2019 F. Ocakoğlu, Ç. Çilingiroğlu, İ. Potoğlu Erkara, S. Ünan, B. Dinçer, M.S. Akkiraz. Human-climate interactions since the Neolithic period in Central Anatolia: Novel multi-proxy data from the Kureyşler area, Kütahya, Turkey. Quaternary Science Reviews 213: 1-17. (original) (raw)
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Quaternary Science Reviews, 2019
Sedimentological and paleoclimatological data from a fluvial infill retrieved from a series of cores taken across Kureyş ler Valley, Kütahya, western Turkey, are compared alongside evidence for an almost unbroken record of human occupation in the area since Neolithic times. Recent salvage excavations in the valley exposed settlement remains from the Early Bronze Age and Late Byzantine periods with interfingering of archaeological and geological materials in the valley-fill, adding a wealth of information to the archaeological record in this region. Our geological data, constrained by seven radiocarbon dates from the sediment infill demonstrate that the earliest sediments were deposited during the Late Glacial (~13.8 ka) under a cold and relatively dry climatic conditions with evidence of amelioration and increase in arboreal taxa from the Neolithic onwards. The occurrence of Cerealia-T and Apiaceae pollen is significant as an important indicator for anthropisation already present during the Epipaleolithic period (before 9 ka cal. BP). Also, the effects of 8.2 ka climatic event are clearly visible in our multi-proxy results. The onset of the Early Bronze Age settlements in the vicinity~ca. 5.2 ka BP occurred alongside a climatic switch to warmer conditions recorded by a lithological change and a positive shift in isotopic data. The 4.2 ka event, present in records related to several Early Bronze Age (EBA) sites of Anatolia is also recorded in the Kureyş ler Valley both in the pollen and d 18 O records. In general, these results show that climate shifts occurred at the beginning and end of the EBA, as well as during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic and are to be compared with new archaeological data.
Although scarcely investigated archaeologically, the 22oo–195o BC period is increasingly understood as a pivotal moment in the history of Anatolian communities, a phase of turmoil and radical changes that culminated in the appearance of more complex socio-political structures at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. In this phase, west and central Anatolia, hitherto part of the same interregional network of exchanges (the »Anatolian Trade Network«), seem to take different trajectories, one looking west towards the Aegean world and the other gradually becoming integrated into the wider Near Eastern arena. While the main centres in the west experience an overall contraction in settled area and the disappearance of monumental public buildings, on the central plateau there is a gradual transition from the small Early Bronze Age polities to the Middle Bronze Age territorial citystates ruled by royal couples and serviced by a complex administrative apparatus. Across the whole area, these changes are marked by destruction episodes at most excavated sites and a drastic reduction in the number of occupied settlements. These events are seemingly contemporary with a horizon of drought spells which have been recorded by several recent geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental studies across Anatolia, suggesting a possible correlation and confirming a trend already well-known in other areas of the Mediterranean and Near East. The aim of this paper is to offer an integrated analysis of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental datasets, trying to understand in more detail the impact of climatic changes on the Anatolian communities and their diverse social response at the local and regional level.
Although scarcely investigated archaeologically, the 22oo– 195o BC period is increasingly understood as a pivotal moment in the history of Anatolian communities, a phase of turmoil and radical changes that culminated in the appearance of more complex socio-political structures at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. In this phase, west and central Anatolia, hitherto part of the same interregional network of exchanges (the »Anatolian Trade Network«), seem to take different trajectories, one looking west towards the Aegean world and the other gradually becoming integrated into the wider Near Eastern arena. While the main centres in the west experience an overall contraction in settled area and the disappearance of monumental public buildings, on the central plateau there is a gradual transition from the small Early Bronze Age polities to the Middle Bronze Age territorial citystates ruled by royal couples and serviced by a complex admin istrative apparatus. Across the whole area, these changes are marked by destruction episodes at most excavated sites and a drastic reduction in the number of occupied settlements. These events are seemingly contemporary with a horizon of drought spells which have been recorded by several recent geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental studies across Anatolia, suggesting a possible correlation and confirming a trend already well-known in other areas of the Mediterranean and Near East. The aim of this paper is to offer an integrated analysis of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental datasets, trying to understand in more detail the impact of climatic changes on the Anatolian communities and their diverse social response at the local and regional level.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2021
This study examines how the population at Çadır Höyük on the north central Anatolian plateau modified agricultural and fuel use practices in response to rapid social and environmental change between 3600 and 2900 BCE (Late Chalcolithic and Transitional to Early Bronze periods). Using descriptive and multivariate statistics to explore data from 60 archaeobotanical samples spanning three periods of occupation (3600-3200 BCE, 3300-3100 BCE, and 3100-2900 BCE) the results reveal that the inhabitants of Çadır relied heavily on barley, emmer, lentils, and flax throughout the Late Chalcolithic. Both dung and wood were used as fuel, although dung fuel appears to have been preferentially used. The most significant change throughout this period was a shift from foddering animals to grazing animals on the steppe. This shift corresponded with the 5.2 kya event, a period of increased aridity at the very end of the 4th millennium BCE. By diversifying their agricultural strategies to more risk adverse practices, the population at Çadır demonstrated their ability to be resilient in the face of climate change.
