Archaeological analysis of cultural landscape of Bardeskan County in Islamic era (from the beginning to the 13th century A.H.)

Basically, the concept of landscape entered the archeological literature to study human settlement patters and the extent of human recognition of effective environmental elements, in the format of environmental and spatial studies. In this research, the abovementioned approach has been used to study the archeology of the cultural landscape of Bardaskan County. This research is based on the data derived from archaeological and geographical studies and the use of geographic information systems. In the new archaeological survey, 57 benchmark sites of the Islamic era have been identified.The majority of the sites date back to the early centuries (31%) and the middle ages (31%) and also 27% of the total Islamic era sites belong to the late centuries. Meanwhile, some sites have been determined as unknown, of which 11% are included in this set. According to GIS-based analyses, population centers of Islamic era in Bardaskan County have been influenced by their special environmental conditions and natural variables. It was also found that the effects of natural variables on different human factors were not identical. Considering the landscape of the area under the study, important variables such as the slope of the earth and soil type have been effective on the density and area of the sites. Furthermore, the sparseness and distances of the sites from surface waters have been indicative of the reaction of the cultural landscapes of the region to the constraints of environmental variables. At the same time, some of the historical structures are closely related to surface waters.
Keywords: Bardeskan in Islamic era, Cultural landscape, Torshiz, Archaeological Modeling, Archeology of Khorasan