Reconstructing Late Bronze Age Agriculture at Kaymakçı, Western Turkey

Identifying the reasons behind the various agricultural patterns of ancient societies can help to illuminate the role of human agency in agricultural production. By understanding the nature of the interaction between ancient societies and their environments we can see how cultural and environmental changes may affect human decisions in the types of crops grown. The analysis of the ancient botanical remains at Kaymakçı, a Late Bronze Age citadel in western Turkey, can provide insight into how environmental and social factors played into the agricultural production at the site. Preliminary analysis of the carbonized plant remains from the first excavation season at Kaymakçı show that wheat, barley, and pulses were the primary crops. In this presentation, we begin to reconstruct the agricultural system at Kaymakçı during the Late Bronze Age and show its importance as a comparative study for other sites in the Aegean and Near Eastern worlds.