Empty Shelves: Tracking the Flow of Goods During Ancient Climate Crises in Central Anatolia

Archaeological investigations of ancient climate change have become an important focus for many researchers. A number of studies have focused on scientific techniques to identify the intricate details of the event, and the subsequent impact of these climatic changes on the ecological landscape. These more scientifically oriented studies have allowed the present authors to investigate a more subtle impact on the landscape: trade disruption during ancient climate crises viewed from the rural settlement of Çadır Höyük on the north central Anatolian plateau. The ebb and flow of trade networks in the past can be tied to many external sociopolitical and socioeconomic factors that may have had little to do with the air outside. We investigate here whether climate change was a significant factor that interfered with trade networks during three periods: The 4th millennium BCE Late Chalcolithic (the 5.2 ka climatic event); the late 2nd millennium BCE (3.2 ka climatic event); and the Medieval Warm Period from the 10th to the 13th century CE. This study presents the evidence for regular, and sometimes robust, trade or provision of goods and resources prior to these three climate events, and the disruption or dissolution of these during the height of each climate crisis, particularly in the earlier two periods; in the last period, climate variability was only one of many factors affecting trade networks on the plateau. We profile how the residents of ancient Çadır Höyük managed these intermittent “empty shelves” and filled in gaps using local resources and ingenuity.