| Patterns of settlement and abandonment in an environmentally marginal valley system in southeastern Iran have been investigated through archaeological survey and test excavations on four prehistoric sites in southern Kirman Province. These data are integrated with regional settlement and population shifts found during broader-ranging survey in southern Iran and culled from the archaeological literature. The region's modern environment and mineral resources are compiled. Their impacts, as well as that of the ancient agricultural technology, on population size, distribution, settlement type, and the ancient economy are explored in the context of environmental and social trends.;During the sixth and fifth millennia settlements using floodwater agriculture increased in the southern Kirman uplands. These spate irrigation techniques were intensified in the mid-fifth millennium through the construction of terraced fields on the adjacent alluvial fans. During the fourth millennium, settlements relocated and decreased, although initially most remained in upland areas. The succeeding period experienced more radical population shifts and settlement concentrated in Sistan and date cultivation regions of southeastern Iran, at the expense of the highlands. Lowland sites were located near perennial water supplies at all periods, and, although population estimates remain difficult, several sites were substantially larger than those in the uplands, even during the earlier periods. The settlement changes may result from complex interactions of climatic and other environmental trends (possibly including a shift in the monsoon belt) with developing agricultural technologies of water management, cultivation practices, and crop varieties. These changes supported the larger third millennium population centers involved in complex regional political alliances and long-distance trade. Following their collapse, settlement disappeared from the region between the mid-second and the mid-first millennia BC, after which settlement reemerged, based on a new irrigation technology using groundwater rather than surface water resources.;Difficulties in evaluating the field data for site size, date, and function are discussed, as are the constraints these problems pose for determining ancient behavior. The results underline the necessity of focusing settlement distribution research at different scales, because settlement pattern changes in restricted areas may contravene broader regional trends. |
