Environmental assessment of an archaeological site for the development of an archaeological park

In this work we present a general description of techniques used to perform an integrated environmental assessment of an archaeological site, for the development of an archaeological park. The case study of Tilmen Höyük, an archaeological excavation in South-East Turkey, is presented to describe the combination of different integrated approaches. The site has been assessed from a climatic, topographical, pedological, hydrological, vegetational and vegetation management standpoint. All this information was included into a Geographic Information System, and used to define a management protocol. The present protocol is suitable to be used in other archaeological sites of the Mediterranean basin, since many climatic, environmental and vegetational features are often shared by differentsites. This study provided a wealth of information that was used for both acquiring a deeper understanding of the past and present societies, but also to design and plan the archaeological park.