Bryan Hanks | University of Pittsburgh (original) (raw)
Research Interests:
I am an archaeologist specializing in the study of Eurasian prehistory and have been conducting research in the Russian Federation since 1998. My interests focus on the late prehistoric period (Bronze and Iron Ages) and my fieldwork projects have examined questions relating to mobile pastoralist economies, mortuary ritual and bio archaeology, gender and social identity, and mining and metallurgy.
Doctoral Research (1999-2003):
My dissertation fieldwork, which focused on a zooarchaeological study of Iron Age social, economic, and ideological change in western Siberia, was completed in collaboration with Ludmila Koryakova at the Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Undertaking a reassessment of this data is very much a concern of mine for the near future. The dataset produced from my dissertation fieldwork at the Iron Age settlement of Pavlinovo is available on the Center for Comparative Archaeology website at the Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh (http://www.cadb.pitt.edu/)
Bioarchaeology research (2007-2012):
I received funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation in 2007 for the study of human remains previously excavated from the Kamennyi-Ambar 5 cemetery by Andrei Epimakhov (Southern Ural State University). Collaborative work with Margaret Judd and Alicia Ventresca (University of Pittsburgh) focused on both a physical and chemical analysis of the human remains. Recent excavations at the associated Kamennyi-Ambar settlement has produced important faunal and botanical data as well. We are currently working on publication of our work with Andrei Epimakhov and our data provides important new information on diet, economy and social organization for these Bronze Age communities (2100-1700 BC).
Current Research:
I am the co-PI (with Roger Doonan, University of Sheffield) of an NSF-AHRC grant examining early social organization and metal production in the southern Ural Mountains of Russia. Our collaborative project, which has included scholars from the U.S., U..K., Russia, China, Slovenia, and Serbia, is set to be completed in August 2013. Our work has focused on three Sintashta culture settlements and accompanying cemeteries and included detailed survey, geophysics, geochemistry and excavation to examine shifts in settlement patterning, subsistence strategies, and local scale mining and copper metal production. We are working now on two monographs that will detail our research efforts in this region since 2007. Several journal articles are already in preparation as well and I look forward to posting these as they become available.
Future Research:
My colleagues and I have been very active in field research in the southern Urals since 2005. Much of my efforts over the next three years will be on the analysis, synthesis and publication of our field data. There are a couple of lines of smaller scale research that I would like to pursue and this is related to some of the results we have achieved with our larger projects. This work will include additional analyses of both human and animal bone for stable isotopes in order to examine dietary variation and possible environmental factors influencing prehistoric economic strategies. We are also conducting large scale geophysical surveys of cemeteries and Late Bronze Age settlements to complement our regional pedestrian surveys. These results will offer a better understanding of changing uses of landscape and the significance of social ritual and memory in structuring social practices during the late prehistoric period.
Phone: 412-648-7524
Address: University of Pittsburgh
Department of Anthropology
#3132 WWPH
230 S. Bouquet St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
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Books by Bryan Hanks
Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia challenges current interpretations of the emergence, dev... more Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia challenges current interpretations of the emergence, development, and decline of social complexity in the steppe region of China and the former Soviet Union. Through a thematic investigation of archaeological patterns ranging from monument construction and use and production and consumption of metals to the nature of mobility among societies, the essays in this volume provide the most up-to-date thinking on social and cultural change in prehistoric Eurasia. Collectively, they challenge broader theoretical trends in Anglo-American archaeology, which have traditionally favored comparative studies of sedentary agricultural societies over mobile pastoralist or agro-pastoralist communities. By highlighting the potential and limitations of comparative studies of social complexity, this volume sets the agenda for future studies of this region of the world. It emphasizes how the unique nature of early steppe societies can contribute to more comprehensive interpretations of social trajectories in world prehistory.
