Late Bronze Age and Byzantine Crops at Beycesultan in Anatolia

Abstract

During the years 1953 to 1959, under the directorship of Seton Lloyd, with James Mellaart, the British Institute in Ankara carried out excavations in the mound of Beycesultan, the site of successive ancient habitations. The remains of cultivated plants recovered during this operation are the subject of the following communication.Beycesultan is situated some 5 km. west of Çivril in the Denizli Vilayet of south-western Turkey. The locality is a flat upland plain in an intermontane valley at the south-western approach to the Anatolian plateau, some 2,500 feet above sea level. It is enclosed by low hills and watered by the upper reaches of the Meander river. The mountains above the plain are still partly wooded, and the drainage from these tracts accounts for the moisture and fertility which make the cultivation of cereals, pulses, poppy, grapes and fruit possible in the valley plain in spite of the comparatively low precipitation of some 14 to 16 inches. As suggested by the huge quantities of timber employed in the construction of the Middle Bronze Age palace the surrounding hilly area was once generously forested with oak, juniper and fir, but now the area is largely deforested in consequence of overgrazing.