Stable carbon isotope analysis as a crop management indicator at Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey) during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age

Abstract

In Near Eastern archaeology, studies on crop management during the early stages of civilisation have been based on cuneiform texts and only recently have geoarchaeological surveys and archaeobotanical studies tried to identify agricultural practices. Nevertheless, direct evidence for irrigation and water management is very rare and difficult to interpret. New possibilities for analysing these ways of management have been provided by stable carbon isotope analysis of ancient crops. In this study carbon isotope discrimination (D13C) was performed to assess the growing conditions of fossil cereal grains. Charred grains of emmer and barley recovered from the same site, Arslantepe in eastern Anatolia, over a\ud 1,000 years long continuous sequence during the third millennium B.C. have been analysed and compared. The variation in water availability during grain filling, estimated by D13C, can be attributed to climate change and/or human practices. Distinguishing exactly which is to blame is complex but essential in reconstructing specific management practices. Variations in the 13C/12C ratio suggest that barley and emmer grew under different water regimes. In particular, a different management system was adopted between 3000 and 2800 cal. B.C. when emmer was sustained by human-induced water supply, whereas the more resistant barley was rain-fed and possibly assigned to more terrains. Our results are compared with the stable carbon isotope data available for other Near Eastern sites. Emmer and barley records are also compared with deciduous oak D13C from Arslantepe in order to better understand the influence of environmental factors, climate and human impact

Palaeoecology and long-term human impact in plant biology

“…environmental changes from East to West Mediterranean (Marvelli et al 2013;Peñ a-Chocarro et al 2013;Kouli 2014;Masi et al 2014;Sabato et al 2014;Sadori et al 2013Sadori et al , 2014b. Our newly published data (this issue) and data collected in past years by several colleagues and ourselves indicate that there is a clear need to find the right way to integrate palaeoecological and neoecological data.…”

“…Moreover, soil chemistry change and physical transformation are induced by ploughing, hydrography changes and land reclamation Bosi et al 2014a); the use of fire changes the biomass equilibrium (Bal et al 2011;Sadori et al 2014c); breeding or pastoral activities induce a selection of species towards development of shrubby associations or loss of vegetation (Florenzano & Mercuri 2012) especially under increasing drought (Garcea et al 2013). Consequently, there is the spreading of complex agricultural management (Marvelli et al 2013;Peñ a-Chocarro et al 2013;Masi et al 2014) that archaeobotany has revealed to have been highly advanced in Bronze age (Mercuri et al 2014a and Roman times (Bowes et al 2014); voluntary dispersion of new plants imported for food or decoration (Sadori et al 2009;Rosati et al 2014), and socio-political decisions affecting landscape management (Mensing et al 2013).…”

Comparative modeling of Bronze Age land use in the Malatya Plain (Turkey)

“…In addition, wood remains have also provided data on structural elements, fuel, tools, and movable objects (Alvaro, 2010;Piccione et al, 2015;Sadori and Masi, 2012;Sadori et al, 2006Sadori et al, , 2008Vignola et al, 2014). Moreover, the archaeobotanical assemblage constituted an excellent database for paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on stable carbon isotope analysis (Baneschi et al, 2012;Masi et al, 2013aMasi et al, , 2013bMasi et al, , 2014. These studies indicate a wetter climate between the end of the fourth and the entire third millennium BC compared to today.…”

“…During the EBA IA, the Arslantepe communities were mainly pastoral. As highlighted by stable isotope analysis on crop remains, people adapted crop management to climate and organizational change in terms of both cereal species selection and the distribution of fields as opposed to pasturelands (Masi et al, 2014). Finally, after 3800 cal.…”

The influence of manuring on stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) in Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.): archaeobotanical and palaeodietary implications

“…Stable isotope analysis is becoming increasingly widespread in archaeobotanical research as a powerful method for investigating agricultural practices and land use patterns (Aguilera et al 2008;Bogaard et al 2013;Fraser et al 2013;Heaton et al 2009;Kanstrup et al 2014;Masi et al 2014;Vaiglova et al 2014). Plant stable carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) isotope ratios vary in relation to a range of environmental factors (Dawson et al 2002) including agricultural practices, and these variations can be analysed in archaeobotanical remains (Fiorentino et al 2015;Szpak 2014).…”