VIRTUAL: Prague Heritages
Abstract
Archaeological landscapes continue to coexist not only with archaeological sites, monuments and museums but also with intangible and tangible values. While this value is sometimes an invisible layer that creates social and cultural life, sometimes it is a combination of natural and cultural activities and memories that shape the landscape. Alaca Höyük, a 3500 years old Hittite settlement in Central Anatolia, also continues to hold the memory records that formed the landscape. The landscape around the mound is shaped by water resources, historical fields and roads. Furthermore, the landscape has a unique character with an ancient stone quarry in the north and the Gölpınar Hittite Reservoir, whose surroundings are still used as gardens, in the southeast. Such landscape areas, where memory records are intertwined, are designed as archeoparks to preserve the heritage. The reservoir and its surroundings were also designed as an archeopark in 2015. However, agricultural production practices in the gardens transferred for hundreds of years were interrupted by “designed” landscapes with expropriation decisions. Following the project, which stopped due to economic reasons, the area is still surrounded by wires. This paper aims to question the components that archeopark designs must contain to transfer the heritage successfully and how the archaeological values and landscape elements can be evaluated in these designs through the Gölpınar Archeopark project. The study is believed to be a model of the archeopark projects designed in this context to keep the heritage experience alive and transfer it.
Arzu Güler is a researcher and landscape architect. She graduated from the Dept. of Landscape Architecture, Istanbul Technical University (ITU) bachelor’s and master’s programs. She continues her doctorate studies at ITU. Her doctoral study focuses on historic landscape characterization, archaeological landscapes and landscape changes in Central Anatolia. She studies at Newcastle University, UK as a visiting PhD researcher now. Her main research areas are archaeological and historic landscapes, landscape memory and change.
Bülent Arıkan is an anthropological archaeologist who focuses on the early complex societies of southwest Asia, specifically the Near Eastern cultures between 10,000-1,200 BC. The foci of his research are settlement systems, human-environment interactions, land use patterns, paths to social complexity, and adaptive responses to environmental changes. He uses cultural ecology, environmental archaeology and landscape archaeology as theoretical frameworks in his research. He received his PhD from Arizona State University, USA. Now, he continues his research at ITU as an associate professor doctor.
Sam Turner.
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Wednesday 28th June, 2023