Abstract
Study of settlement patterns in dry or semi-arid environments is inevitably connected with a research of accessibility of water sources and its artificial supply. Simple equation says that the better preserved landscape, the easier reconstruction of water-bringing systems of the past and their changes.
What if the landscape in question for whatever reason does not provide much traces of the original components of such a system, and at the same time legal limitations or restrictions - which is frequently the case of the modern Near Eastern and Central Asian countries - do prevent using of most effective ways of relevant archaeological investigation, such as Lidar, drons or traditional means of aerial archaeology? Having studied the settlement patterns of the Sherabad Oasis in southern Uzbekistan in various historical periods, we encountered such a problematic case, since we dealt with specific landscape affected significantly by human - especially agricultural - activities in the recent past. Our reconstruction of the network of archaeological sites and historical irrigation canals is based on the correlation of the sites distribution on one hand, and on testimony of the rare source of data from the period that predated the extensive agriculture of the 20th c. represented by old maps, and corroborated by accidental remaining terrain features, on the other.
The resulting reconstruction helps to understand dynamics of the settlement in the research area and to explain some peculiar features of the settlement distribution. This case study, even if it needs to be further tested, changes substantially previous scholarly view biased to certain degree by aforementioned - modern - changes of the cultural landscape.