bronze age environment and economy in the troad - Universität ...

chapter 1: environment and archaeology
beginning of roughly 2900 BP) in southern Turkey, where decreased
summer temperatures or a high presence of clouds
were interpreted from a decrease in Compositae pollen, that
were recognised to have increased in the previous phase by hot
upwinds through strong insolation and heating of the earth
(Bottema, Woldring and Aytug 1986).
Other problems arise with the synchronisation of the eastern
vegetation successions with the Middle European basic succession,
particularly with regard to the postglacial woodland development
on the Mediterranean coast (Beug 1967).
The apparent inconsistency is a strongly deviating vegetation
development in different regions. Considering additionally the
low coverage of pollen cores, these variations are not that astonishing.
For example van Zeist and Bottema (1982) could
demonstrate that differences in vegetation development existed
between northern Israel and northwestern Syria in the Postglacial
period (11/10000-6000 BP), but also in earlier periods,
such as the Pleniglacial. Variations are sometimes explained by
differences in wind circulation systems, an aspect which was
discussed by Bintliff (1982) as a more progressive approach to
past climates.
After the Pleniglacial period humidity seems to have increased
continuously, with regional differences, such as a later increase
of humidity in southeastern Turkey, deducted from a later distribution
of woodland (i.e. increase of wood pollen). Generally
an increase of humidity took place between c. 10500 and 6000
(5000) BP, when modern climatic conditions were reached.
The palynological evidence from Near Eastern sites (excluding
western Anatolia) suggests that at least from 6000 BP onward
no considerable change in vegetation or climate occurred
(Bottema and van Zeist 1981). A problem of lack of direct
evidence becomes obvious in the palaeo-vegetation map by
van Zeist and Bottema (1982). The map is based on the palynological
results from Greece, but shows continuous forest
cover for the western Anatolian coast from around 8000 BP.
There are also difficulties in interpreting climatic indicators in
the eastern Mediterranean for the period between 3500 and
1000/750 BC (Subboreal period), which might have been
caused by a regime of variable weather. Bintliff (1982) observes
that “the implications for the Mediterranean latitude
(with the development in north-west Europe) are not clear-cut.
One might expect after the Piora fluctuation (cool phase in the
northern hemisphere during the Atlantic period, 5000-3500 bc)
onwards in time, a marked variability at different longitudes of
the Mediterranean with unusually dry zones adjacent to unusually
wet zones... ” (p. 510).
Within the Subboreal period, the end of the Late Bronze Age
has been the object of vigorous discussion, in the search for
reasons for the collapse of Mycenaean civilisation.
The architectural evidence for the collapse is visible in destruction,
but also in constructions. There are intentionally fire-destroyed
buildings in Mycenae and other archaeological sites
(Gla) in LH IIIB, but also reinforcement of fortifications and
the construction of underground water supply systems at
Mycenae and other archaeological sites (Tiryns), for defensive
purposes. Numerous sites were abandoned or destroyed either
within or at the very end of LH IIIB (before 1200 BC). Some
are believed to have been destroyed by natural disasters, such
as earthquakes (Tiryns). Depopulation of the centres in the
subsequent LH IIIC phase is archaeologically recognisable.
Besides the main ideas on the reasons for Mycenaean collapse,
such as the neo-marxist theory of internal social revolution,
disruption of commerce by the Sea Peoples, invasion over land
from the North, or the more unpopular idea of invaders on a
lower cultural level than the inhabitants, there is also the argument
of climatic change as a reason for the collapse.
Carpenter (1966) suggests in his hypothesis a mosaic of
drought and normal rainfall over the eastern Mediterranean
region around 1200 BC (around the end of the LH IIIB), as a
consequence of the distribution of relief and atmospheric circulation
(Bintliff 1982). According to Carpenter, the drought, as
the main factor for the disruption of agriculture, affected areas
of Crete, the southern Peloponnese and the Argolid but did not
particularly affect the northwest Peloponnese, Thessaly and the
rest of northern Greece. His hypothesis that the Late Bronze
Age collapse was linked to climatic change was supported later
by palaeoclimatological investigations by Lamb (1967),
Bryson et al. (1974), Weiss (1982), and more cautiously by
Kuniholm (1990). They confirmed that a pattern of drought
such as that postulated by Carpenter is in fact possible, while
Neumann (1993) takes the view that the opposite, i.e. cool and
humid winters, was the case. The chronology of the respective
events is another problem, because of a lack of dates.
Some archaeologists have doubts about the Carpenter hypothesis,
because settlement continuities and discontinuities do not
fit into this mosaic pattern of dry and moist regions (Dickinson
1974). Archaeologists are not satisfied with Carpenter’s explanation,
because it does not answer the question as to who destroyed
the palaces.
After c. 750 BC the climate generally was comparable to the
present day, although the palynological evidence is difficult to
interpret, because of increasing human interference with woodland
distribution (van Zeist, Timmers and Bottema 1968,
Bintliff 1982).
Precipitation in the Mediterranean belt of Turkey varies
considerably from one year to the next. Inter-annual weather
fluctuations determine the likeliness of risks of crop failure
with the practised system. According to Kuniholm (1990) crop
failures are not necessarily explained only with climatic
change. He observed that crop failures are often caused by
people’s tendency to give up practices that tradition had proved
right. The shift to other agricultural practices would result in
catastrophic crop failures. On the other hand, ethnographic
observation in Greece demonstrated that usually the economy
of agrarian households was very well adapted to a broad
spectrum of expected but unpredictable changes of the weather
and not to the ‛climate-average’ (e.g. Forbes 1976). Between
these two perspectives (the shift to a different agricultural
practice and the reaction to inter-annual weather fluctuations
with a diverse set of practices) the time factor, under which
fluctuations appear is significant. In the first case one might
assume a longer period (e.g. within a few decades), before the
weather fluctuates into another direction. In the second case
one might assume shorter periodic deviations in weather (e.g.
within several years); people would surely not have forgotten
traditional farming in this time.
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