Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey: Report of the 2011 Season, Part One

The 2011 season of the Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project was conducted between July 21 and August 12 2011. The research agenda of the 2011 was to investigate the degraded character of highland cedar forests in the Taşeli Plateau in the Taurus Mts behind Gazipaşa (Antalya Province, Gazipaşa District, Taseli Plateau). We worked in the Taseli plateau highland region from July 25 to Aug. 5, collecting tree, pollen, and carbon samples of the highland forest; we then relocated to the Baysal Hotel in Gazipaşa to conduct archaeological survey in the midlands (mesogeia) between Aug. 6 and 12. We explain the procedures and the results of both phases of the survey in two parts. This section (Part One) will address the deforestation research of the 2011 Survey; Part Two will address the finds of the 2011 Pedestrian Survey. As the mid-range theory Rough Cilicia highland survey has been investigating the possibility that resource depletion played a role in population collapse at the end of the Roman era. Throughout antiquity the forests of these mountains were praised for their lofty conifer trees, particularly cedar trees whose rot-resistant properties made them desirable for shipbuilding. By the beginning of the 20th century, this forest was essentially exhausted. While scholars agree that human activity played a determining role in deforestation, the timing and pace of pre-modern forest utilization is poorly understood. Our paleoenvironmental work this season embraced two related strategies, dendrochronological investigation of the surviving highland forest, and geomorphic trench excavations of alluvial deposits along river basins, carbon and pollen analysis of soil samples. To conduct the highland survey we positioned ourselves at a rental house at Gökgözlük Yayla for approximately 10 days. During that time we conducted geomorphic trench sampling of cedar and pollen residue at the altitude representing the natural habitat of the highland forest (1500 to 1800 m elevation)

Cosmogenic beryllium cycling in a natural forest setting

10Bemet, or cosmogenic beryllium, has a long half-life of 1.4 million years and quick adsorption on soil particles, which may make it ideal for dating soil erosion in historical context. However, there are questions on about the fundamental assumptions of the retentivity of 10Bemet. This manuscript explores these assumptions and the context of nutrient cycling in a natural forest setting. To see if 10Bemet was being cycled through the trees, and at what rate, we looked at the[10Bemet ] in the soil, 4 species of trees, and their leaves. The isotopic ratio 10Be/9Be in all four tree species was comparable to the soil on which they grow, ranging from 6-8 x 10 -9. However, there was one exception with hickory (Carya spp.) which strongly bioaccumulate beryllium with an average of 0.38 ppm dry weight in the wood. Abscised hickory leaves have a higher [Be] of 2.0 ppm, over 10 times higher than in the soil. Using standard allometric equations relating tree biomass to trunk diameter, and assuming that belowground biomass has the same [Be] as aboveground, we calculate that hickory trees at our site contain approximately 1% of the total 10Bemet under their canopy and that ~10% of this Be is cycled annually by leaf abscission. It is not clear at this point what fraction of litterfall Be is recycled into the plant, returned to the soil, or carried to groundwater as organic chelates. Hickory trees occupy an average of ~10% of the oak-hickory forest area. Assuming that trees are randomly distributed, that litterfall Be is returned to the soil, and maintaining a constant 10Bemet budget over time for simplicity, then more than half of all 10Be met in the forest soil will have passed through a hickory tree over the past 10 ky. Fully 90% of all 10Bemet will pass through a hickory tree over a period of ~25 ky. It is clear that hickory trees can transport a sizable fraction of the total 10Bemet in their nutrient cycle, and that they may be responsible for landscape-scale Be mobility

The archaeology of deforestation in south coastal Turkey

The Rough Cilicia Archaeological Survey Project investigates landscape transformation as a component to its regional survey of ancient Rough Cilicia (south coastal Turkey opposite Cyprus). Rough Cilicia was celebrated during antiquity for pristine cedar forests that stood between 1500 and 1800 m in altitude along the slopes of the Taurus Mountains. Today along the front range of the Taurus Mountains this forest is completely denuded or otherwise replanted with recent growth in the past 80 years. We employ paleoenvironmental analysis of relic cedar forests in the Taurus Mountains to construct a timeline of anthropogenic disturbances associated with population growth over time and thereby assess the sustainability of ancient forestry practices. To obtain these data, the team recovers pollen and carbon samples from geomorphologic trenches excavated in the cedar zone, tree ring data from dendrochronological survey of the existing forest, and archaeological data from remains of ancient highland settlements. Preliminary results indicate that current perspectives about the timing of deforestation in this region are flawed and that the initial deforestation coincided with regional site abandonment and population decline at the end of antiquity