Exploring the Late Prehistoric (8000-2400 BC) human-environment interaction in the Western Taurus Mountains, SW Turkey

Summary

This paper presents a case study on human-environment dynamics in the Burdur Region (SW Turkey) during Late Prehistory (8000-2400 BC). Previous archaeological research in the area mainly focused on the fertile lowland areas, which revealed distinctive periods of continuity and collapse of farming communities, followed by a total abandonment of the plain areas for nearly a millennium, i.e. during the Middle Chalcolithic (5500-4100 BC). The working hypothesis is that people moved to more temperate regions and/or relocated themselves further upland. By investigating the so-called ‘marginal’ areas in the landscape we want to define the push-pull factors of marginal landscapes and investigate how different/similar the communities were in these areas in relation to lowland communities. Furthermore, extant regional palaeoenvironmental data will be linked to the findings of the survey. There are strong indications that the region was subject to a long-term climatic deterioration during the Late Prehistoric, particularly during the so-called 8.2ka Event, which may be one cause for the apparent exodus from the lowlands and shift in settlement patterns during the 7th/6th millennium BC. Ultimately, it will be attempted to corroborate changes witnessed in the local and regional palaeoenvironmental record with shifting preferences in landscape access and resource exploitation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• ‘Calibrating’ Palaeoclimatology-informed Research in Old World Archaeology: Data, Methods and Theories

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