Alan Greene | New York University (original) (raw)

Papers by Alan Greene

Antiquity, 2018

The South Caucasus occupies the divide between ancient Mesopotamia and prehistoric Europe, and wa... more The South Caucasus occupies the divide between ancient Mesopotamia and prehistoric Europe, and was thus crucial in the development of Old World societies. Chronologies for the region, however, have lacked the definition achieved in surrounding areas. Concentrating on the Tsaghkahovit Plain of northwestern Armenia, Project ArAGATS's multi-site radiocarbon dataset has now produced Bayesian modelling, which provides tight chronometric support for tracing the transmission of technology, population movement and social developments that shaped the Eurasian Bronze and Iron Ages.

Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2012

ABSTRACT In this case study of territoriality in Armenia's Late Bronze Age Tsaghkahovit P... more ABSTRACT In this case study of territoriality in Armenia's Late Bronze Age Tsaghkahovit Plain we examine land claims and political relations among fortified communities with highly varied subsistence and economic practices, including mobile pastoralism. Integral to political relations between fortress-based institutions and mobile subjects was the need to create highly legible places for political subjection, authorization, and action. However, the same social, political, economic, and religious institutions that help elucidate the spatial dimensions of politics in the LBA— shrines, workshops, storage spaces, cemeteries—also demonstrate that political claims and commitments to land did not likely resemble the neat borders of absolutist cartographies essential to modern nation-states. We detail potential models of territorial organization that incorporate the strategies of rule and socioeconomic dynamics derived from a decade of archaeological survey and excavation on the plain by Project ArAGATS. [mobility, complex polities, land, landscape, political economy] T his chapter explores evidence for the spatial and so-cioeconomic relationships among hilltop fortifications and political subjects in second millennium B.C.E. southern Caucasia. The construction of hilltop stone fortresses across much of southern Caucasia during the Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1500–1150 B.C.E.) indexes a profound transfor-mation in the constitution of political authority and the ways in which social relations were mediated through the built environment (Avetisyan et al. 2000; Badalyan et al. 2003; Badalyan et al. 2008; Smith et al. 2009; Smith et al. 2004). By incorporating fortresses as a novel manifestation of so-ciopolitical authority, residents of the region shifted away from centuries of nomadic pastoralism toward the incorpo-ration of a more residentially stable institutional presence rooted in monumental constructions. While farming and fortresses are defining characteristics of the LBA, however, several lines of evidence suggest that mobile pastoralism continued to play a persistent role in the region's politi-cal economy (Lindsay 2006; Lindsay et al. 2010; Smith et al. 2009). In order to accommodate aspects of both fix-ity in place and residential mobility, we emphasize the in-tegration of absolute and relational analytical perspectives in this chapter to analyze the nature of territorial commit-ments. Relying on archaeological data at these two scales allows us to, first, examine the land claims of a potentially mixed mobile/sedentary LBA polity (or polities) in Arme-nia's Tsaghkahovit Plain. Second, it permits us to evaluate the political organization of the plain's inhabitants and their

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2013

This article draws on archaeological data from Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1550-1150 BC) fortress, ... more This article draws on archaeological data from Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1550-1150 BC) fortress, shrine, cemetery, and residential sites in Armenia to challenge long-held assumptions about the potential for mobile-pastoral groups to develop and sustain complex polities. The past two decades of research by Project ArAGATS (the Armenian-American collaboration for the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies) has demonstrated that LBA sovereignty emerged not through the sociopolitical coalescence of settled farming villages, but through the actions of hierarchically organized, mobile pastoralists. Post-processual archaeology helped focus discussions of ancient political life on the contingent nature of authority and the processes through which competing factions and stakeholders achieve political association. However, centuries of interpretive marginalization of nomadic peoples combined with deterministic notions regarding subsistence and settlement practices of mobile pastoralists have, until recently, hindered a broader anthropological consideration of the potential pathways to sovereignty available to more mobile societies. Drawing on a range of datasets from LBA fortresses, shrines, cemeteries, and ephemeral residential complexes, our study examines the essential factors contributing to the emergence and maintenance of complex polities among mobile pastoralists in the southern Caucasus, societies that were intimately associated-politically, economically, and ritually-with hill-top fortresses. This study of political association in LBA Armenia sheds light on the internal politics of nomadic communities and offers a unique opportunity to bring the South Caucasus into the comparitive study of ancient complex polities.

