Resilient Cappadocia: dinamiche di sfruttamento territoriale tra età romana ed epoca bizantina

Cappadocia (central-southern Turkey) has always been a land of osmotic passage between the Anatolian plateau, the Mediterranean coast, and the Euphrates. In Roman times, this function is evident both in terms of poleography and route system. All this territorial organisation was undermined, between the 7th and 10th centuries AD, by the raids of the Arabs, who, especially in relation to the central-southern Cappadocian district, imposed a radical transformation of the traditional forms of settlement and resources’ exploitation. In this context, this contribution aims at better framing the hydraulic infrastructures of canals and tunnels, which made the narrow mountainous valley bottoms of the region ‘livable’ and cultivable, guaranteeing, in resilient terms, albeit with new dynamics, the territorial exploitation of that «central periphery» of the ancient world.