Geoarchaeology, 2018
In the Avlamış Valley, 10 km north of Eskişehir (NW Anatolia), an undamaged triangular Levallois flake was encountered in a paleosol, 430 cm beneath the ground surface. The artifact has a minimal dorsal retouch on the right margin, and there is a light beige partial patina on the ventral surface. Based on the technological investigations, this artifact was made using the centripetal recurrent Levallois technique. An observation of the trench walls revealed the triple nature of the stratigraphy: an upper gravelly sand (Unit-1), an underlying reddish-brown pebbly paleosol (Unit-2), and a lowermost dominantly pink, finer-grained deposit (Unit-3) where the artifact was retrieved. Optically stimulated luminescence ages indicate a strong influence of global marine isotopic stages (MIS) on the trench stratigraphy, with the deposit hosting the artifact dating to 148 ± 20 ka (MIS 6 cold period). The available pollen data from the same stratigraphic level verified an open steppe landscape with some arboreal plant cover during deposition. This is the first stratigraphically dated Middle Palaeolithic artifact from NW Anatolia, and one of the few in the whole country, thus igniting further discussion about the ways Pleistocene hominins adapted to cold and arid environmental conditions.
The Holocene, 2003
Annually laminated sediments from Lake Van, spanning about 13000 varve years, were sampled for stable-isotopic, geochemical, pollen and charcoal analyses in order to find evidence of past regional climatic changes and human impact in the semi-arid region of eastern Anatolia, Turkey. The Lateglacial period was cold and dry, with steppe vegetation and saline lake water. During the Younger Dryas the lake level dropped dramatically, and the vegetation tumed to a semi-desert. Geochemical and isotopic records indicate a strong increase in moisture at the onset of the Holocene, and Arteinisia-chenopod steppes were partly replaced by grass steppe and pistachio scrub. A delay of about 3000 years in the expansion of deciduous oak woodlands and high steppe-fire frequencies suggest dry spring and summer weather during the early Holocene. At 8200 yr BP, a shift in the regional climate regime facilitated the transport of more moisture into the interior areas of the Taurus mountains and caused a c...
Ouer the past few 1teørs the claim that the 8.2 euent niggered the expansion offarming towørd Europe has been put forward by uarious ørchaeologist and clirnøte reseørchers. Paradoxicølþ, the archaeologicøl euid¿nce fom utestern Anatolia, a region of Þqt signtfcance in this Neol¡th¡c expansion episode, has not featured prominentþ in these hypotheses. This neglect m4t pørtþ stem iìom'the circumstønces that releuarut data, mostþ pabli.shed exchuiueþ in Thrþish, haue only become aaailable in recent yeørs. Here, new data iìorn western Asia Minor in particular the Laþe District, Aegean Anatoliø, and the Marmara Region, uill be considered.
The sediment of Lake Çubuk in NW Anatolia, which is situated very close to the climate boundary between the dry Central Anatolia and the wet Marmara region, is regarded as a suitable climate archive to test inward and outward movements of this boundary in accordance with past climate variations. Herein, we study the stratigraphic record of the last 2800 years of this landslide-dammed lake at 1030 m elevation, using multi-proxy tools (sedimentology, major and trace element geochemistry, stable isotopes, pollen, diatoms and ostracods) and compare the results with other contemporaneous Anatolian climatic records. Our findings indicate that Lake Çubuk recorded seven distinct climatic periods in the last 2800 years that have been previously revealed elsewhere in Anatolia. The most arid period occurred at the end of the Near-East Aridification Phase at approximately 200 BC when the δ18O shifted to very negative values, and the planktonic diatom ratio considerably decreased. The Dark Ages and the late Byzantine periods between AD 670 and 1070 are characterized by more positive δ18O values, increasingly higher lake levels and the most extensive arboreal cover of the entire record. The ‘Little Ice Age’ appeared suddenly, within 40 years, at AD 1350 and is reflected in all of the proxies, including a positive shift in δ18O, a sharp decrease in pollen of shrub and herb to the benefit of pine trees and a rapid increase in benthic diatom abundance indicating a lake level shallowing. In many parts of the record, a close match between the stable isotopes and the pollen assemblage zones in the last 2800 years demonstrates that climate rather than human activity was the primary driver of vegetation cover in this mid-altitude mountain of NW Anatolia.