3. Cilt - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

asis of local information), including tombs, farmsteads and settlements, olive oilpresses, quarries, aqueducts, fortifi ed citadels and hilltop watchtowers, rangingin date from the prehistoric era to the Middle Ages. Recording took the formof measurement and description in a fi eldbook, digital photography, separatearchitectural drawings of certain monuments, and recording of GPS coordinates. Inaddition to archaeological sites, modern natural resources such as springs, marbleand emery quarries and workshops, clay pits, and mills were also recorded. Afurther 185 points of interest were recorded in 2006 by a larger team of 14 personsworking for a longer season of six weeks. Other projects undertaken in 2006 wereto return to sites fi rst identifi ed in 2005 in order to make contour maps and detailedarchitectural drawings and to carry out systematic collection of surface fi nds, andto begin a more intensive survey of the immediate environs of Aphrodisias. Allthe fi eld data collected in the fi rst two seasons have now also been incorporatedinto a GIS, based on elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography mission 1 ,satellite images (Landsat 7 and SPOT), and a digitized version of the 1:100,000-scale geological map of the region (Fig. 2).B. ResultsIn the interests of clarity, the following paragraphs treat of the preliminary resultsof recent research in chronological order, although some subjects are inherentlydiachronic in nature.1) The Prehistoric Era (3rd-1st millennium B.C.E.)Two prehistoric settlement mounds on the site of Aphrodisias attest humanoccupation in the valley in or before the mid-3rd millennium B.C.E. 2 . So far, theonly further evidence for prehistoric occupation observed during the survey is anemery axe-head, found on the surface on the south side of the valley. There are,however, earlier reports of discoveries of prehistoric objects in the vicinity of awell-known cave (Sırtlanini Mağarası, also on the south side of the valley), whichwill be explored in a future season 3 .1 The SRTM elevation data was replaced in 2007 with higher resolution ASTER data.2 M. S. Joukowsky, Prehistoric Aphrodisias. An Account of the Excavations and Artifact Studies(Louvain 1986). See also: J. L. Léurquin, “Rapport prospection de la vallée du Dandalas”, in:M. S. Joukowsky, Prehistoric Aphrodisias. An Account of the Excavations and Artifact Studies(Louvain 1986) 725-35.3 Y. Aşkın, “Sırtlanini Mağarası”, Afrodisias Karacasu Tanıtım Dergisi 3 (n.d.) 12-15.105