The intertwined connection between the suburban sites of Mahasthangarh (Bangladesh) and the environment: How to deal with a ‘biased’ landscape?

Mahasthangarh is located in the northwestern part of Bangladesh, in the Rajshahidistrict. Built on a small terrasse known as the Barind tract overlooking the Karatoya River, this fortified site is surrounded by a roughly rectangular rampart of about 1.5 km long on 1 km large made of baked bricks. This enclosure wall dates from the 4th-3rdc. BCE and its outline never changed over time despite several repairs. Thanks to the excavations conducted within the citadel sporadically since almost 150 years, and then systematically since the last 30 years by the Joint Bangladeshi-French Archaeological Mission of Mahasthangarh, we know that the inner-wall site was occupied continuously from minimum the 4th c. BCE until at least the 15th c. CE, with phases of dynamism and of downs in terms of building activity. Outside the citadel, archaeologists have identified more than 150 suburban sites so far. Those sites are spread all around the fortification and dated from different chronological periods. This paper aims at (i) introducing those sites; (ii) discussing possible cultural and environmental factors which affected the choice of their location; (iii) underlining surveying issues and limitations faced nowadays by archaeologists in a densely anthropized landscape.