Antiquity

In response to increased international collaboration in archaeological research of the South Cauc... more In response to increased international collaboration in archaeological research of the South Caucases, a recent workshop has addressed important issues in applying GIS to the study of heavily modified landscapes in the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

American Journal of Archaeology, 2022

During four field seasons spanning 2014 through 2017, Project ArAGATS (Archaeology and Geography ... more During four field seasons spanning 2014 through 2017, Project ArAGATS (Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies) expanded our long-term research on the origins and development of complex political systems in the South Caucasus with a comprehensive study of the upper Kasakh River valley in north-central Armenia. The Kasakh Valley Archaeological Survey employed both systematic transect survey of 43 km 2 and extensive satellite-and drone-based reconnaissance to accommodate the complex topography of the Lesser Caucasus and the impacts of Soviet-era land amelioration. Though our survey was animated by questions related to the chronology and distribution of Bronze and Iron Age fortifications and cemeteries, we also recorded Paleolithic sites stretching back to the earliest human settlement of the Caucasus, Early Bronze Age surface finds, and historic landscape modifications. Concurrent to the survey, members of the ArAGATS team carried out test excavations at select settlement sites and associated burials, and a series of wetland core extractions, with the goals of affirming site occupation sequences and setting them within their environmental context. This report provides an overview of the results of these multidisciplinary activities. 1

Mitglieder des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts und Studenten der Altertumswissenschaften könn... more Mitglieder des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts und Studenten der Altertumswissenschaften können die Archäologischen Mitteilungena us Iran und Turan zum Vorzugspreis von 53,20 a zuzüglich Versandkosten abonnieren. Bestellungen sind an die Schriftleitung zu richten.S tudenten werden um Vorlage einer Studienbescheinigung gebeten. Die Beendigung des Studiumsi st unverzüglich mitzuteilen.

Archaeologists collaborating with material scientists at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) as par... more Archaeologists collaborating with material scientists at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) as part of the Making of Ancient Eurasia (MAE) Project have developed formal methodological standards for the assemblage-based digital radiographic (DR) analysis of archaeological pottery. While analog radiography of pottery (X-radiography, Xeroradiography, etc.) has functioned as a common disciplinary tool for some time, inaccessibility, obsolescence, and significantly enhanced functionality have made DR instrumen-tation increasingly attractive and vital. This article presents the theoretical underpinnings, technique development, and resultant protocols that allow digital radiography to analyze very large assemblages and provide quantitative data sets that act as true counterparts to geochemical and mineralogical ones. As a technique of structural pottery evaluation, DR is particularly suited to the analysis of ceramic paste preparation and vessel formation, providing lines of evidence that can flesh out neglected portions of the chaîne op eratoire, augment existing geochemical or typological classifications, and help more deeply characterize various potting traditions. Such datasets are most useful to scholars interested in harnessing the ability of the pottery " life cycle " to shed light on economic life, learning frameworks, and human social differences and group identities. The technical capacities and analytical potential of DR are demonstrated through several test analyses of ancient Chinese pottery, to be followed by more extensive case studies in draft. Prospects for closely related, three-dimensional X-ray computed tomographic approaches are also discussed.

This article draws on archaeological data from Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1550-1150 fortress, shri... more This article draws on archaeological data from Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1550-1150 fortress, shrine, cemetery, and residential sites in Armenia to challenge long-held assumptions about the potential for mobile-pastoral groups to develop and sustain complex polities. The past two decades of research by Project ArAGATS (the Armenian-American collaboration for the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies) has demonstrated that LBA sovereignty emerged not through the sociopolitical coalescence of settled farming villages, but through the actions of hierarchically organized, mobile pastoralists. Post-processual archaeology helped focus discussions of ancient political life on the contingent nature of authority and the processes through which competing factions and stakeholders achieve political association. However, centuries of interpretive marginalization of nomadic peoples combined with deterministic notions regarding subsistence and settlement practices of mobile pastoralists have, until recently, hindered a broader anthropological consideration of the potential pathways to sovereignty available to more mobile societies. Drawing on a range of datasets from LBA fortresses, shrines, cemeteries, and ephemeral residential complexes, our study examines the essential factors contributing to the emergence and maintenance of complex polities among mobile pastoralists in the southern Caucasus, societies that were intimately associated-politically, economically, and ritually-with hill-top fortresses. This study of political association in LBA Armenia sheds light on the internal politics of nomadic communities and offers a unique opportunity to bring the South Caucasus into the comparitive study of ancient complex polities.

