Resilience and Adaptation of Agricultural Practice in Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Ayala, G.; Bogaard, A.; Charles, M.; Wainwright, J.

doi:10.1080/00438243.2022.2125058

Resilience and Adaptation of Agricultural Practice in Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Ayala, G.; Bogaard, A.; Charles, M.; Wainwright, J.

Authors

G. Ayala

A. Bogaard

M. Charles

Professor John Wainwright john.wainwright@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

Andrew Sherratt’s ‘Water, soil and seasonality’, World Archaeology (1980), signposted a long-term debate surrounding early farming adaptations to riverine landscapes in western Asia and Europe. Recent research at Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia, a key case study in Sherratt’s ‘floodplain cultivation’ model, enables integrated, evidence-based assessment of the local hydrology and agroecology, and of farmers’ resilience over more than a millennium. In contrast to previous models, the agroecological niche at Çatalhöyük featured strategic planting of diverse crops across a range of hydrological conditions, within and beyond a broad ‘belt’ of small anastomosing river channels extending a kilometre from the site. Growing conditions likely depended on location relative to settlement, a nutrient-rich ‘hot spot’, with diminishing inputs of organic matter and mechanical disturbance away from the tell. This reconstruction contrasts with the original model of ‘floodplain cultivation’ and demonstrates the complexity with which agroecologies evolved through landscape affordances, creative cropping, and resilience.

Citation

Ayala, G., Bogaard, A., Charles, M., & Wainwright, J. (2022). Resilience and Adaptation of Agricultural Practice in Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. World Archaeology, https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2022.2125058

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Mar 30, 2022
Online Publication Date	Oct 28, 2022
Publication Date	2022
Deposit Date	May 26, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Mar 14, 2023
Journal	World Archaeology
Print ISSN	0043-8243
Electronic ISSN	1470-1375
Publisher	Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2022.2125058

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