“Marginal” Landscapes: Human Activity, Vulnerability, and Resilience in the Western Taurus Mountains (Southwest Turkey)

Abstract

The western Taurus mountains, southwest Turkey, comprise a diverse set of landscape zones that are characterized by great altitude variations. This article focuses on the agricultural so-called marginal highlands within this mountainous region. Large parts of the uplands are labeled “marginal” nowadays as they are not regarded as highly productive in terms of agricultural output or permanent occupation. Three decades of interdisciplinary research within the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project (KU Leuven) have provided an enormous amount of archaeological, bioarchaeological, and geoarchaeological datasets that will be brought together in this article to explore diachronic patterns in human-environmental interactions within these areas. The study demonstrates not only the archaeological value of a highland area, but its vulnerability for human impact as well. The changing environments both naturally and sociopolitically favored a more resilient behavior of the human groups within the highlands.

Settlement, environment, and climate change in SW Anatolia: Dynamics of regional variation and the end of Antiquity

“…Other regional surveys, relying primarily on ceramic evidence, show divergent patterns ( Fig 6 ). In the Sagalassos Hinterland survey, settlement numbers had already declined for the period starting at ~450 CE, whereas in the Dereköy Highland sherd counts remained high in their period starting 700 CE [ 80 , 132 , 133 ]. In the Balboura survey, sherd counts increase in the 7 th century CE, after re-dating of Cypriot Red Slip Ware (CRSW) by Armstrong [ 134 ]–a local/regional production that satisfies basic household needs [ 135 ].…”

Heterogenous Late Holocene Climate in the Eastern Mediterranean—The Kocain Cave Record From SW Turkey

“…Extensive archeological and pollen investigations (e.g., Vandam et al., 2019; Woodbridge et al., 2019) make SW Turkey a suitable testbed for examining human‐climate‐environment interactions. However, high‐resolution palaeoclimate datasets from the region only extend back ∼1,000 (tree‐rings) and ∼1,400 (Lake Salda) years (Danladi & Akçer‐Ön, 2018; Heinrich et al., 2013), or do not cover the late Holocene (Dim Cave; Rowe et al., 2020; Ünal‐İmer et al., 2015, 2016).…”

Meta-Analysis of Geomorphodynamics in the Western Lower Bakırçay Plain (Aegean Region, Turkey)

“…Soil depletion [16] and a decreased erodibility due to higher stone coverage of soils after a period of erosion during the Iron Age around Sagalassos are a reason why geomorphodynamics might peak before the climax in human activities during the Classic period [12,141]. The depletion of soils on slopes that were sensitive to erosion might have caused a shift of agricultural activities and settlement locations to plain areas around Sagalassos that were less susceptible to erosion [12].…”