Underground settlements in Anatolia: synthesis of 25 years of researches (original) (raw)
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Underground Settlements and Cave Dwellings of Agirnas Village, Kayseri (Southeast Turkey)
Central Anatolia had been affected by the intensive volcanic activities which began 10 million years ago. That eruption phase, which continued even until historical times, piled up more than 100 m of tuff and ignimbrite around Cappadocia. The volcanic rocks were dug by the local people and a great variety of underground settlements were built into the rocks. Antique Caesarea which is known as Kayseri today was the capital of ancient Cappadocia; its underground structures, churches, cave dwellings of Kayseri have not been extensively investigated yet. Around Caesarea, which had been the cradle of Christianity in Anatolia, there is an immense amount of cave dwellings and underground structures. Agirnas is a small village, 15 km east of Caesarea. Establishment date of the village, which is the birthplace of Sinan, the most important architect of the Ottoman Empire during the 16 century, is unknown. Underground of this village is like a cobweb, nearly all the underground shelters below the old houses are interconnected to each other. In addition to this gigantic underground structural system of Agirnas Village, there are tens of cave dwellings in Akbin Valley, 700 meters west of the village. It is thought that some of these structures, dug in the walls of the valley which continues from Agirnas to Dimitri Village for 3 km, were built as Roman rock graves. It is not possible to determine the date and aim of the original dwellings due to their continuous usage for centuries by redesigning , and the destruction caused by the erosions on the valley walls. As OBRUK Cave Research Group, our research within the framework of " Kayseri Underground Structures Inventory Project " started with the underground settlements in the village. Even though it is not possible to determine the first construction date, it is obvious that this structural complex is more than 500 years old and it shows us that the village has a gigantic underground structure dug below the houses with a purpose of defense. Then we continue with Akbin Valley Cave Dwellings survey. We present here a brief conclusion about the hypogea of this village, describing the underground sites and cave dwellings of Agirnas Village and their historical transformation of usage during the centuries.
CAVE DWELLINGS AND UNDERGROUND CITIES OF BELAGASI VILLAGE AND OTEDERE VALLEY (KAYSERI – TURKEY)
Although the region known as "Cappadocia" is located in the Nevşehir-Ürgüp-Göreme triangle of Anatolia (Turkey), the capital of that region in ancient times was the antique Caesarea city which is known as Kayseri today. As the same in Nevşehir-Ürgüp-Göreme triangle, in antique Caesarea the volcanic tuff which was piled up by the active volcanoes around was dug by the local people. Houses, churches, protective underground settlements were built into those rocks and a troglodyte civilization had been established. Different from the known touristic places of Cappadocia, the rock dwellings and underground settlements of Kayseri region have not been investigated. Nevertheless, underground structures of that region have such an architectural quality to compete with the dwellings in other parts of Cappadocia. After the 3rd century Kayseri was the cradle of Christianity in Anatolia and there are several underground cities around this city carved in order to protect Christians from the invasions and raids beginning from the 7th century. We find new and unexplored underground cities on every spot around Kayseri. Apart from several rock settlements, several underground cities on the walls of deep valleys around the city, which were unknown and not recorded before, had been explored and surveyed. Those underground cities are rather different than the ones around the touristic Cappadocia. Apart from the architectural differences, at least some of them were not used again after the first construction period, whilst in other cases even the excavation of the underground city is uncompleted. When appreciated in this context, the underground cities of Kayseri have features to shed light on the beginning of this type of architecture, which is different from Goreme, where most examples were continuously enlarged and new passages added during the history. In this article, Belagasi cave dwellings of Kayseri and four different underground cities in the area will be explained in detail.
