Step over the Gap, not in it: A Case Study of Iranian Sistan Archaeology

Today more than ever, archeological research is interdisciplinary: environmental sciences, pollen analysis, botany, soil science, and hydrology. In fact, the impacts of human behaviors on environment and environment on human behaviors can be studied through use of remote sensing technology. The use of this important technique gives archaeologists the opportunity to understand these impacts, which are often invisible to the naked eye. Moreover, remote sensing an emerging field of archaeology that uses high resolution satellites with thermal and infrared capabilities to pinpoint potential sites of interest in the earth around a meter or so in depth. During the first quarter of the second millennium BC and after collapse of Shahr-i-Sokhta, evidence of occupation in the region of Iranian Sistan disappeared until the Achaemenid period in the sixth century BC. During recent decades, archaeological field work, including surveys and excavations, have been conducted to find this gap. However, using remote sensing techniques popular in Europe and America, the present paper aims to propose a new survey method based on remote sensing and GIS techniques in the area in order to interpret the environmental characteristics of the area and to identify gap between the collapse of Shahr-i-Sokhta and emergence of Dahan-e-Ghlaman.