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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B3. Istanbul 2004 
desert-steppe to irrigate the lands, and the watering points are 
vital for the animals. 
The archaeological remains consist of rock-shelters, hut or tent 
bases, tumulus or cairn burials, animal pens and traps as well as 
hunters blinds. (A particular concentration of these remains 
have bee studied during the year 2000 field survey at the 
escarpment of Tar al-Sbai on the southwestern edge of the 
mountain the UTM- coordinates 0517906, 3507065 — 0520209, 
3903263). The Upper Palaeolithic accumulated sites dating to 
tens of thousands of years back are countless on the mountain 
and on the southwestern piedmont area. They witness 
favourable conditions for hunting; and it seems that steppic 
landscape with small rivers prevailed in the area. Animal pens 
dating from the Chalcolithic Period (ca. 5000-3300 B.C.) to the 
recent years provide information that — semi-nomadic 
pastoralism, such as the herding of goats and sheep, has been 
prevailing form of nomadism on the mountain. 
Apart from this non-monumental region of the desert-steppe and 
steppe sedentary remains are also naturally devoid in the desert 
exemplified by caravan trails and trade routes. In the desert 
camel nomadism is the only way to survive long distances 
between the watering points. The Landsat images reveal straight 
caravan routes in the desert to the south of Jebel Bishri. The 
witness that stars and planets must have been used in navigating 
the routes. The routes in the desert lead to Iraq and Saudi 
Arabia. The most famous is the Silk Road, which passes the 
mountain to the south. 
In contrast to the non-monument areas monuments, such as 
castles and tombs, on the mountain edges and piedmont areas 
are largely result of the military organisation of the eastern 
border zone of the Roman empire. The Roman fortress of 
Tabouz (UTM 0586948, 3925414) is one of these sites on the 
northeastern edge of the mountain facing the Euphrates. 
S. TRANSFORMATIONS 
IN THE RIVER CHANNEL 
Fertile flooded and irrigated plains surround the river channel 
beneath the mountain of Jebel Bishri. At the beginning of the 
20^ century Alois Musil described the geography of the Middle 
Euphrates: The valley is ca. forty meters deeper from the 
surrounding valley. In some places the valley is only two 
hundred meters wide, in others it can reach even ten kilometers. 
The table mountain range of Jebel Bishri is following the course 
of the river from Deir ez-Zor to the basalt cape of Halabiya. 
There the rocky spurs reach the river. (Musil, 1927). Andrew 
Moore carried out an archaeological survey on the right bank of 
the Euphrates identifying several tells from Tell Abu Hureyra to 
the cape of Halabiya during the 1970s (see Moore, 1985). The 
Finnish project SYGIS has focused its survey and mapping on 
the area from Halabiya to Deir ez-Zor along the Jebel Bishri 
range following the riverine valley. 
With a CORONA satellite photograph we have been detected 
one tell, an ancient town (UTM coordinates 0574179, 3941645), 
next to the village of Tibne in the river valley beneath Jebel 
Bishri. However, there obviously exist several undefined sites 
buried during the course of the river migration. In the riverine 
zone the sedimentation pace is faster and the burial of sites is 
speeded by alluvial changes, agriculture and traffic. The 
processes can consist of land-use, erosion and sedimentation, 
but changes also take place through the river channel migration. 
(Brown, 1997). Deposits are not only created by flooding but 
also by the channel migration which in turn is affected by 
901 
climate and tectonic activity. Geometrical channel pattern of the 
Euphrates beneath Jebel Bishri is a mixture of meandering and 
braided patterns. Frequency of flooding and alluviation rate 
which changes the river valley vary. (Brown, 1997). 
Comparing the CORONA satellite photographs from the 1960s 
with the Landsat images from the 1990s the change of the river 
channel is clearly detectable during the thirty years. Floodplain 
"islands" or terraces can submerge or disappear into silts when 
alluviation raises in the floodplain. (Brown, 1997). Sometimes 
river erosion and channel migration destroy sites completely. 
For example, ancient city of Emar up the stream of the 
Euphrates, was apparently destroyed in the course of channel 
migration (see Geyer, 1990). One of the causes beside the 
natural effects has also been the human intervention by building 
the Tabqa dam, which caused the submerging of several ancient 
sites. 
Changes in a stream from aggradation to degradation cause 
incisions to the flood plain and may create fluvial terraces. 
(Brown, 1997). Pleistocene marl terraces on the slopes of Jebel 
Bishri mark the most ancient course of the river channel. 
Terraces are of particular interest to archaeologists, because 
they are the driest areas of the floodplain and therefore were 
inhabitated in antiquity (Brown, 1997), like today. In the 
Middle Euphrates valley such ancient sites as Doura Europos 
and Mari are situated on the terraces of the Euphrates. Mari is 
situated on a historical alveolus terrace, and during the Amorite 
period (18" century B.C.) three large canals were irrigating the 
lands of the kingdom (Lafont, 2000). 
6. CONCLUSIONS: 
BOUNDARY BETWEEN MOBILE 
AND SEDENTARY SOCIETIES 
The desert-steppe of the mountain and the fluvial area of the 
river valley form a natural border zone contrasted not only by 
their environment but, also in the archaeological remains 
connected with particular subsistent strategies The preservation 
of human activities in these zones is also different. The 
mountain is largely a non-monument area of mobile people 
while the edges and piedmonts offer monuments and tells, 
ruined villages and towns, of sedentary people basing their 
subsistence economy on agriculture. 
The natural forces as well as human interference cause changes 
in the limits of the zones and preservation of the ancient sites. 
Mobile people, such as hunter-gatherers and nomads, leave 
relatively flimsy structures, but the remains in the deserts and 
steppes are not vulnerable to such post-depositional processes as 
the agricultural regions. The remains of mobile people are 
concentrated on the desert-steppe areas of the mountain, but 
distinct change of the environment and increasing 
desertification can be detected from the beginning of the 
Holocene. The sedentary remains are found in the alluvial zone. 
Not only the agriculture, but also the transportation of raw 
materials has offered possibilities for the growth of small cities 
and village along the Euphrates. The ancient Mesopotamian 
cuneiform texts (Gudea Statue B) reveal that marble or alabaster 
was an important raw material that was acquired and 
transported from the district of Jebel Bishri. Also salt 
(Buccellati, 1990) was brought from the area. Along the valley 
of the Euphrates we have detected tells, ancient towns, which 
consist of several occupational layers of sedentary life 
surrounded by cultivated fields. These ancient towns and