Flora of Archaeological Landscape: Case Study of Arslantepe Mound and Its Territory

Abstract

Floristic research plays a key role in understanding archaeological landscapes. Floristic studies provide important information for archaeological research, for understanding the diet of societies to determining agricultural activities of the periods. With the data obtained as a result of archaeobotanical studies in recent years, important findings regarding the general flora character of archaeological landscapes have been reached. As of today, the floristic balance of current archaeological landscape is changing as the existing vegetation is destroyed in archaeological sites where excavations are continuing. Based on this, in this paper, current flora of Arslantepe Mound and its territory was examined. The aim of this paper is to determine the plant biodiversity of the study area and to identify the sensitive areas with endemic species. Within the boundaries of the study area, 440 samples were collected between August 2018 and August 2019. As a result of identification of collected samples and evaluation of plants registered in the literature, 704 taxa (681 species, 13 subspecies, 10 variate) belonging to 384 genera and 90 families were determined. 65 of the total species are endemic in the area. The phytogeographic regions of only 233 species out of the collected material have been identified; Irano-Turanian 184, Mediterranean 38, Euro-Siberian 11. The rest 471 species of the total are either pluriregional or phytogeographically unknown. Two species belong to Pteridophyte whereas 702 species belong to Spermatophyta. Within the area, gymnosperms have 16 species and angiosperms have 686 species. Dicotyledons and monocotyledons have 586 and 100 species, respectively, in the Angiosperms. The largest families identified in the study area are as follows: Fabaceae 67, Brassicaceae 65, Asteraceae 58, Poaceae 54, and Lamiaceae 53. The largest genera in the study area are as follows: Alyssum 12, Euphorbia 12, Astragalus 10, Medicago 10, and Trifolium 7. Endemic species located within the study area within the scope of the findings obtained as a result of the floristic research, deployment areas, and endangered species have been identified. Suggestions have been developed to enable the archaeological sites to appear within the urban landscape as alternative green spaces. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.