Water Cisterns of Rural Settlements in Southern Anatolia in Late Antiquity and the Byzantine Period

Abstract

No extensive work has been published to date concerning the cisterns of southern Anatolia. Nor does the recent research present a comprehensive approach especially to the association of cisterns with buildings and open spaces as well as their stylistic features. From this point of view, this paper aims to fill a part of this lacuna by examining the potential role of cisterns located in the Late Antique-Byzantine countryside of southern Anatolia, namely in the areas of Lycia, Pamphylia, Isauria and Cilicia, on the basis of both archaeological and written evidence as well as the author’s observation in the field. In this study, cisterns are evaluated under three main themes. The first presents such basic characteristics of the cisterns as form, material, capacity, decoration, construction techniques and purposes whilst it also examines the water sources and the ways of feedings of the cisterns. The second theme discusses the essential reasons for locating the cisterns at any point of the unstructured spaces of the settlement core such as streets, paths, alleys, public spaces and, of the land situated in the close vicinity of the inhabited area. The last section analyzes the associations of cisterns with churches along with their annexes, houses, olive oil and wine workshops in terms of function and location.