Some ethnoarchaeological notes on Alaybeyi Höyük in the light of present Alaybeyi Village

Abstract

Ethnographic methods have a long history of use for the reconstruction of human behavior and cultural patterns at archaeological sites (e.g., Broderick, 2016; Sinopoli, 1991). However, although the record and interpretation of living culture have been practiced in academia for centuries, ethnoarchaeology as a sub-discipline of archaeology has emerged particularly during the 1960s. Since then, this disciplinary tool has been applied for examining and solving the archaeological problems including, site formation and depositional processes, documentation of technological advancements, settlement patterns, human-environment interactions, social systems and social strategies, as well as ideologies and belief systems. Aiming to explore some significant clues regarding to the unanswered questions about the subsistence strategies, rituals, animal burials, architecture, technologies, and human-environment interactions at Alaybeyi Höyük, an ethnographic field study was planned to be carried out particularly in Erzurum plain. In this case, the Alaybeyi village was found to be the most suitable study area since it lies at the closest location of Alaybeyi Höyük. Besides, people in the village still live on cattle pastoralism, small scale agriculture, as well as with an environmental condition probably very much similar to that experienced by the Chalcolithic and Iron Age people at Alaybeyi Höyük.