in intermontane valleys and mountain piedmonts. boundaries. Such an attempt would contribute to a more complete pic The southern sector is comprised of four fertile alluvial basins, shaping ture on how connectivity affected and was affected by the formation and Cilicia and the Amuq. To the west, in so-called Rough Cilicia, we findthe transformation of socio-cultural landscapes or by the contingent his Goksu¨ River, which carves its way through the mountains and then torical developments of a given geopolitical context. forms a wide fertile alluvium in its middle course, where it receives With this in mind, this article aims to investigate long term use and water from its main tributary, the Ermenek Çayı. The valley then nar short term shifts in connectivity during the Hittite kingdom and empire rows again down to Silifke before the river meets the Mediterranean in a (ca. 1650–1200 BCE), focusing on routes across the Taurus towards small delta. Moving eastward through the narrow coastal strip of Cilicia and Syria. These trajectories contributed to intense interregional Erdemli and Mersin, we end up in Plain Cilicia, comprised of two fertile interactions, testifiedthroughout the 2nd millennium BCE by abundant basins separated by the low Misis mountains: the Çukurova and the archaeological and textual data on political, commercial, and cultural Yukarıova, one formed by the Tarsus (Classical Kydnos) and Seyhan contacts, also including the ideological and linguistic spheres. Taurus (Classical Saros) rivers, the other by the Ceyhan (Classical Pyramos) river routes to Cilicia and Syria thus represent an ideal case to investigate and its tributaries. The sediments supplied by this substantial riverine Hittite connectivity patterns in a fully-fledged diachronic perspective, system, fed by the Taurus streams, create rich alluvial soils suitable for taking into account variables operating at different time depths. In this intensive agriculture. Finally, to the east, past the Bahçe and Belen purview, I will draw conclusions based on the integrated discussion