Agropastoral Economies and Land Use in Bronze Age Western Anatolia

John M. Marston, Canan Çakirlar*, Christina Luke, Peter Kováčik, Francesca G. Slim, Nami Shin, Christopher H. Roosevelt

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)
133 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The Middle and Late Bronze Ages of western Anatolia (modern Turkey) remains poorly understood in comparison with its Mycenaean and Hittite neighbours, especially in agricultural economies and land use. Kaymakçı is the largest Middle and Late Bronze Age citadel excavated to date in western Anatolia and new archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data from the site presented here shed new light on regional agricultural economies and land use. Agricultural practices at Kaymakçı focused on barley and bitter vetch farming and pig, caprine, and cattle husbandry within a diverse and extensive economic system that made substantial use of wild plants and animals for food, technology, and fuel. Goats and pigs were managed primarily for meat, while sheep and cattle were managed to produce a range of secondary products. Wood charcoal analysis reconstructs both deciduous and evergreen oak woodlands, which also dominate the contemporary landscape. In regional perspective, Kaymakçı is most similar to the northern Aegean agricultural tradition, but with elements of Anatolian practices as well, representing a hybrid position between the Aegean and Anatolian worlds as seen in other lines of archaeological evidence from the site.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)539-553
Number of pages15
JournalEnvironmental Archaeology
Volume27
Issue number6
Early online date8-May-2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

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