A geophysical investigation of the Late Roman underground settlement at Aydintepe, Northeast Turkey
Geoarchaeology-an International Journal, 2008
The Aydintepe underground settlement in northeastern Turkey is a series of subsurface galleries carved in Eocene-aged volcanic tuff. Rescue excavations conducted by the Local Archaeological Museum of Erzurum in 1996 and 1997 uncovered a large settlement with several underground rooms linked by passages. According to the excavators, it may have been built as a hideout and shelter by the first Christians who were banished by the Romans during the 3rd century A.D. Despite its historical and touristic value, parts of the underground settlement at Aydintepe have been destroyed to make room for the construction of new buildings in the modern town. As part of a conservation strategy for this important archaeological resource, a series of ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity measurements were conducted along eight profiles between 2003 and 2005. GPR soundings with a 100-MHz unshielded antenna yielded reflected hyperbolic signals with high amplitude from tunnel structures. These highamplitude signals corresponded to areas of high electrical resistivity. These anomalies allow us to determine the probable locations of tunnels within the underground settlement and they provide important data that can be used to prevent future damage from modern construction. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Some Interesting Underground Cities and Peculiar Underground Structures of Kayseri (Turkey)
Cappadocia, like many other parts of the world, is loaded with underground defense structures. The volcanic tuff, characteristic of the region, is easy to carve through and covers hundreds of square kilometers, thus providing favorable conditions for numerous underground defense structures. Consequently, almost every village in Cappadocia boasts at least one or more rock-cut structures. Although some are small and stand-alone structures, others constitute large and elaborate underground cities, including hundreds of meters-long tunnels and countless rooms. For more than seven years now, the OBRUK Cave Research Group has carried out the Underground Structures Inventory Project in Kayseri province. To date, 33 underground cities have been systematically explored and surveyed. This article begins with an introductory overview of the historical background and research of underground cities in Cappadocia and continues with an account of some of the most telling examples of these structures.
2017
En Cappadoce (Turquie) les éruptions du Mont Argée ont déversé d'importantes quantités d'ignimbrites dont l'altération fournit des terres fertiles favorisant l'implantation humaine. Ces formations trop friables pour être utilisées comme matériaux de construction ont des propriétés mécaniques qui permettent le creusement d'ouvrages souterrains durables. Une civilisation troglodytique s'est donc développée depuis quatre mille ans. Nos études montrent la diversité des usages. Dans l'Antiquité, de nombreux problèmes d'aménagement ont trouvé des solutions souterraines telles que des villes à plusieurs niveaux, des dérivations de fleuve, des aqueducs de plusieurs kilomètres, des citernes, des tunnels de dérivation des eaux pluviales. Les premiers exemples de structures souterraines sont des sites hittites. On rencontre ensuite des tombeaux hellénistiques ou romains qui ont été transformés en églises, monastères et cimetières à l'époque byzantine, puis en simples habitations, greniers et pigeonniers, aux époques ottomane puis moderne. Certains de ces ouvrages sont encore en usage, mais la plupart sont tombés dans l'oubli et sont fortement dégradés. Parfois découverts fortuitement, lors de grands travaux, ils posent le double problème de la sécurité des constructions modernes et de la préservation du patrimoine. On assiste aujourd'hui à un regain d'intérêt pour le monde souterrain de Cappadoce et des sites anciens sont valorisés par des aménagements touristiques. A cela s'ajoutent des réalisations actuelles, telles que des hôtels troglodytiques, des musées souterrains ou des silos de grande taille pour la conservation des agrumes. Ces ouvrages utilisent encore des techniques traditionnelles, souvent conjuguées à la mécanisation qui permet un creusement rapide. Abstract Cappadocia (Turkey) is a volcanic province where the eruptions of Mount Erciyes spread important amounts of ignimbrites whose alteration provides fertile land that favoured human settlements. These formations are too brittle to be used as building materials. However, they have mechanical properties that allow the digging and the stability of underground structures. A troglodyte civilization developed there, over four thousand years. Our studies show the diversity of these uses. During the Antiquity, many development problems found solutions such as underground cities, river diversions, several kilometres long aqueducts, cisterns, or rainwater collection galleries.
