habitat rupestre.pdf - Società Friulana di Archeologia

A. De Pascale, R. Bixio, V. Caloicarpet motives, represent an interesting examples of Turkish-Ottoman popular paintings of the 18th - 20th century, madewith colours derived from mineral (iron oxide) and vegetableresources.The inside of rocky pigeon-lofts is made of one or more rooms,that in the inside walls contain small niches where pigeonsnest. Most of the Cappadocian dovecotes are to be found in thevalley around Üçhisar and Ortahisar, in Güvercinlik Valley orÇat valley nearby Nevşehir, in Soğanlı valley in the boardersof Kayseri, in Üzengi Valley near Ürgüp, sometimes in closeproximity to churches and monasteries (Giovannini, 1971;Tuna, Demirdurak, 2010, pp. 160-165).Rocky apiariesThe word apiary indicates an array of beehives. Only veryrecently the existence of ancient rocky apiaries has been recognizedin Cappadocian valleys (Bixio et al. 2002; Bixio etal. 2004), in the area between Ürgüp, Üçhisar, Göreme, Ortahisarand Çavuşin (district of Nevşehir), in the valley of İhlara(district of Aksaray) and in the valley of Soğanli (district ofKayseri). Today are known more than 50 rocky apiaries, cataloguedby Gaby Roussel in 2006 and 2007 (Roussel, 2006;2008), each of them, despite having its own peculiarities, hasgeneral features (apiaries with room fully excavated into therock), similar to the structures documented by Centro StudiSotterranei in 2001 and 2003.The study of one of them (Fig. 21), still in use even if onlypartially, allowed to understand their functioning with somecertainty. As the rocky pigeonlofts, they are generally, butnot always, located high up on rocky walls. From the outsidewe can identify the presence of ordered groups of small holes(flight holes), often combined with arrays of vertical slits anda small front or side door.Underground settlementsAt variance with the rocky structures described in the previousparagraph, characteristic of the environment of erosionvalleys, the underground structures are generally locatedin open zones of the upland plain, where hiding places arenot easily found. These are structures dug directly under thefield’s level or, sometimes, into an elevation of the ground (abutte, a cliff or a hill slope), extending deeply into the rock,quite beyond the belt in proximity of the surface (first belt).They may develop on one level only or on overlying levels;in the latter case, all the entrances are found on the first level,the one close to the campaign level. The road network andall other facilities are located underground, so that the variousrooms are connected by tunnels. A characteristic featureof underground settlements is given by special defensive devices,such as ‘millstone-doors’, which allowed to isolate anddefend large sectors of the underground system. According totheir extension and destination of use, various types of undergroundstructure may be recognized: underground sheltersand towns, monasteries and churches, and the special case ofthe underground hydric systems.Fig. 6 Rocky sites: NİĞDE district (drawing R. Bixio)Fig. 7 Rocky sites: YOZGAT district (drawing R. Bixio)Fig. 8 Rocky sites: KAYSERİ district. Numbers inside the circles correspondto listed underground settlements (drawing R. Bixio)Underground sheltersThe underground shelters situated in the wide plain extendingsouth-west of Gülşehir (Göstesin, Filiktepe, Sivasa) have verysimilar characteristics (Castellani, 1995; 2002). They have195volumeRicerca_OK_2012-11-15.indd 195 16/11/2012 15:03:20