habitat rupestre.pdf - Società Friulana di Archeologia

RUPESTRIAN CULTURES OF TURKEYCRHIMA-CINP projectFig. 9 Rocky and underground sites: NEVŞEHİR district (drawing R. Bixio)been excavated inside low flat hills (butte). At the foot of themodest cliffs (Figs. 15, 16, 18) there are the entrances to largerooms showing signs of use as storehouses and shelters fordomestic animals, but also as churches.It is important to remind that in Cappadocia winters are extremelyrigid and summers are very hot, even if dry, so theuse of rooms dug into the tuff appears well justified. But thesehypogea show the interesting features: they are connected tonarrow tunnels opening in the tuff, leading towards the insideof the butte, and with the entrance always defended by one ormore millstone-doors. The investigations of the various undergroundsystems have shown the presence of a few independentsub-systems (modules - Fig. 15), each composed by an ensembleof rooms, one of which used as last defence (redoubt), andequipped with escape way. Any module is interconnected bytunnels, dug with the oppositefront technique, connecting ina mean point X (joint point). Each module was defended byseveral millstone-doors (more than forty only in one system)which efficacy is implemented by further devices: right anglesin the tunnels, sudden decrease in their height, etc. Tobe mentioned the presence of wells that reach the water bed.The size of each hypogeal net, even if smaller than that of theso-called underground towns, may exceed one kilometre. Thistype of structure was likely a temporary hiding place for asmall group of persons and animals during raids or transits ofarmies. A possible interpretation of such a complex structureis that the different family groups lived in the more externalrooms, stored food in the interior and retired inside the redoubtwhen peril appeared helping, in case, each others throughthe long connecting tunnels and the escape tunnels (Fig. 16).Underground townsBy far the largest and most articulated among the undergroundsettlements is the site of Derinkuyu.A complete investigation of this structure is not yet available,due to its size, depth, number of levels and inter-connections(Demir, 1990; Bixio, 1996; Bixio, Castellani, 2002a, Okuyucu,2007). A first feature appears evident: the site is composedby many ‘satellite system’. The best known of thesesystems is the one open to the public, that develops in a sort ofhelicoids around a central shaft, intercepted various times ondifferent levels. Schematically, we can recognize three mainbelts, superimposed, with intermediate levels, down to a depthof about 50 m. In the first one, just below ground level, all thevolumeRicerca_OK_2012-11-15.indd 196 16/11/2012 15:03:21