Ahlat Underground Settlements Research Project 2007-2008-2009
In short we present the main results of three years of surveys developed on the rocky settlements in territory of Ahlat (Van Gölü, south-eastern Turkey). We have determined 16 rocky areas where we have documented worship structures excavated in volcanic rocks, mainly Christian, but also Islamic and Buddhist. We describe underground dwellings, warehouses and pigeon-lofts, too. Very important is the study on the ancient rocky water-works system and on the relating excavation techniques. At last we refer about the discovery of a third volcanic apparatus responsible of the geologic situation of Ahlat territory where the rocky settlements have been dug. Keywords: Ahlat, caves, rocky-settlements, tunnels, underground
2013
Different settlement types can be observed all over Anatolia from the Neolithic time onwards. The most common prehistoric settlement form is the mound (höyük). Settlement mounds are usually made up of several meters of habitation deposits which accumulate over a longer period of time. Their specific form is caused by the use of sun-dried mudbricks as the preferred building material which cannot be re-used after the destruction of the buildings. The destroyed houses were usually levelled and new ones built on top of them, thus leading to a steadily rising mound. Settlement mounds are mainly situated in fertile plains, often near fresh water sources. In the Lake District most of the settlement mounds are located at the margins of the plains. The main reason for this seems to be the threat of flooding of the plains which often have no natural water outlet 12 . Settlement mounds can also be located on higher terraces, often on the spurs of natural hills. The site of Kuruçay is a typical example for this kind of location 13 . Besides natural threats like floods, hill-spur sites possess strategic advantages in regard to their defensive situation. This is also a characteristic element of hill-top sites which form another settlement type. Hill-top sites are located on top of natural hills surrounding the fertile plains. With their strategic position they often also control important traffic routes. Whereas most of the settlements mounds are already known today because they are easy to spot in the plains, many hill-top sites still await to be discovered. This is also the case with flat sites, which were usually inhabited for a shorter time period; therefore their habitation deposits are only of minimal height. Flat settlements can be located either in the plains or on the flanks of hills. They are usually found only in intensive surveys. Today many flat sites have been destroyed by modern agriculture. Whereas these kinds of settlements are known from all parts of Anatolia, another settlement type occurs especially in the Lake District: island and lake-shore sites.
The objective of the project entitled "Prehistoric Periods Survey of Eskişehir and Kütahya Provinces (EKAR)", which is ongoing since 2017, is to conduct comprehensive research using modern techniques on large settlements aiming to achieve results that can contribute to clarify certain archaeological problems and fill in the chronological gaps regarding the prehistorical periods of the region. In this context, geo-archaeological and geophysical methods are applied alongside with traditional archaeological research methods. This paper discusses the results of the geophysical studies along with the contribution of geo-archaeological drills to these results in Tavşanlı Höyük located within the borders of Kütahya Province in Inland Northwest Anatolia within the scope of the mentioned surveys. Studies carried out on an area of 100 x 55 meters have shown that the seite featured a settlement pattern of houses surrounded by streets and alleys during the Early Bronze Age II (2700-2400 BC) and revealed a strong evidence that, at least for the area studied, it was not settled in again following a great fire outbreak during the Early Bronze Age III period.
Engineering Geology, 2003
Underground cities and semi-underground settlements, most of which are 1500 years at least, exist in the Cappadocia Region of Turkey. These man-made rock structures are carved in soft tuffs and the best examples of long-term performance of manmade structures in the field of rock engineering. The tuffs also have good thermal isolation properties to be used as housing and storage of foods. In this article, the authors are only concerned with physical and short-term mechanical characteristics due to the wide-spectrum of the theme and the in situ characterization of the Cappadocia tuffs, and the results of investigations are presented. In addition, a critical overview on possible engineering geological problems at Cappadocia with mechanical aspects of historical and modern rock structures and their implications in rock engineering is made. From the experimental results in the field, it is evident that the engineering characteristics of these rocks do not show significant changes in vertical and horizontal directions. However, they are prone to atmospheric conditions. In addition, temperature and humidity measurements at different floors of the underground cities and various parts of semi-underground settlements indicated that variations in climatic conditions of the openings are very small when compared to those outside the ground surface.