Papers by Bryan Hanks
Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica, Natural Sciences in Archaeology, 2020
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY , 2020
The development of Neolithic lifeways represented fundamental shifts in social organization and h... more The development of Neolithic lifeways represented fundamental shifts in social organization and human-environment relationships within local ecological settings. An understanding of this process in the Balkans peninsula has remained intriguing and challenging in the broader context of European prehistory. Evidence for Neolithization processes in the Balkans begins around the seventh millennium BC in the south-east at important tell sites such as Nea Nikomedia and Sesklo where rectangular house structures and other elements of the “Neolithic package” strongly resemble those of the Levant. The northern zone of the Balkans peninsula, however, presents a different situation, with small flat sites with intrusive later occupation making patterns of early Neolithization difficult to discern. This paper reports recent field research in Central Serbia (Šumadija region, Gruža River valley) where Early Neolithic occupation related to the Starčevo culture has been found at the newly identified site of Kneževac through systematic pedestrian survey, artifact spatial analysis, and near surface archaeological geophysics. The results of this research are discussed in the context of other Early Neolithic settlement evidence in the region, along with their implications for understanding early agricultural populations in Central Serbia.
Science, 2019
By sequencing 523 ancient humans, we show that the primary source of ancestry in modern South Asi... more By sequencing 523 ancient humans, we show that the primary source of ancestry in modern South Asians is a prehistoric genetic gradient between people related to early hunter-gatherers of Iran and Southeast Asia. After the Indus Valley Civilization’s decline, its people mixed with individuals in the southeast to form one of the two main ancestral populations of South Asia, whose direct descendants live in southern India. Simultaneously, they mixed with descendants of Steppe pastoralists who, starting around 4000 years ago, spread via Central Asia to form the other main ancestral population.
The Steppe ancestry in South Asia has the same profile as that in Bronze Age Eastern Europe, tracking a movement of people that affected both regions and that likely spread the distinctive features shared between Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages.
American Journal of Human Biology, 2018
Objectives We tested the hypothesis that the purported unstable climate in the South Urals regi... more Objectives
We tested the hypothesis that the purported unstable climate in the South Urals region during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) resulted in health instability and social stress as evidenced by skeletal response.
Methods
The skeletal sample (n = 99) derived from Kamennyi Ambar 5 (KA‐5), a MBA kurgan cemetery (2040‐1730 cal. BCE, 2 sigma) associated with the Sintashta culture. Skeletal stress indicators assessed included cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, dental enamel hypoplasia, and tibia periosteal new bone growth. Dental disease (caries, abscess, calculus, and periodontitis) and trauma were scored. Results were compared to regional data from the nearby Samara Valley, spanning the Early to Late Bronze Age (EBA, LBA).
Results
Lesions were minimal for the KA‐5 and MBA‐LBA groups except for periodontitis and dental calculus. No unambiguous weapon injuries or injuries associated with violence were observed for the KA‐5 group; few injuries occurred at other sites. Subadults (<18 years) formed the majority of each sample. At KA‐5, subadults accounted for 75% of the sample with 10% (n = 10) estimated to be 14‐18 years of age.
Conclusions
Skeletal stress markers and injuries were uncommon among the KA‐5 and regional groups, but a MBA‐LBA high subadult mortality indicates elevated frailty levels and inability to survive acute illnesses. Following an optimal weaning program, subadults were at risk for physiological insult and many succumbed. Only a small number of individuals attained biological maturity during the MBA, suggesting that a fast life history was an adaptive regional response to a less hospitable and perhaps unstable environment.
