Timber exploitation during the 5th–3rd millennia BCE at Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey): environmental constraints and cultural choices

Abstract

A considerable amount of charcoal remains from the archaeological site of Arslantepe (Eastern Anatolia) has been analysed. The anthracological assemblage comes from seven archaeological periods, ranging from the Late Chalcolithic 1–2 (mid-5th millennium BCE) to the Early Bronze Age III (late 3rd millennium BCE). The woody taxa exploited by the local communities appeared to have only mi- nor changes throughout the investigated periods. For the eval- uation of wood use practices, charcoal was chronologically grouped according to depositional context. The categories of depositional context identified differentiate between the uses of wood for structural parts of buildings, object manufacture, fuel, refuse, and wood found in outdoor areas or in burial contexts. Communities at Arslantepe, characterized by different cultural and socio-economic traits, appeared overall to select timber de- pending on its use: hydrophilous plants prevail in building mate- rial, with the exception of the 2900–2500 BCE period when environmental constraints probably motivate the dominance of woodland-steppe plants. The differential occurrence of\ud Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12520-017-0499-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.\ud taxa in the diverse depositional contexts highlighted cases of under/overestimation of remains, in particular in relation to the woods for construction. Finally, taxa have been attributed to different ecological groups. The interpretation of results and the comparison with other available palaeoenvironmental data point out that climatic factors play only a secondary role in the choice of wood exploitation in the area. Human choice may vary even with constant environmental records

δ13C values in archaeological 14C‐AMS dated charcoals: Assessing mid‐Holocene climate fluctuations and human response from a high‐resolution isotope record (Arslantepe, Turkey)

“…The archaeobotanical research at Arslantepe has been carried out for more than 35 years. Several studies have focused on charcoal remains . Architectural woods were abundant since roof structures, and sometimes walls, were made of beams and smaller sticks.…”

“…Moreover, some of the buildings were supplied with hearths, ovens and other domestic features, in which wood remains were preserved by charring. Archaeobotanical analysis especially revealed that the wood resources were exploited from two main vegetation zones: the plain, where deciduous oaks probably grew, and the surrounding mountain and hill slopes, where juniper trees were available …”

“…In fact in semi‐arid environments the most significant factor limiting wood growth is precipitation. Charcoal assemblages though may reflect also human selection of some species, rather than solely humidity and vegetation changes . Secondly, regional pollen, lake sediment and speleothem records have provided a useful framework for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.…”

“…It provided evidence of one of the first state systems in the Near East dated back to 3400 bc . Huge amounts of charred plant remains were analysed, accounting for land use in the region during the 4300–2000 bc interval, namely in the Late Chalcolithic (henceforth LC) and Early Bronze Age (henceforth EBA) . In very recent years, stable isotope records at local scale have been established in order to describe climatic conditions behind social transformations at the site.…”

Changes in Wood Utilization Due to Iron Age Jade Mining in the Western Hexi Corridor: Wood Charcoal Investigations

“…et al, 2020;Kennett et al, 2020). As a source of energy and raw material for production, wood is an essential resource in daily life and has played a critical role in human environmental adaptation throughout history (Martín-Seijo et al, 2015;Medina-Alcaide et al, 2015;Masi et al, 2017;Kabukcu, 2018;Liu et al, 2019a,b). Prehistoric humans usually collected locally available wood resources, following the "principle of least effort" (Renfrew and Bahn, 1991;Shackleton and Prins, 1992;Qing et al, 2010;Masi et al, 2017;Bouchaud et al, 2020).…”