Abstrakt
The proposed study will focus on human-environment interactions in the region of ancient Thrace during the first millennium B.C., from the Early Iron Age to the Hellenistic epoch. The more significant impact of increasing human activities on the environment, namely cultivation of plants and pastoralism, both connected with extensive deforestation, associated with the higher social and economic pressure can be detected since the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.
In the following phase of agriculture development, since the seventh century BC when the first Greek colonies were founded in the Northern Aegean, Thrace became an important part of the Eastern Mediterranean macro-region. Archaeological evidences of ancient agriculture, primarily based on archaeobotanical and archaeozoological analyses, suggest that human activity dramatically increased at the beginning of the fifth century BC.
Noticeable changes in land-use, clearly related to the Greek influence on the Thracian economic growth, are well-documented in various archaeological records. Furthermore, ongoing interdisciplinary research at the site of the ancient Greek inland emporium Pistiros (Adjiyska Vodenitsa, Bulgaria) brings a rich source of information about predominant crop production and commonly used plants throughout the whole area.
Pistiros played a significant role in the North Aegean trade network, not only as a commercial crossroad but also as the key point of contacts between the Thracian and the Greek world.