![Research paper thumbnail of Enclosing the Neolithic World: A Vinča Culture Enclosed and Fortified Settlement in the Balkans [2018] https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/697534](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/57297464/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Current Anthropology 59(3) (June), 2018
Interpretations of prehistoric enclosures worldwide have varied from those that see the primary r... more Interpretations of prehistoric enclosures worldwide have varied from those that see the primary role of enclosures as defensive features to others that explore the symbolic, ritual, social, and ideological dimensions of separating space into an inside, an outside, and an in-between. Such evidence and interpretative accounts are inevitably linked to wider anthropological discussions on modes of social interaction and reproduction in the past, whether altruistic or predatory, and evolutionary narratives regarding changes in the level of intergroup violence over the course of human history. Growing evidence indicates that many Neolithic settlements in Europe were enclosed by a complex system of ditches, ramparts, and palisades. We present a case study from the central Balkans at the Neolithic Vinča culture site of Oreškovica-Selište in Serbia, dated to the last centuries of the sixth millennium BC, where recent geophysical surveys, stratigraphic excavation, and accelerator mass spectrometry dating document the existence of an early enclosed settlement with multiple enclosure features. We interpret these features as defensive and discuss the social dynamics that led to the founding and abandonment of this short-lived occupation in the context of other contemporaneous settlements in the Balkans.
Objectives This paper investigates infant feeding practices through stable carbon (δ13C) and nitr... more Objectives
This paper investigates infant feeding practices through stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic analyses of human bone collagen from Kamennyi Ambar 5, a Middle Bronze Age cemetery located in central Eurasia. The results presented are unique for the time period and region, as few cemeteries have been excavated to reveal a demographic cross-section of the population. Studies of weaning among pastoral societies are infrequent and this research adds to our knowledge of the timing, potential supplementary foods, and cessation of breastfeeding practices.
Materials and Methods
Samples were collected from 41 subadults (<15 yrs.) and 27 adults (15+ yrs.). Isotopic reference sets from adult humans as well as faunal remains were utilized, as these form the primary and complementary foods fed to infants.
Results
Slight shifts in δ13C and δ15N values revealed that weaning was a multi-stage process (breastfeeding, weaning, and complete cessation of nursing) that began at six months of age, occurred over several years of early childhood, and was completed by four years of age.
Discussion
Our results indicate that weaning was a multi-stage process that was unique among late prehistoric pastoralist groups in Eurasia that were dependent on milk products as a supplementary food. Our discussion centers on supporting this hypothesis with modern information on central and east Eurasian herding societies including the age at which complementary foods are introduced, the types of complementary foods, and the timing of the cessation of breastfeeding. Integral to this work is the nature of pastoral economies and their dependence on animal products, the impact of complementary foods on nutrition and health, and how milk processing may have affected nutrition content and digestibility of foods. This research on Eurasian pastoralists provides insights into the complexities of weaning among prehistoric pastoral societies as well as the potential for different complementary foods to be incorporated into infant diets in the past.
Studies of Bronze Age mortuary evidence in the steppes of Central Russia have highlighted an appa... more Studies of Bronze Age mortuary evidence in the steppes of Central Russia have highlighted an apparent similarity with religious rites described in the Rig Veda. Although these texts are clearly important to wider scholarship, we argue that there is significant scope in the archaeological evidence to develop more nuanced understandings of how elements of material culture were valued in life and incorporated in death. It is apparent that the selection, placement and value of specific objects changed through time in the context of life, death and the burial event. This paper examines practices connected with the use and deposit of metal objects over a 1,500 year period in the Southern Urals of Russia. Our discussion of Bronze Age burial evidence from this region focuses on two key areas of research; the detailed analysis of metal objects, and key shifts in the nature of metal deposits in burials. Mortuary patterns indicate substantial change in burial treatment by approximately 1,700 BC. The inclusion of copper alloy objects in the form of weaponry (battle-axes and spear heads) and personal adornment provide a unique view of the contrasting values that surround specific object types, material, and identity through life and into death. A preliminary study of these objects by the authors has identified new forms of alloy procurement and selection and a greater sophistication connected with the color and acoustic characteristics of ornamental objects. Concurrently, the composition of metal weapons shows less enhancement and development. Such patterning indicates specific choices by these early communities in the procurement of non-local metals, new forms of alloying and metal fabrication, and how metals were employed in new fields of social discourse. Such patterning and associated value reflect importantly on our perceptions of death and the afterlife as they were possibly understood by these late prehistoric communities in the Eurasian steppes.
Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, Metals, and Mobility, 2009
Published in the edited volume (D. Dungworth & R. C.P. Doonan, eds.), "Accidental and Experimental Archaeometallurgy", pp. 153-160.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliograf... more Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar.
This chapter examines the use of air photography during the Soviet Period and the utilisation of ... more This chapter examines the use of air photography during the Soviet Period and the utilisation of this imagery for archaeological research. A detailed case study is provided on the Southern Ural Mountains region of Russia where archaeologists focusing on the Middle to Late Bronze Age (2100-1500 BC) have utilised black-and-white air photography to identify numerous archaeological sites ranging from the Bronze Age to the medieval period. In recent years, the integration of air photography, geophysical prospection and stratigraphic excavation has produced important insights into the spatial characteristics and diachronic phasing of prehistoric settlement and cemetery patterning. These successful research programmes provide a valuable model for similar fi eld programmes being conducted throughout the territories of the Russian Federation and other regions of the world.
Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia challenges current interpretations of the emergence, dev... more Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia challenges current interpretations of the emergence, development, and decline of social complexity in the steppe region of China and the former Soviet Union. Through a thematic investigation of archaeological patterns ranging from monument construction and use and production and consumption of metals to the nature of mobility among societies, the essays in this volume provide the most up-to-date thinking on social and cultural change in prehistoric Eurasia. Collectively, they challenge broader theoretical trends in Anglo-American archaeology, which have traditionally favored comparative studies of sedentary agricultural societies over mobile pastoralist or agro-pastoralist communities. By highlighting the potential and limitations of comparative studies of social complexity, this volume sets the agenda for future studies of this region of the world. It emphasizes how the unique nature of early steppe societies can contribute to more comprehensive interpretations of social trajectories in world prehistory.
Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica, Natural Sciences in Archaeology, 2020
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY , 2020
The development of Neolithic lifeways represented fundamental shifts in social organization and h... more The development of Neolithic lifeways represented fundamental shifts in social organization and human-environment relationships within local ecological settings. An understanding of this process in the Balkans peninsula has remained intriguing and challenging in the broader context of European prehistory. Evidence for Neolithization processes in the Balkans begins around the seventh millennium BC in the south-east at important tell sites such as Nea Nikomedia and Sesklo where rectangular house structures and other elements of the “Neolithic package” strongly resemble those of the Levant. The northern zone of the Balkans peninsula, however, presents a different situation, with small flat sites with intrusive later occupation making patterns of early Neolithization difficult to discern. This paper reports recent field research in Central Serbia (Šumadija region, Gruža River valley) where Early Neolithic occupation related to the Starčevo culture has been found at the newly identified site of Kneževac through systematic pedestrian survey, artifact spatial analysis, and near surface archaeological geophysics. The results of this research are discussed in the context of other Early Neolithic settlement evidence in the region, along with their implications for understanding early agricultural populations in Central Serbia.
Science, 2019
By sequencing 523 ancient humans, we show that the primary source of ancestry in modern South Asi... more By sequencing 523 ancient humans, we show that the primary source of ancestry in modern South Asians is a prehistoric genetic gradient between people related to early hunter-gatherers of Iran and Southeast Asia. After the Indus Valley Civilization’s decline, its people mixed with individuals in the southeast to form one of the two main ancestral populations of South Asia, whose direct descendants live in southern India. Simultaneously, they mixed with descendants of Steppe pastoralists who, starting around 4000 years ago, spread via Central Asia to form the other main ancestral population.
The Steppe ancestry in South Asia has the same profile as that in Bronze Age Eastern Europe, tracking a movement of people that affected both regions and that likely spread the distinctive features shared between Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages.
