Settlement patterns and related types of investigation
(e.g., site densities, site dimensions and land-use)
have in the last 50 years shed light on a number of
archaeological issues previously underestimated or
ignored by archaeologists. By means of survey projects
it has been possible to reconstruct several crucial
aspects of the archaeology of the Ancient Near East.
A major consequence has been a growing awareness
of the landscape as a fundamental subject for modern
archaeological research, of great significance for
understanding ancient complex societies, especially
from the 3rd millennium BC onwards (Adams 1981;
Adams and Nissen 1972; Smith 2014; Wilkinson 2003).
Pre- and proto-historic periods have received somewhat
less attention, probably due to the absence of solid and
well-established human communities that acted on the
surrounding landscape by exhibiting the traditional
markers of ‘complexity’ common in later periods, e.g.,
hierarchy, power, and prestige, (Smith 2014; Wilkinson
et al. 2005)1.
Using the Upper Tigris as a case study and investigating
it by means of statistical analyses I intend to explore
the possible occurrence of a ‘social landscape’ as
far back as the 6th and 5th millennium BC, in this
area associated with the Halaf and Northern Ubaid
Periods. I propose that societies with a lower level of
socioeconomic complexity still had an impact on the
territory and worked, perhaps unintentionally, to
modify it. The outcome of such modifications might
have been different and indeed visually less clear and
direct than those created by later and more complex
entities, but were likely perceived by the inhabitants of
the landscape and are still visible today, though their
identification requires a more subtle investigation of
the evidence still visible in the landscape.
