Thijs Van Thuyne

Late Holocene local vegetation dynamics in the marsh of Gravgaz (southwest Turkey)

Late Holocene local vegetation succession is reconstructed in twodifferent sites in a small-scale open marsh ecosystem in southwest Turkey.This is done by comparison of the fossil local pollen assemblage zones in twocores with the local pollen data of 40 surface samples from the marsh. Thepollen data are supplemented with sedimentological and archaeological data. Theinsertion of the mean pollen data of the local pollen zones as passive samplesinto the canonical correspondence analysis triplot of the modern samples allowsus to detect modern analogues for the fossil pollen zones. From this numericalcomparative approach it is concluded that the marsh area was relatively dryuntil ca 2500 BP. After 2500 BP the area shifts towards a wet area dominated bySparganium and/or Typha angustifolia. A diversification of the marsh vegetationstarts at ca 2400/2300 BP. The area around one core site seems to have beensituated in an area with slowly flowing source water, whereas the other coresite is likely to have been characterised by damp conditions. The steadilyincreasing dryness of the marsh area starts after ca 680 BP. The drying upappears to be associated with recent agricultural and grazing pressure.

CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS AT SAGALASSOS

Until recently, late antique quotidian objects were relegated to the domain of specialist studies and information relating to the context or assemblage within which the objects were found was rarely retained. The objects were studied as individual examples of form or type, rather than as part of an assemblage. The ability of archaeological evidence to contribute to the study of human behaviour largely derives from patterns in the dispersal of artefacts, however, and not simply from the objects themselves. A full description of the archaeological context of particular objects is thus required in order to maximise the recovery of data about the past. Contextual analysis, as it has been developed at Sagalassos, is used to identify human activities and their social and economic implications by carefully delineating the distribution of archaeological material, taking surrounding architecture and the process of context formation into account.

Two Late Antique Residential Complexes At Sagalassos

The town of Sagalassos, located in south-western Turkey, was an important regional centre from the Hellenistic period to Late Antiquity. Since the 1990s, the site has been the subject of systematic interdisciplinary research focusing on industrial, commercial, and residential areas of the town. The aim of this paper is to present the results of the excavations of two residential complexes in the town, including a palatial mansion to the north of the Roman Baths and a late antique house/shop encroaching upon the east portico of the lower agora. These housing complexes provide evidence for the living conditions of both the upper and middle classes in Late Antiquity.