In 1991 a crew of American, Canadian, and Turkish researchers began a new and comprehensive survey in the Muş Province of Eastern Turkey. The goal of the survey was to study the evolution of settlement and landuse in a marginal zone at the intersection of four great culture areas of the Middle East: Central Anatolia, Western Iran, the Transcaucasus, and Mesopotamia.This area of Eastern Turkey had been visited previously by I. K. Kökten in 1940s (1947) and Charles Burney in 1950s (1958). Given the large area these surveyors covered and their limited means of transportation, and given the newly excavated material coming from north of the great Taurus mountain massif and from Van (e.g., Sagona 1994, Sagona et al 1992, Çilingiroğlu 1987, 1988), a more comprehensive effort appeared warranted. The first season was six weeks in duration. During that time we re-visited 17 of the sites found by Kökten and Burney, and located 11 new sites. A second season was launched in 1993 with the aim of covering areas not surveyed previously (see Figure 1), mostly in the northern foothills and higher elevations near Hamurpet Lake. Unfortunately, conditions did not permit us to do a second season, nor is a season in the very near future likely. We, therefore, will be publishing the results we have already arrived at, aware that our sample is not complete.
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