Not the End of the World? Post-Classical Decline and Recovery in Rural Anatolia

Abstract

Between the foundation of Constantinople as capital of the eastern half of the Roman Empire in 330 CE and its sack by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 CE, the Byzantine Empire underwent a full cycle from political-economic stability, through rural insecurity and agrarian decline, and back to renewed prosperity. These stages plausibly correspond to the phases of over-extension (K), 2 subsequent release (Ω) and recovery (α) of the Adaptive Cycle in Socio-Ecological Systems. Here we track and partly quantify the consequences of those changes in different regions of Anatolia, firstly for rural settlement (via regional archaeological surveys) and secondly for land cover (via pollen analysis). We also examine the impact of climate changes on the agrarian system. While individual histories vary, the archaeological record shows a major demographic decline between ca .650 and ca. 900 CE in central and southwestern Anatolia, which was then a frontier zone between Byzantine and Arab armies. In these regions, and also in northwest Anatolia, century-scale trends in pollen indicate a substantial decline in the production of cereal and tree crops, and a smaller decline in pastoral activity. During the subsequent recovery (α) phase after 900 CE there was strong regional differentiation, with central Anatolia moving to a new economic system based on agro-pastoralism, while lowland areas of northern and western Anatolia returned to the cultivation of commercial crops such as olive trees. The extent of recovery in the agrarian economy was broadly predictable by the magnitude of its preceding decline, but the trajectories of recovery varied between different regions.

Pollen-inferred regional vegetation patterns and demographic change in Southern Anatolia through the Holocene

“…The four major settlement cycles described by Allcock (2017) roughly correspond to the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age-Classical, and Medieval-Modern periods. The most intense period of human occupation in Cappadocia occurred during Late Roman times (4 th to 7 th centuries AD) with evidence of decreased settlement continuity from the mid-7 th century (Roberts et al, 2018a). Between Hellenistic and Late Roman times the numerous cities of southern Anatolia were surrounded by agricultural land (Izdebski, 2013).…”

“…Artemisia, Centaurea, Cichorioideae, Plantago, cereals, Urtica and Trifolium type) (Mercuri et al, 2013a), an indicator group for cultivated trees (OJC: Olea, Juglans, Castanea) (Mercuri et al, 2013b) with the addition of Vitis (OJCV), and a group of pastoral land use indicators (Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae, Plantago lanceolata and Plantago major/media, Asteroideae, Cichorioideae, Cirsium-type, Galium-type, Ranunculaceae and Potentilla-type) (adapted from Mazier et al, 2006) and grazing indicators (Plantago lanceolata, Rumex acetosa-type and Sanguisorba) (Roberts et al, 2018a) were also calculated to explore changes in the pollen data in relation to human land use. Oleaceae undiff.…”

“…Beyşehir and Hoyran) towards the north-east of the case study area. Roberts et al (2018a) concluded that in Cappadocia (central Anatolia) the post-disturbance trajectory also took the regional socio-ecological system to a new and different state, rather than returning to a previous one, in this region dominated by agro-pastoralism (England et al, 2008).…”

“…The BOP was followed by a period of land abandonment after AD 650 (1300 cal. yr BP) and reforestation, notably during the Arab-Byzantine wars of the 7th to 10th centuries AD (England et al, 2008;Izdebski, 2013;Roberts et al, 2018aRoberts et al, , 2018b.…”

The Justinianic Plague: An inconsequential pandemic?

“…Abundant palynological data exist also for the first millennium CE in the eastern Mediterranean (50, 51), with aggregated data available for large regions in Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey [47, following the methods of Izdebski et al (49), which are more precise and robust than those of Lagerås et al (43)] (see SI Appendix , Fig. S4 for a detailed map).…”