Botanical Aspects of Environment and Economy at Gordion, Turkey

6. Interpretation—Summary and Conclusions

6 Interpretation—Summary and Conclusions There are a number of questions one can ask of macroremains from an archaeological site. At the most basic level, one can record the plants growing nearby that were used for food, fuel, fodder, and construction in different time periods. Archaeobotanical data also speak to land-use practices and consequent long-term human impact on the vegetation and landscape. Given the long, well-dated sequence at Gordion, there are several questions specific to the agropastoral economy, historical events, movement of peoples, and other cultural trends that are worth addressing with archaeobotanical data. Some of the broad conclusions drawn from these data support interpretations based on archaeology, history, and other natural sciences. Vegetation Cover and Land Use Broadly, the modern zones of vegetation are similar to those of the past. The area immediately surrounding Gordion probably supported grassy steppe with isolated trees, except along the river, which would have been home to riparian types such as willow. Where oak, juniper, and pine grow today, it is reasonable to assume that similar climatic and edaphic conditions allowed them to grow in the past, as well. All three, especially juniper and pine, would have been more prominent in the landscape than they are today. Even under the most benign conditions of the past 4000 years, changes in vegetation cover have been determined by human activity more than by climate within a 50-km radius of the site. Some change has been irrevocable, however. In central Anatolia, oak replaces pine with cutting (Bottema and Woldring 1984:139), and oak also recovers from cutting faster than juniper. A more severe result of tree-cutting and land clearance on once-wooded slopes above Çekerdeksiz and along the Porsuk and Sakarya valleys is soil erosion, which has left bedrock or at best a thin soil layer in many areas. That means that areas at present bare or treeless once supported some woody vegetation. This loss of vegetation and soil adversely affected surface runoff and the water table, with a corresponding longlasting impact on the ability of vegetation to regenerate. Even local climate conditions may have changed as a result of vegetation, soil, and groundwater loss. Fuel-cutting The dominant forest tree genera in the region are juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus and J. excelsa), oak (primarily Quercus pubescens, but also Q. cerris), and pine (Pinus nigra). One or another of these taxa predominate throughout the sequence, representing over 80% of the charcoal. Along with the increase in taxa of secondary forest and streamside, the charcoal data support the view that tree cover overall did not suffer greatly with long-term exploitation of woodland . Consistent with this view, geomorphological studies indicate that severe soil erosion on the slopes is a relatively late phenomenon, occurring after AD 600 (Marsh 2005). The early importance and subsequent decline in juniper as a fuel wood suggests local changes in availability. In particular, it seems likely that scrubby juniper initially grew on the ridges at the edge of the valley within 0.5 km of the site. The maximum use of oak as fuel appears to be during the Middle Phrygian period. This is also the time of maximum wood fuel use relative to dung (i.e., low seed to charcoal ratios). This suggests that oak, unlike juniper , was sustainably harvested at that time. Scrubby 64 Botanical aspects of environment and economy at Gordion, turkey oak and juniper today co-occur on the basaltic soils of Çile Dağı above Şabanozu; one imagines that cover extended along the hills to the south (Dua Tepe), and that the wooded area in general was less impacted by fuel-cutting. Farming and Herding The agropastoral nature of the subsistence economy at Gordion is easily inferred from the Gordion seed and animal bone assemblage. That evidence shows that the human diet was based on domesticated species. Barley, bread wheat, emmer, einkorn, lentil, and bitter vetch constitute the small group of cultigens grown in all periods (though bitter vetch and barley may have served as animal fodder rather than food, at least sometimes). In addition, occasional finds show that chickpea (YHSS 3, 6), millets (YHSS 7; 5–1), and rice (YHSS 1) were grown. Fruit and nuts included sporadic cherry, fig, wild almond and pistachio, a single coriander seed (YHSS 4), and a fenugreek seed (YHSS 1). The single pot of flax seed (YHSS 6A Destruction Level) and the six cotton seeds (YHSS 1) probably represent fiber plants, but might have been grown for oil. Hazelnut...