This study investigates long-term impacts of empires on local socio-ecosystems in western Anatolia (modern western Türkiye) over the past four millennia. We focus on Buldan Yayla Lake, located in a small mountain basin north of the Büyük Menderes (Great Meander) River valley. By examining palynological data alongside historical and archaeological records, we show how four major empires—Hittite, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman—shaped land use, vegetation, and resource management practices in a specific locality within a wider regional and transregional economic network. The ebb and flow of empire resulted in cycles of land use intensification and rewilding, resembling broader patterns of regional integration and fragmentation. The different administrative and economic structures of each empire, however, left distinct ecological imprints, with evidence of shifts from extensive pastoralism to specialised crop cultivation, or from olive-focused agriculture to one dominated by mixed agriculture. These shifts underscore both the variation and the adaptability of local socio-ecological systems within broader imperial networks and highlight the interplay of transregional and local factors in landscape transformation.
