The Impact of Drainage Systems in the Selection of Site locations Case Study: Meymon Abad Sites

Water resources throughout human history have always been an important factor in attracting human settlement. The main purpose of this paper was to investigate what is the role of Shadchay River in the location of two prehistoric settlements that are called Tepe Meymon Abad. In this research by field studies and also to investigate the characteristics of the sediments, samples were taken from the trenches of archaeological sites and remains of ancient waterway. The results obtained are compared with each other and also the necessary maps were plotted by using GIS and Freehand software. The results of the geoarchaeological studies show that these two sites are located on the alluvial plains and on the end of the Karaj alluvial fans. The fine-grained alluvial fan deposits of the Karaj, has created favorable conditions for the human settlement in this area. According to the samples taken and all evidence, probably in the past, a tributary of the Karaj river flowed in a course which is different from its nowadays water way and consequently by its redirection the settlement moved and transferred to a location closer to the river.