مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - The Kabalis Region: Observation and Communication Forts and Settlement Types in the Iron Age

Abstract :

Kibyra, as indicated by the surviving quotations of ancient writers, was called Kabalis due to the Kabals‟ sovereignty in the Iron Age, as one of the peoples forming “the Lydians”. Settlements that began to form in the Chalcolithic Period continued into Late Antiquity and together this region became an important centre, especially in the Iron Age, like neighbouring Milyas, and produced a distinct culture with its traditions. It is observed that in the Iron Age there was density of settlement on relatively large plains surrounded by high mountains, with scattered and small residential areas close to each other at lake edges and by mountain slopes. Linked to these settlements, in their necropolises we found a hundred cobbled massive tumuli, examples of a shared burial tradition in the Milyas and Kabalis regions, in addition to the simple chest grave, rock-cut tombs and also the tumulus type termed Lydian. These Iron Age settlements and road networks, which are situated in a testing geographical area, at high altitude, have been found to have been defended by a system of observation and communication points, associated with Iron Age ceramic finds and simple rubble-stone defensive walls, facing each other in line of sight on high peaks. This type of settlement and defence was also used in the Roman period and even in Late Antiquity, in a way that transcends time, employed in the same way within the same geography, using the same road routes and offering similar solutions to the same security problems.