In this case study of territoriality in Armenia's Late Bronze Age Tsaghkahovit Plain we examine l... more In this case study of territoriality in Armenia's Late Bronze Age Tsaghkahovit Plain we examine land claims and political relations among fortified communities with highly varied subsistence and economic practices, including mobile pastoralism. Integral to political relations between fortress-based institutions and mobile subjects was the need to create highly legible places for political subjection, authorization, and action. However, the same social, political, economic, and religious institutions that help elucidate the spatial dimensions of politics in the LBAshrines, workshops, storage spaces, cemeteries-also demonstrate that political claims and commitments to land did not likely resemble the neat borders of absolutist cartographies essential to modern nation-states. We detail potential models of territorial organization that incorporate the strategies of rule and socioeconomic dynamics derived from a decade of archaeological survey and excavation on the plain by Project ArAGATS. [mobility, complex polities, land, landscape, political economy]

What ceramic analysis can and cannot contribute to broader issues in archaeology has been a topic... more What ceramic analysis can and cannot contribute to broader issues in archaeology has been a topic of vigorous debate in the archaeological literature over the last quarter century (Adams

In this paper we present the results of three years of research and experimentation with the digi... more In this paper we present the results of three years of research and experimentation with the digital radiographic analysis of archaeological potsherd assemblages, with particular attention to discerning and distinguishing techniques of vessel formation. In contrast to previous digital radiographic efforts which have primarily been used to evaluate museum objects or archaeological finds of particular heritage import, the authors offer a digital radiographic application for the analysis of large archaeological potsherd datasets (n > 500), the basic fragmentary data of traditional archaeology. We describe the significant improvements over older analog techniques, the types of formation mechanics discernable through radiography, and demonstrate the way digital image manipulation can identify and discriminate between different formation strategies. The particular imaging protocols for producing image sets of maximum quality are delineated and the authors outline the post-processing tools that take advantage of the metricmatrix qualities of digital imagery.

Antiquity, 2018

The South Caucasus occupies the divide between ancient Mesopotamia and prehistoric Europe, and wa... more The South Caucasus occupies the divide between ancient Mesopotamia and prehistoric Europe, and was thus crucial in the development of Old World societies. Chronologies for the region, however, have lacked the definition achieved in surrounding areas. Concentrating on the Tsaghkahovit Plain of northwestern Armenia, Project ArAGATS's multi-site radiocarbon dataset has now produced Bayesian modelling, which provides tight chronometric support for tracing the transmission of technology, population movement and social developments that shaped the Eurasian Bronze and Iron Ages.

Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2012

ABSTRACT In this case study of territoriality in Armenia's Late Bronze Age Tsaghkahovit P... more ABSTRACT In this case study of territoriality in Armenia's Late Bronze Age Tsaghkahovit Plain we examine land claims and political relations among fortified communities with highly varied subsistence and economic practices, including mobile pastoralism. Integral to political relations between fortress-based institutions and mobile subjects was the need to create highly legible places for political subjection, authorization, and action. However, the same social, political, economic, and religious institutions that help elucidate the spatial dimensions of politics in the LBA— shrines, workshops, storage spaces, cemeteries—also demonstrate that political claims and commitments to land did not likely resemble the neat borders of absolutist cartographies essential to modern nation-states. We detail potential models of territorial organization that incorporate the strategies of rule and socioeconomic dynamics derived from a decade of archaeological survey and excavation on the plain by Project ArAGATS. [mobility, complex polities, land, landscape, political economy] T his chapter explores evidence for the spatial and so-cioeconomic relationships among hilltop fortifications and political subjects in second millennium B.C.E. southern Caucasia. The construction of hilltop stone fortresses across much of southern Caucasia during the Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1500–1150 B.C.E.) indexes a profound transfor-mation in the constitution of political authority and the ways in which social relations were mediated through the built environment (Avetisyan et al. 2000; Badalyan et al. 2003; Badalyan et al. 2008; Smith et al. 2009; Smith et al. 2004). By incorporating fortresses as a novel manifestation of so-ciopolitical authority, residents of the region shifted away from centuries of nomadic pastoralism toward the incorpo-ration of a more residentially stable institutional presence rooted in monumental constructions. While farming and fortresses are defining characteristics of the LBA, however, several lines of evidence suggest that mobile pastoralism continued to play a persistent role in the region's politi-cal economy (Lindsay 2006; Lindsay et al. 2010; Smith et al. 2009). In order to accommodate aspects of both fix-ity in place and residential mobility, we emphasize the in-tegration of absolute and relational analytical perspectives in this chapter to analyze the nature of territorial commit-ments. Relying on archaeological data at these two scales allows us to, first, examine the land claims of a potentially mixed mobile/sedentary LBA polity (or polities) in Arme-nia's Tsaghkahovit Plain. Second, it permits us to evaluate the political organization of the plain's inhabitants and their

