Agricultural adaptations to mid-late Holocene climate change in western Turkiye

The period around the mid-late Holocene transition (c. 2200 bc) saw major societal developments across the eastern Mediterranean. At the same time, the region experienced a shift to more arid climatic conditions. This included punctuated episodes of rapid climate change such as the '4.2 ka event', which has been implicated in widespread societal 'collapse' at the end of the Early Bronze Age. The ways in which societies adapted agricultural production to cope with a drying climate are poorly understood. We begin to rectify this through stable isotope analysis of archaeobotanical remains from the Aegean region of western Turkiye, conducted to reveal changes in agricultural decision making across the mid-late Holocene transition. We find that Bronze Age farmers adapted agricultural production strategies by investing in drought-tolerant cereals cultivated on drier fields with water management strategies redirected towards pulses. Despite this, we find no evidence for pronounced drought stress in cereals grown during the period of the 4.2 ka event. This raises the potential for alternative explanations for societal disruptions visible across the Anatolian Plateau during this time, such as the breakdown of long-distance trade networks.

Automated summary

The period around the mid-late Holocene transition in the eastern Mediterranean witnessed significant societal developments accompanied by a shift to arid climate conditions. The '4.2 ka event' is believed to have caused widespread societal collapse, but our stable isotope analysis of archaeobotanical remains from western Turkiye suggests that Bronze Age farmers adapted their agricultural production strategies to cope with the drying climate. They cultivated drought-tolerant cereals on drier fields and redirected water management towards pulses. However, we found no evidence of severe drought stress in cereals grown during the 4.2 ka event, suggesting alternative explanations for societal disruptions, such as the breakdown of trade networks.