Pre-pottery Neolithic age spatial planning: The typo-morphology of the first urbanisation with reference to three Akarçay Tepe plaques

Abstract. Every civilisation, based on its socioeconomic relations, designs its land regime by using a cadastral system, plans the ways in which its land will be used, and present these through maps or spatial plans. Akarçay Tepe Lined and Marked Limestone Plaques, the use reasons of which are unknown by the archaeology discipline, were originally found during excavations and are on exhibition in Şanlıurfa Museum in Turkey. The plaques have been dated back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Age.

This paper aims to present what Plaques from Akarçay Tepe actually refer to and the methodology of determination. It originates from a research study which was commenced in 2017 on the basis of the propositions that these Plaques are in fact, maps and spatial plans showing the land regime and topography at the time they were made. Spatial dimensions of three Akarçay Tepe plaques with reference to technical features are examined on the foundation of the urban planning discipline. The objective here is to make it possible to adjust the findings of an archaeological excavation and to make a contribution as a proposed alternative method for the evaluation of these findings.

The three plaques for which research permission was granted were not related to the cadastral arrangements of Akarçay Tepe, but provide indications of the patterns of other settlements: Birecik, Yeşilözen, and Nizip. The plaques are spatial plans drawn to 1 : 1000 scale displayed in the form of a 3-D model map. The plaques show the settlement topography, land regime, land use decisions, boundaries of control and settlement and agricultural support systems. Plaques, besides agricultural land pattern display the first typo-morphology of urbanisation of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Age.