American Journal of Human Biology, 2018
Objectives We tested the hypothesis that the purported unstable climate in the South Urals regi... more Objectives
We tested the hypothesis that the purported unstable climate in the South Urals region during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) resulted in health instability and social stress as evidenced by skeletal response.
Methods
The skeletal sample (n = 99) derived from Kamennyi Ambar 5 (KA‐5), a MBA kurgan cemetery (2040‐1730 cal. BCE, 2 sigma) associated with the Sintashta culture. Skeletal stress indicators assessed included cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, dental enamel hypoplasia, and tibia periosteal new bone growth. Dental disease (caries, abscess, calculus, and periodontitis) and trauma were scored. Results were compared to regional data from the nearby Samara Valley, spanning the Early to Late Bronze Age (EBA, LBA).
Results
Lesions were minimal for the KA‐5 and MBA‐LBA groups except for periodontitis and dental calculus. No unambiguous weapon injuries or injuries associated with violence were observed for the KA‐5 group; few injuries occurred at other sites. Subadults (<18 years) formed the majority of each sample. At KA‐5, subadults accounted for 75% of the sample with 10% (n = 10) estimated to be 14‐18 years of age.
Conclusions
Skeletal stress markers and injuries were uncommon among the KA‐5 and regional groups, but a MBA‐LBA high subadult mortality indicates elevated frailty levels and inability to survive acute illnesses. Following an optimal weaning program, subadults were at risk for physiological insult and many succumbed. Only a small number of individuals attained biological maturity during the MBA, suggesting that a fast life history was an adaptive regional response to a less hospitable and perhaps unstable environment.
Current Anthropology 59(3) (June), 2018
Interpretations of prehistoric enclosures worldwide have varied from those that see the primary r... more Interpretations of prehistoric enclosures worldwide have varied from those that see the primary role of enclosures as defensive features to others that explore the symbolic, ritual, social, and ideological dimensions of separating space into an inside, an outside, and an in-between. Such evidence and interpretative accounts are inevitably linked to wider anthropological discussions on modes of social interaction and reproduction in the past, whether altruistic or predatory, and evolutionary narratives regarding changes in the level of intergroup violence over the course of human history. Growing evidence indicates that many Neolithic settlements in Europe were enclosed by a complex system of ditches, ramparts, and palisades. We present a case study from the central Balkans at the Neolithic Vinča culture site of Oreškovica-Selište in Serbia, dated to the last centuries of the sixth millennium BC, where recent geophysical surveys, stratigraphic excavation, and accelerator mass spectrometry dating document the existence of an early enclosed settlement with multiple enclosure features. We interpret these features as defensive and discuss the social dynamics that led to the founding and abandonment of this short-lived occupation in the context of other contemporaneous settlements in the Balkans.
Objectives This paper investigates infant feeding practices through stable carbon (δ13C) and nitr... more Objectives
This paper investigates infant feeding practices through stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic analyses of human bone collagen from Kamennyi Ambar 5, a Middle Bronze Age cemetery located in central Eurasia. The results presented are unique for the time period and region, as few cemeteries have been excavated to reveal a demographic cross-section of the population. Studies of weaning among pastoral societies are infrequent and this research adds to our knowledge of the timing, potential supplementary foods, and cessation of breastfeeding practices.
Materials and Methods
Samples were collected from 41 subadults (<15 yrs.) and 27 adults (15+ yrs.). Isotopic reference sets from adult humans as well as faunal remains were utilized, as these form the primary and complementary foods fed to infants.
Results
Slight shifts in δ13C and δ15N values revealed that weaning was a multi-stage process (breastfeeding, weaning, and complete cessation of nursing) that began at six months of age, occurred over several years of early childhood, and was completed by four years of age.
