Modeling Resilience and Sustainability in Ancient Agricultural Systems

Ancient agricultural systems can provide critical insights into the adoption of unsustainable practices and their environmental consequences, which remain poorly understood today. A study focusing on Gordion, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Turkey, reveals that mismatches between social and ecological processes—spatially, temporally, and organizationally—often trigger local environmental degradation. Extralocal economic pressures further drive the shift toward unsustainable land-use practices. By integrating environmental archaeology with resilience thinking, this research offers a novel framework to explain regional patterns of agricultural change and environmental decline in the past.

Marston, J. M. (2015). Modeling Resilience and Sustainability in Ancient Agricultural Systems. Journal of Ethnobiology, 35(3), 585–605. https://doi.org/10.2993/etbi-35-03-585-605.1