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Three decades of interdisciplinary research within the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project has provided extensive archaeological, environmental and geoarchaeological datasets. This paper seeks to bring together these datasets to explore diachronic socio-ecological dynamics within the Sagalassos Study Area, SW Türkiye. For this, we will use the Adaptive Cycles and Resilience Theory framework to explore socio-cultural development during changing climatic and environmental conditions. The paper aims to serve as an in-depth case study of these frameworks, integrating archaeological and environmental data, which – despite the increasing popularity of resilience theory – remains underdeveloped within the field of archaeology, especially within Mediterranean and Anatolian archaeology. We will explore the utility of the adaptive cycle framework for reconstructing diachronic human-environment interactions through changing settlement patterns documented during surveys conducted by the Sagalassos Project. Critical phases within the settlement record can be identified during the last 8000 years including apparent periods of ‘rupture’ during the Middle Chalcolithic, Middle-Late Bronze Age, Hellenistic and Middle-Byzantine periods; representing times of serious upheaval in ‘normal’ cultural traditions and lifeways. The adaptive cycle framework will help distinguish between the effects of environmental changes and social dynamics, as well as their potential interrelations in causing long-term social transformation in the Sagalassos Study Area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, environmental studies in research on prehistoric China have been gaining popularity and importance. For Northwest China in particular, climate change, especially the so-called ~4.2k BP event has been seen as the main reason for an alleged collapse of Late Neolithic societies and a transition to pastoral-heavy economies and mobile lifeways. Yet, these explanatory models tend to rely on limited archaeological and environmental data and non-contemporaneous historical data, resulting in simplistic causal relationships between environmental changes and social response. This paper re-evaluates the Incipient Bronze Age in China's Northwestern region, discussing evidence for climate change and its exact dates, as well as textual and archaeological evidence. We argue that the old narratives perpetuating the image of a dichotomy between Steppe and Sown are inaccurate, while large-scale models of region-wide subsistence change in response to climate cooling tend to disregard local developments and group-specific responses as well as chronological issues. Focusing on the Xindian and Siwa archaeological phenomena, this paper provides a view into sub-regional responses to this climate event, warning against simplistic broad-brush reconstructions and calling for both a return to archaeological fundamentals and large-scale intensive fieldwork and interdisciplinary studies involving archaeologists, paleobotanists, zooarchaeologists, isotope specialists, and climate scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring prehistoric variation in human–environmental interaction is critical for understanding the historical patterns and mechanisms of long-term human–land evolution. In this paper we review the published radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) data from Late Paleolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in China, analyze the spatial–temporal distribution of these sites, and compare it with the results of recent paleoclimatic and archaeological studies. We seek to study the trajectory and influencing factors of human–environmental interactions in late prehistoric China. We detect changing patterns in the relationship between humans and the environment during different phases of the prehistoric era in China. Climate change clearly affected the environment of hunter-gatherer groups between 50,000–10,000 BP (before present, defined as 1950AD), and variation in human population in Neolithic China (∼10,000–4000 BP) was likely influenced primarily by the development of agriculture, in addition to substantial climate events. The spatial scale of human settlements expanded in the Bronze Age (∼4000–2200 BP) in a period of cooling climate. During this time the impact of human activities on the environment increased significantly, primarily caused by technological innovations related to the onset of prehistoric transcontinental cultural exchange in Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most important stratified screes of the Iberian Range are found in Sierra de Albarracín. These slope deposits have been traditionally considered, without absolute datings, as having been formed during various Pleistocene cold phases. The aim of this paper is to establish the sedimentological, morphological, chronological, and paleoenvironmental characteristics of these deposits through the study of four profiles recorded in the Calomarde canyon (El Rollo, El Molino, and Royuela) and Toril. The most representative profile is that of El Rollo as it is formed by basal tufa and stratified scree layers separated by paleosoils. Radiocarbon datings obtained from paleosoil samples show that the sequence ranges between the early and middle Holocene. The profiles from El Molino and Royuela, as well as the upper levels of Toril, complete the sequence showing deposits from upper Holocene (Bronze Age and ‘Little Ice Age’). These data show the oscillations during the Holocene between colder phases, represented by the stratified screes, and warmer–wetter phases with soil development and local tufa deposits. This geomorphological and pedological response to the Holocene climatic variability shows its clearest records in the canyons. However, there are almost no Pleistocene accumulations – with the exception of that of Toril (minimum age of <43.5 ka BP). The possibility of relating this succession of Holocene environmental changes to known regional and global climatic stages converts these accumulations into the most important Holocene paleoenvironmental record from the Iberian Ranges and the most complete sequence of Holocene stratified screes from the Mediterranean area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollen analyses of a peat profile collected from Butterburn Flow, northern England have been used to reconstruct vegetation and land-use change from the late Neolithic (c. 3230 cal. BC) to the present day. ‘Wiggle-matching’ of 42 AMS 14C dates has enabled a precise (decadal scale) chronology to be established, and the results are interpreted within the context of previous studies of vegetation change in the area. Three late Neolithic-Bronze Age woodland clearance phases occurred, with the first beginning c. 2290 cal. BC. Cleared areas were utilized for pastoral and limited arable agriculture. Late Iron Age clearance and agricultural intensification began at Butterburn Flow c. 300 cal. BC; the peak period of clearance c. 90 cal. BC-AD 50 cal. was comparable in intensity with that in the fourteenth century AD. Farmland in the area was abandoned during the period c. AD 90ȁ3450 cal., contemporaneous with the Roman occupation of the region; Following Roman withdrawal, a resurgence of agriculture occurred. The timing of later periods of agricultural decline relate to climatic deterioration, political instability and disease in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]