The archaeobotanical and archaeozoological investigations at Troy yield a differentiated picture of how the landscape has changed under the influence of climate and of man. The findings show that from the Middle Chalcolithic to the Late Bronze Age the landscape carried well-developed woodlands with high proportions of deciduous oaks. The early settlement-phases at Kumtepe, however, provide clear indications that there were also open areas of vegetation that were climatically caused. Climatic variations over the course of time may be deduced with confidence from the Δ13C values in barley, which in Troy I/II and IX exhibit significant differences from those in the other settlement phases. Anthropogenic influence comes early to bear on the vegetation, so that a limited regeneration can already be observed during the gap in occupation between Kumtepe IA and IB. Subsequent phases then show a continuous, gradual change in the vegetation and, with it, in the availability of resources. In the process differing parts of the landscape were in differing measure put to agricultural uses. This change becomes very clear when comparison is made between the principal cultivars and domesticates of Kumtepe IA and those of Kumtepe IB, but also at Troy when the findings from the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age strata are compared.

palaeoenvironmental reconstruction