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2013

This article draws on archaeological data from Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1550-1150 BC) fortress, ... more This article draws on archaeological data from Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1550-1150 BC) fortress, shrine, cemetery, and residential sites in Armenia to challenge long-held assumptions about the potential for mobile-pastoral groups to develop and sustain complex polities. The past two decades of research by Project ArAGATS (the Armenian-American collaboration for the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies) has demonstrated that LBA sovereignty emerged not through the sociopolitical coalescence of settled farming villages, but through the actions of hierarchically organized, mobile pastoralists. Post-processual archaeology helped focus discussions of ancient political life on the contingent nature of authority and the processes through which competing factions and stakeholders achieve political association. However, centuries of interpretive marginalization of nomadic peoples combined with deterministic notions regarding subsistence and settlement practices of mobile pastoralists have, until recently, hindered a broader anthropological consideration of the potential pathways to sovereignty available to more mobile societies. Drawing on a range of datasets from LBA fortresses, shrines, cemeteries, and ephemeral residential complexes, our study examines the essential factors contributing to the emergence and maintenance of complex polities among mobile pastoralists in the southern Caucasus, societies that were intimately associated-politically, economically, and ritually-with hill-top fortresses. This study of political association in LBA Armenia sheds light on the internal politics of nomadic communities and offers a unique opportunity to bring the South Caucasus into the comparitive study of ancient complex polities.

Antiquity

In response to increased international collaboration in archaeological research of the South Cauc... more In response to increased international collaboration in archaeological research of the South Caucases, a recent workshop has addressed important issues in applying GIS to the study of heavily modified landscapes in the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

American Journal of Archaeology, 2022

During four field seasons spanning 2014 through 2017, Project ArAGATS (Archaeology and Geography ... more During four field seasons spanning 2014 through 2017, Project ArAGATS (Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies) expanded our long-term research on the origins and development of complex political systems in the South Caucasus with a comprehensive study of the upper Kasakh River valley in north-central Armenia. The Kasakh Valley Archaeological Survey employed both systematic transect survey of 43 km 2 and extensive satellite-and drone-based reconnaissance to accommodate the complex topography of the Lesser Caucasus and the impacts of Soviet-era land amelioration. Though our survey was animated by questions related to the chronology and distribution of Bronze and Iron Age fortifications and cemeteries, we also recorded Paleolithic sites stretching back to the earliest human settlement of the Caucasus, Early Bronze Age surface finds, and historic landscape modifications. Concurrent to the survey, members of the ArAGATS team carried out test excavations at select settlement sites and associated burials, and a series of wetland core extractions, with the goals of affirming site occupation sequences and setting them within their environmental context. This report provides an overview of the results of these multidisciplinary activities. 1

Mitglieder des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts und Studenten der Altertumswissenschaften könn... more Mitglieder des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts und Studenten der Altertumswissenschaften können die Archäologischen Mitteilungena us Iran und Turan zum Vorzugspreis von 53,20 a zuzüglich Versandkosten abonnieren. Bestellungen sind an die Schriftleitung zu richten.S tudenten werden um Vorlage einer Studienbescheinigung gebeten. Die Beendigung des Studiumsi st unverzüglich mitzuteilen.

