Late Chalcolithic - Early Bronze Age (5350 to 4000 years BP) carbon isotope record of plant macroremains from an Eastern Anatolian archaeological site

The archaeological site of Arslantepe (Malatya plain, Turkey), is a typical near eastern tell, formed by the superimposition of many anthropic levels, and it is one of the sites with greatest importance in its region, due to the length of its pre and protohistoric occupation. It is approximately 30 metres high and 4.5 ha in dimension. It's occupation spans from the 5th millennium BC to the end of the Neo-Hittite period (8th cent. BC). Its history fully exemplifies the transformations of society in the region since prehistoric times and the site is an inextinguishable source of precious information. Research at the site, carried out by the Sapienza University since 1961, has always had a strong interdisciplinary character and large attention has been given to archaeobotanical studies. The archaeobotanical studies highlighted the presence of various botanical taxa preserved by charring, belonging to arboreal and crop species. At Arslantepe a number of important changes are found. It is not clear, however, if the important variations found in plants use by the successive settlers are due to cultural choices or to environmental changes. Independent information on environmental variation obtained using carbon stable isotope, will help classical archaeobotanical studies to discriminate cultural and environmental change and reciprocal influences. Analyses of selected fossil woods of deciduousQuercus (deciduous oak) and Juniperus (juniper) and of grains of Hordeum vulgare (barley) and Triticum dicoccon (emmer) from the archaeological site were carried out at IGG-CNR of Pisa. Fresh reference plant specimens (leaf and branches) of the same taxa have been sampled in the area of Arslantepe, dried at 45 °C and processed with the same method used for fossils to evaluate past climatic conditions in relation to present-day ones. A comparison between wood and seed trends of 13C/12C ratio could also provide information on crops irrigation.