Abstrakt
Being well-defined concrete remains of past human activities, tepa sites (tells) have often become the principal focus of archaeological research in Central Asia. This bias led frequently to paying only little attention to the landscape surrounding tepas and its potential for the study of historical settlement and land use.
The ongoing field project conducted under the aegis of the Czech-Uzbek Archaeological Expedition aims to investigate the character and intensity of past human activities in the space stretching around the tepa sites and address the issue of the mutual interaction between the tepa and its surroundings including off-site activities. The proposed poster presents the objectives and methodology of intensive systematic surface survey conducted in the surroundings of Khaytabad Tepa (southern Uzbekistan) and evaluates the first field season.
To achieve the goals of the research project, an integrated methodological framework is used consisting of the study of historical topographical maps, remote sensing (interpretation of various available satellite imagery), and building of a GIS database comprising topographic, environmental, and cultural data sets. The field surface survey adopts the methodologies of controlled artefact collection common in the Mediterranean.
The systematic employment of this approach is still rather rare in Central Asia and promises a significant contribution to knowledge of the development of cultural landscape as a whole. The first season of the field survey confirmed the validity of the applied methodology and the great potential of the area for future research.
In addition to systematic fieldwalking, interaction with locals emerged as a fundamental source of knowledge for archaeologists. The preliminary results of the survey indicate a much more complex settlement development than recognized until now, characterised among others by widespread distribution of Iron Age and High Medieval ceramic material in the catchment of Khaytabad Tepa.