3. Cilt - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

it was abandoned? Was there a catastrophic increase in mortality? Or did thepopulation simply melt back into the countryside from which their ancestors hadcome from many centuries before? As noted above, fi ve out of the six settlementsites where controlled collection of surface fi nds has been carried out appear tohave been abandoned in the early imperial period and never resettled, and verylittle evidence for settlement in the upper Morsynus valley in late antiquity has beenfound. Until now, however, none of the settlements identifi ed in the plateau southof the valley have been mapped or sampled, and it is possible that the populationretreated at least in part to this more remote area after the abandonment of thecity.6) Turkish Period (13th century C.E. to present)In the Ottoman era, important roads ran from west to east along the north sideof the valley, and across the plateau to the south. The routes of these roads canbe traced by preserved bridges, and by large cisterns situated at regular intervals.Two Ottoman bridges and four large cisterns have been identifi ed, and architecturalrecords of these important monuments will be made in future seasons.In addition to its purely academic goals, another objective of the survey isto promote conservation and responsible tourism of the upper Morsynus Rivervalley. Loosely regulated marble quarrying threatens both the pastoral beautyof the valley and its ancient monuments, and casual looting is widespread. Bymeeting and sharing our data and maps with local administrative, educational,forestry, and security offi cials, we hope to heighten awareness and respect for thisarea’s priceless archaeological heritage.C. ConclusionThe fi rst two seasons of regional survey carried out at Aphrodisias in 2005 and2006 have shown that the archaeological evidence for human activity in this areafrom the prehistoric period to the present day is equally as well preserved as thecity site of Aphrodisias, and presumably for the same reasons -- the absence ofeither signifi cant geomorphological change or intensive human occupation sinceantiquity. From a methodological point of view, the results to date demonstrate thecontinued utility of historically-driven, “low-intensity” reconnaissance of ancientlandscapes–informal survey focused on monuments near modern roads and109