Archaeologists collaborating with material scientists at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) as par... more Archaeologists collaborating with material scientists at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) as part of the Making of Ancient Eurasia (MAE) Project have developed formal methodological standards for the assemblage-based digital radiographic (DR) analysis of archaeological pottery. While analog radiography of pottery (X-radiography, Xeroradiography, etc.) has functioned as a common disciplinary tool for some time, inaccessibility, obsolescence, and significantly enhanced functionality have made DR instrumen-tation increasingly attractive and vital. This article presents the theoretical underpinnings, technique development, and resultant protocols that allow digital radiography to analyze very large assemblages and provide quantitative data sets that act as true counterparts to geochemical and mineralogical ones. As a technique of structural pottery evaluation, DR is particularly suited to the analysis of ceramic paste preparation and vessel formation, providing lines of evidence that can flesh out neglected portions of the chaîne op eratoire, augment existing geochemical or typological classifications, and help more deeply characterize various potting traditions. Such datasets are most useful to scholars interested in harnessing the ability of the pottery " life cycle " to shed light on economic life, learning frameworks, and human social differences and group identities. The technical capacities and analytical potential of DR are demonstrated through several test analyses of ancient Chinese pottery, to be followed by more extensive case studies in draft. Prospects for closely related, three-dimensional X-ray computed tomographic approaches are also discussed.

This article draws on archaeological data from Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1550-1150 fortress, shri... more This article draws on archaeological data from Late Bronze Age (LBA, ca. 1550-1150 fortress, shrine, cemetery, and residential sites in Armenia to challenge long-held assumptions about the potential for mobile-pastoral groups to develop and sustain complex polities. The past two decades of research by Project ArAGATS (the Armenian-American collaboration for the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies) has demonstrated that LBA sovereignty emerged not through the sociopolitical coalescence of settled farming villages, but through the actions of hierarchically organized, mobile pastoralists. Post-processual archaeology helped focus discussions of ancient political life on the contingent nature of authority and the processes through which competing factions and stakeholders achieve political association. However, centuries of interpretive marginalization of nomadic peoples combined with deterministic notions regarding subsistence and settlement practices of mobile pastoralists have, until recently, hindered a broader anthropological consideration of the potential pathways to sovereignty available to more mobile societies. Drawing on a range of datasets from LBA fortresses, shrines, cemeteries, and ephemeral residential complexes, our study examines the essential factors contributing to the emergence and maintenance of complex polities among mobile pastoralists in the southern Caucasus, societies that were intimately associated-politically, economically, and ritually-with hill-top fortresses. This study of political association in LBA Armenia sheds light on the internal politics of nomadic communities and offers a unique opportunity to bring the South Caucasus into the comparitive study of ancient complex polities.

In this case study of territoriality in Armenia's Late Bronze Age Tsaghkahovit Plain we examine l... more In this case study of territoriality in Armenia's Late Bronze Age Tsaghkahovit Plain we examine land claims and political relations among fortified communities with highly varied subsistence and economic practices, including mobile pastoralism. Integral to political relations between fortress-based institutions and mobile subjects was the need to create highly legible places for political subjection, authorization, and action. However, the same social, political, economic, and religious institutions that help elucidate the spatial dimensions of politics in the LBAshrines, workshops, storage spaces, cemeteries-also demonstrate that political claims and commitments to land did not likely resemble the neat borders of absolutist cartographies essential to modern nation-states. We detail potential models of territorial organization that incorporate the strategies of rule and socioeconomic dynamics derived from a decade of archaeological survey and excavation on the plain by Project ArAGATS. [mobility, complex polities, land, landscape, political economy]

What ceramic analysis can and cannot contribute to broader issues in archaeology has been a topic... more What ceramic analysis can and cannot contribute to broader issues in archaeology has been a topic of vigorous debate in the archaeological literature over the last quarter century (Adams

In this paper we present the results of three years of research and experimentation with the digi... more In this paper we present the results of three years of research and experimentation with the digital radiographic analysis of archaeological potsherd assemblages, with particular attention to discerning and distinguishing techniques of vessel formation. In contrast to previous digital radiographic efforts which have primarily been used to evaluate museum objects or archaeological finds of particular heritage import, the authors offer a digital radiographic application for the analysis of large archaeological potsherd datasets (n > 500), the basic fragmentary data of traditional archaeology. We describe the significant improvements over older analog techniques, the types of formation mechanics discernable through radiography, and demonstrate the way digital image manipulation can identify and discriminate between different formation strategies. The particular imaging protocols for producing image sets of maximum quality are delineated and the authors outline the post-processing tools that take advantage of the metricmatrix qualities of digital imagery.