Introduction

The palaeo-environmental research in Sagalassos concerns the influence of climate change and anthropogenic impact on vegetation, sediment chemistry and sediment dynamics for the late-Holocene period by means of palynological, geomorphological, geochemical and sedimentological analysis. The main archaeological purpose of this survey is the reconstruction of the landscape with which man interacted in historic times.

Aims

During previous field campaigns, different remote sensing surveys have been carried out and continuous sediment and pollen records spanning the last few thousand years have been collected at various locations in the territory of Sagalassos and data has been collected in order to analyse the pollen production and dispersal of the most important plant taxa in the territory by means of collecting surface soil and moss samples and placing pollen traps. This data will be used to make estimations of the abundance of the most important vegetation types during different historical periods.

With the campaign of 2011 we aim to:

1. Fill gaps in the sediment database collected in previous years to study the spatial and temporal variability in valley sedimentation. Main area of interest is the river Büğdüz valley and surroundings, as well as the Burdur plain (geomorphology).
2. Make some additional cores in the Çanaklı catchment to study the sediment budget in the different sub-catchments (geomorphology).
3. Sample valley and hillslope sediments as well as parent soil material for geochemical sediment fingerprinting analysis to document the sources of the sediment (geomorphology + geology).
4. Collect additional surface pollen samples from different parts of the territory (Çanaklı, Hisarköy, Yumrutas, Dereköy) in order to complete the dataset needed to analyze pollen production and dispersal (palynology).
5. Make a number of sediment cores in the Gravgaz basin to investigate the processes that have influenced the Holocene accumulation of sediments in the catchment (geology).
6. Make some extra cores and collect more surface sediment samples around the ancient settlements of Çatal Oluk, Akyamaç, Gökpinar, Susakli, Körüstan and Bereket in order to study ancient pollution patterns. In Gökpinar, also slag material will be collected (geology).