Discussion
Our results indicate that weaning was a multi-stage process that was unique among late prehistoric pastoralist groups in Eurasia that were dependent on milk products as a supplementary food. Our discussion centers on supporting this hypothesis with modern information on central and east Eurasian herding societies including the age at which complementary foods are introduced, the types of complementary foods, and the timing of the cessation of breastfeeding. Integral to this work is the nature of pastoral economies and their dependence on animal products, the impact of complementary foods on nutrition and health, and how milk processing may have affected nutrition content and digestibility of foods. This research on Eurasian pastoralists provides insights into the complexities of weaning among prehistoric pastoral societies as well as the potential for different complementary foods to be incorporated into infant diets in the past.
Studies of Bronze Age mortuary evidence in the steppes of Central Russia have highlighted an appa... more Studies of Bronze Age mortuary evidence in the steppes of Central Russia have highlighted an apparent similarity with religious rites described in the Rig Veda. Although these texts are clearly important to wider scholarship, we argue that there is significant scope in the archaeological evidence to develop more nuanced understandings of how elements of material culture were valued in life and incorporated in death. It is apparent that the selection, placement and value of specific objects changed through time in the context of life, death and the burial event. This paper examines practices connected with the use and deposit of metal objects over a 1,500 year period in the Southern Urals of Russia. Our discussion of Bronze Age burial evidence from this region focuses on two key areas of research; the detailed analysis of metal objects, and key shifts in the nature of metal deposits in burials. Mortuary patterns indicate substantial change in burial treatment by approximately 1,700 BC. The inclusion of copper alloy objects in the form of weaponry (battle-axes and spear heads) and personal adornment provide a unique view of the contrasting values that surround specific object types, material, and identity through life and into death. A preliminary study of these objects by the authors has identified new forms of alloy procurement and selection and a greater sophistication connected with the color and acoustic characteristics of ornamental objects. Concurrently, the composition of metal weapons shows less enhancement and development. Such patterning indicates specific choices by these early communities in the procurement of non-local metals, new forms of alloying and metal fabrication, and how metals were employed in new fields of social discourse. Such patterning and associated value reflect importantly on our perceptions of death and the afterlife as they were possibly understood by these late prehistoric communities in the Eurasian steppes.
Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, Metals, and Mobility, 2009
Published in the edited volume (D. Dungworth & R. C.P. Doonan, eds.), "Accidental and Experimental Archaeometallurgy", pp. 153-160.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliograf... more Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar.
This chapter examines the use of air photography during the Soviet Period and the utilisation of ... more This chapter examines the use of air photography during the Soviet Period and the utilisation of this imagery for archaeological research. A detailed case study is provided on the Southern Ural Mountains region of Russia where archaeologists focusing on the Middle to Late Bronze Age (2100-1500 BC) have utilised black-and-white air photography to identify numerous archaeological sites ranging from the Bronze Age to the medieval period. In recent years, the integration of air photography, geophysical prospection and stratigraphic excavation has produced important insights into the spatial characteristics and diachronic phasing of prehistoric settlement and cemetery patterning. These successful research programmes provide a valuable model for similar fi eld programmes being conducted throughout the territories of the Russian Federation and other regions of the world.
anthropology.isu.edu
In order to generate some baseline data for water soluble trace metal element uptake in mineraliz... more In order to generate some baseline data for water soluble trace metal element uptake in mineralized tissues, we introduced modern human and non-human bone and tooth samples ( ) into a high concentration (> 5,000 ppm) multi-element solution for up to 105 days. These were subsequently compared with our archaeological materials from KA-5 ( ). Modern samples of feline, canine and human teeth were included in each time-series for comparative sampling. Samples of weathered deer (cervid) bone were included to test for the effects of loss of periosteum and advanced exposure bleaching on cortical surfaces. For elemental analysis, whole tooth and bone samples were cut in order to expose the entire crown bisecting the roots, or axially across the cortical bone from periostial surface to inner trabeculae. Each sample was then embedded in epoxy discs for LA-ICP-MS and SEM-EDS imaging and analysis.
