patterns of displacement and migration of Bam after earthquake

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 University of Neyshabur

2 freie universitat Berlin

3 Iran

Abstract

On December 26th 2003, an earthquake in Bam, southeastern Iran resulted in an estimated death toll of 40,000.  This article suggests that post-disaster population replacement practices provide alternative avenues for research, notably the changes in migration and population replacement patterns, and the social and cultural structures associated with population structure.  This article is the result of ethnoarchaeological research conducted on Bam city and its satellites, at intervals of 6, 17 and 32 months after the earthquake.  The post-disaster population changes patterns are compared with those patterns prior to the disaster.  We hope to demonstrate that the patterns present can be used to interpret population replacement and migration under conditions such as natural disasters in archaeological contexts. It should be noticed that archaeological data are completely mute and this is the archaeologist interpretation that make them meaningful.  in this article , the suggested patterns and models are useful to interpret and explain the data from archaeological dead context according to the absence of agents to realize the processes which have formed the social and cultural structures. 

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