The Social Metabolism of Past Societies: A New Approach to Environmental Changes and Societal Responses in the Territory of Sagalassos (SW Turkey)

This chapter advances social metabolism as a suitable framework for interdisciplinary studies of human-environment interactions in the past. We apply this framework to the comparison of two case studies of environmental changes and societal responses in the area of Sagalassos (SW Turkey): the onset of the Bey\csehir Occupation phase during first millennium BCE and the Medieval Climatic Anomaly at the start of the second millennium AD. Both periods are characterised by changing environmental conditions that required societies to alter subsistence strategies, economic system and social organisation. We show how local communities responded to the challenges and opportunities offered by changing circumstances in various ways. When possible they created stable environments that served as niches of habitation and provided for all local needs in energy and resources, while also accounting for the trade-off effects between the need for increased security versus exploiting the available environmental potential.

ISBN:978-3-030-81103-7

Jaar van publicatie:2021

Toegankelijkheid:Closed