This volume contains the final publication of the archaeobotanical
remains recovered from four sites at the village of Aşvan in eastern
Turkey, which were excavated between 1968 and 1973 as part of the
archaeological rescue project in the Keban Dam region. An extensive
program of archaeobotanical research involved detailed study of the
modern flora, the observation and recording of pre-mechanized
agricultural practices and large-scale recovery of ancient botanical
samples by water sieving. The report traces the evolution of cultivation
in the region from the Chalcolithic to the Medieval period, charting the
dominance of emmer and hulled barley in the Chalcolithic period, the
emergence of free-threshing wheats in the Early Bronze Age and the
introduction of irrigated summer crops, especially millet, by the
Hellenistic period. Detailed attention is also given to the assemblage
of weed seeds as proxy evidence for environmental conditions and climate
change from around 4000 BC to the present day.