You are kindly invited to participate to the Bilkent Archaeology Day 2026 on Friday 10 April
Art Gallery, Main Campus Library
Bilkent Archaeology Day 2026
From Seeds to Collapse: Discover Ancient Crises through Ancient Environment
Environmental crises are often seen as uniquely modern, yet archaeology shows that past societies repeatedly faced climatic change, ecological stress, and resource instability. This workshop brings together diverse case studies and methods to explore how communities responded to such challenges across different regions and periods.
Focusing on key Late Holocene climatic events such as the 4.2 ka and 3.2 ka episodes, the contributions reassess narratives of collapse by highlighting resilience and adaptation. Archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and isotopic evidence reveals shifts in agriculture, animal management, and subsistence strategies, while bioarchaeological studies emphasize the varied and uneven impacts of crisis on human populations.
At the same time, long-term environmental reconstructions and new scientific approaches, including paleoproteomics and epigenetics, demonstrate the growing potential of archaeology to investigate past human–environment interactions in innovative ways.
Overall, the workshop underscores the complexity of environmental crises in the past and highlights the value of archaeology in providing a nuanced, deep-time perspective on current environmental challenges.
Morning Session
09.30-10.00 Opening Speeches
10.00-10.30 Sullivan Heywood (University of Queensland/ANAMED)
Resilience or Collapse? Archaeobotanical Evidence from Kaman-
Kalehöyük during the 4.2 ka Event
10.30-11.00 Ebru Gizem Ayten (Middle East Technical University)
Tracing Environmental Stress through Animal Bones: A
Zooarchaeological Perspective on Past Crises
11.00-11.30 Coffee Break
11.30-12.00 Benjamin Irvine (Bilkent University)
What’s Going on, What’s all This Shouting We’ll Have No Global
Catastrophe Here. This is a Local Crisis, for Local People
12.00-12.30 Esra Ergin Erdoğmuş (İstanbul Technical University)
Vegetation Reconstruction Modelling and Human Environmental Impact
during the Holocene in Southern Turkey
12.30-13.00 Ebrar Sinmez (Middle East Technical University)
Investigating the Impacts of 4.2 ka and 3.2 ka BP Climatic Events on
Wheat and Barley Cultivation in the Bronze Age Kingdom of Mukish:
Evidence from Tell Atchana and Toprakhisar Höyük (Hatay, Türkiye)
13.00-14.30 Lunch Break
Afternoon Session
14.30-14.50 Mervenur Sevil Kandemir (Koç University)
Application of Proteomics Techniques in Environmental Archaeology
14.50-15.10 Volga Zengin (Bilkent University)
Applications of Epigenetics in Methylome Inferred Environmental
Archaeology
15.10-15.40 Coffee Break
15.40-16.00 Busenaz Telci (Ankara University)
Soil Salinization : The Case of Sumer
16.10- Closing