Effect of natural factors in spatial distribution of archaeological sites, during the Elamite period Ardal; Case study Karst

When it comes to the ancient settlement patterns and how to set in a region, the role of environment and its infrastructure in a geographical landscape will be highlighted. Distribution of population and human settlements in a geographical area has a great influence on the structure and function of human activities. Not only will these distribution patterns be affected by social and cultural factors, they were highly dependent on natural phenomena; because nature is a context of human geographical activities. In this paper we have studied and analyzed the role of environmental factors in spatial distribution and configuration of human settlements during the Elamite period in Ardal. Karst landscape is useful for nomadic people and we can understand this such of live in Elamite era among the archaeological evidence and Mesopotamian inscriptions. So far Ardal in Bakhtiyari mountains is a Karst landscape that is useful for nomadic people and in this paper we can see that 65% of Elamite sites are nomadism. The surrounding regions of Elamite centers (Susa and Anshan) have so far been rarely explored. One of such surrounding regions stretched across the norther of Elamite centers, covering certain areas of present-day provinces Isfahan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari. In addition, there are pottery samples from the Elamite Era found in Khuzestan (as one of the central districts of Elamite), even though they have rarely been explored in studies on the Elamite Era. This can be partly associated with the limited number of such pottery samples against their counterparts from the Elamite Era in Khuzestan. Nonetheless, the noteworthy point about this pottery type is the great similarity (discussed later) in Khuzestan to those recovered in Isfahan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari. Therefore, this study attempted to explore these regions from the Elamite Era through an interdisciplinary approach involving archeology, archeometry