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Exploring the common ground of landscape ecology and landscape archaeology through a case study from eastern Anatolia, Turkey

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Abstract

Context

Landscape archaeology has a lot to offer to landscape ecology, being an interdisciplinary approach that emphasizes the study of long-term human–environment dynamics.

Objectives

We outline different conceptualizations of landscape in landscape archaeology and illustrate the potential of the approach for collaborating with landscape ecologists by describing a case study from the multi-period site of Arslantepe, located in the Malatya province of eastern Anatolia, Turkey.

Methods

We use an agent-based modeling platform to understand the socio-economic transformations at Arslantepe during the Early Bronze Age-I.

Results

These simulations revealed long-term dynamics of grassland and woodland under different climate and population scenarios. It was found that both grassland and woodland responded most strongly to changes in population, with woodlands being more sensitive. Further, it becomes evident that the adapted site-tethered pastoralism could have brought more sustainable land use practices.

Conclusions

The example shows the tremendous potential landscape archaeology has for studying long-term sustainability issues, especially related to modes of production. The landscape archaeological perspective can be linked with expertise provided by landscape ecologists, and we propose more in-depth collaboration of these two fields that offer diverse yet complementary perspectives.

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Acknowledgements

The Technological and Scientific Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) supported the ABM project presented here (Grant #113K826). MML has been developed with support from the National Science Foundation Coupled Natural and Human Systems program (Grants BCS-410269 and DEB-1313727) in the United States of America. We also extend our gratitude to Marcella Frangipane and the rest of the Italian Archaeological Mission at Arslantepe for their cooperation, to C. Michael Barton, Isaac Ullah, Sean Bergin, and the rest of the MedLanD team for their continuing support in developing and applying the MML. For the conceptualizations of landscape in archaeology, Ariane Ballmer provided valuable input. Bülent Arıkan expresses his appreciation to research assistants. Last but not least, he is grateful for the support of Dr. Gonca Dardeniz Arıkan throughout the project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, Istanbul Technical University, 34469, Istanbul, Turkey

    Bülent Arıkan

  2. Research Unit Land Change Science, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Franziska Mohr & Matthias Bürgi

  3. Institute of Geography, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Franziska Mohr & Matthias Bürgi

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  1. Bülent Arıkan
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  3. Matthias Bürgi
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Correspondence to Bülent Arıkan.

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Arıkan, B., Mohr, F. & Bürgi, M. Exploring the common ground of landscape ecology and landscape archaeology through a case study from eastern Anatolia, Turkey. Landscape Ecol 36, 2295–2315 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01128-z

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