Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the alluvial landscape of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, central southern Turkey: The implications for early agriculture and responses to environmental change

Abstract

channelization. This reanalysis demonstrates the importance of extensive spatial sampling as part of geoarchaeological investigations. With this new evidence we demonstrate that the landscape was highly variable in time and space with increasingly dry conditions developing from the early Holocene onwards. In contrast to earlier landscape reconstructions that have presented marshy conditions during the early Holocene that impacted agriculture, we argue that localized areas of the floodplain would have afforded significant opportunities for agriculture closer to the site. In this way, the results have important implications for how we understand agricultural practices in the early Neolithic.

Teleconnections and environmental determinism: Was there really a climate-driven collapse at Late Neolithic Çatalhöyük?

“…It is hard to justify a link to the purported social collapse. Our interpretation of the site's paleoenvironment (4) suggests that there were no significant changes at this time, and there is now evidence for an overlap in settlement between the East and West Mounds at Çatalhöyük (5), which conflicts with the interpretation of a collapse (1).…”

The Preservation and Interpretation of δ34S Values in Charred Archaeobotanical Remains

“…Recent geoarchaeological work (Ayala et al . ) suggests that this was a dryland anastomizing river setting with localized waterlogging; it is therefore plausible that crops were largely (if not completely) protected from such effects.…”

Livestock faecal indicators for animal management, penning, foddering and dung use in early agricultural built environments in the Konya Plain, Central Anatolia

“…1). The Konya Basin is a closed pluvial basin that has actively responded to changes in climate and precipitation, with a highly variable landscape in time and space (Ayala et al 2017). The results from high-resolution coring conducted since 2007 indicate increased wetness during the last stages of the Pleistocene and the early Holocene with localized pockets of wetter conditions, interpreted as characteristic of a humid anabranching channel system.…”