Past and present forest society interactions through forest resource modeling in the region of Sagalassos

The ancient city of Sagalassos, situated in the Taurus Mountains in southern Anatolia, Turkey, has been subjected to archeological research fora number of decades. More recently, researchers have focused themselveson diachronic co-evolution of society and nature and are trying to tie the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project to a parcours of sustainable regional development. Forests form a dominant aspect of the regionalnatural landscape in the area around Sagalassos and are a key resource for fuel, construction material and other ecosystem services to the present-day local communities. From previous archaeo-ecological research, there is also plenty of evidence of intensive forest resource use in the past. The aim of this PhD is to reconstruct the forest resource composition, structure and biomass as a result of trends in climate and human resource use. To do this, we will use different forest resource modelling techniques. Two approaches will be followed, being from past to present using forest succession modelling and from present to past using retrospective growth modelling.