Exploring the agroecology of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia: An archaeobotanical approach to agricultural intensity based on functional ecological analysis of arable weed flora

Çatalhöyük’s millennium-long Neolithic sequence and large archaeobotanical assemblage of stored crops from burned buildings provides an unparalleled opportunity to investigate the nature and intensity of crop growing conditions and arable land management in an early established farming community in Western Asia. Here we use weed surveys of present-day cereal and pulse fields in Morocco and Mediterranean Europe, combined with measurement of functional ecological traits in weed species, to frame interpretation of the archaeobotanical weed flora of stored crops. Our analysis is also informed by the identification of wild plant taxa derived from the burning of animal dung as fuel, distinct from arable weeds harvested with cereal and pulse crops. Our results demonstrate a broad range of growing conditions, particularly in the mid-Neolithic sequence, when the Çatalhöyük community attained its maximum size, and “frictions of distance” limited the management intensity of the more distant fields. It can also be shown that variable ranges of growing conditions are represented amongst the crop stores of individual house units