The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Voi. XXXVII. Part B4. Beijing 2008 
and the emergence of polities or regional centres have often be 
highlighted (Ladefoged and Pearson 2000). 
Random distribution have usually been treated as statistical null 
hypothesis, though some commentators provide good examples 
of how apparently random distributions can be conditioned by 
less-obvious environmental, biological and social variables (see 
Daniel 2001; Woodman 2000; Maschner and Stein 1995) 
Today, a high degree of interconnections between 
environmental factors and archaeological site distribution 
patterns is the assumption of serious researches in archaeology 
(see Ebert and Kohler 1988, Veth et al. 2000, Niknami and 
Saeedi 2006 for some of the issues). 
Findings of such researches show the importance of the effect of 
environmental variables on the kind of activities of 
archaeological community. However, other tendencies, which 
have been established, show that although environmental factors 
play an influential role in some processes, they can not explain 
every change of archaeological place (for an example see 
Gaffney and Leusen 1995). 
It is true that environmental factor have easily found their way 
into today’s systems (GIS) to play a practical part in the 
description of spatial models, but the role of non-environmental 
factors shouldn’t be overlooked (Whitley 2000). It seems that if 
these kinds of factors were to be evaluated independently, the 
main differences in the models which have been provided so far 
would be possible. 
The present research directly examined numerous site 
settlement patterns from different cultural periods in the eastern 
region of Urmia Lake. Also it independently evaluated a set of 
political, environmental, and economical systems which existed 
in the regional scale. Despite the special features of each system, 
they had some relationships in common. As a general rule, most 
of the data discovered in the field study can be used to predict 
their places in a yet to be identified areas. By accepting this 
theory and by studying surface spatial distribution which we 
employed in this research, it is possible to evaluate the 
behaviors which give rise to the regional organizational patterns 
in the landscape scale. 
The geographical features of the area in the east of Urmia Lake 
have two parts that are entirely different from each other. These 
parts include a flat alluvial area which was irrigated from 
several permanent rivers and a network of seasonal rivers. By 
contrast, the other part includes high areas which extend across 
from northeast, centre, and southeast of the area. 
The geography of the environment is such that we can infer that 
the high areas could have affected the free movement of the 
people in the past and therefore, the movement of the people 
naturally followed the natural course of the rivers. Plant features 
of the area coupled with abundance of water sources made for a 
relative density of population. This shows that even though still 
there are not valid sources of archaeological records in the area, 
it can be surmised that historical population movement within 
this area might have been related to socio-economical and 
political factors more than environmental. It is self-evident that 
inevitable environmental factors are inextricably intertwined 
with socio-political factors in terms of their effect on forming 
site dispersion structures (Gaffney and Van Leusen 1995: 375). 
man-made cultural behaviors which human exhibit in trying to 
adapt to the environment. As an example, settlement patterns in 
the region show that most sites by Urmia Lake and along a wide 
range of connecting roads were formed in pre-history. The close 
proximity of the sites and their assembling in areas where there 
might be fresh water show distribution patterns in which the 
possibility of having economic relations among them, is not 
ruled out. 
Thus, it can be said that despite the potentialities and limitations 
of the environment, modes of living and economy might have 
had irrefutable role. At the same time, sites of later periods 
dispersed mostly in areas away from the coasts of the lake and 
areas with average heights. It appears that in this period, the 
increase in water control management together with 
optimization of food production systems made it possible to 
benefit from sources away from the lake. In addition, a streak of 
Salina around Talkhe Roud river still has not been able to attract 
inhabitation at any time. Another crucial and relevant point here 
is that the accumulation of clustering settlement in this area 
have occurred in places with potentiality for subsistence, 
technological development in terms of securing sources for a 
reasonable population. Alluvial landscape around the lake 
secure arable areas for agriculture. Suitable mineral soil-centers 
that are almost close to each other-have brought about pottery 
production and processing. Besides sites such as Darvish 
Baghal, Yanik Tepe, Hasanlu, Sis and Kozeh Konan where this 
kind of economic relationship can be clearly seen, there are 
patterns with similar subsistence relationship which can be seen 
in the rest of the sites. 
Water source system follows a linear pattern in the east of 
Urmia Lake. For a better understanding of the relationship of 
settlement distribution patterns and water resources, we 
produced layers using GIS where the proximity of sites to water 
resources was taken into account. Besides securing access to 
water resources, linear distribution of water resources also made 
it possible for sites to connect. In addition, there is a strong 
tendency of archaeological sites here where the bigger places 
more than smaller ones tend to get distributed close to water 
resources. Distance estimation along with site distribution 
pattern is another important issue to be considered. 
Figure 2. Proximity measurements of archaeological sites from 
the water resources and possible ancient road networks 
As Gaffney and Van Leusen have shown, it is very difficult to 
see any difference between environment-derived behaviors and 
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