Elissa Bullion | Washington University in St. Louis (original) (raw)

Papers by Elissa Bullion

The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Sep 28, 2018

<p>Total seed counts, density, ubiquity, and liters of sediment from two excavation units a... more <p>Total seed counts, density, ubiquity, and liters of sediment from two excavation units at Tashbulak.</p

Antiquity, 2022

Archaeological studies of Early Islamic communities in Central Asia have focused on lowland urban... more Archaeological studies of Early Islamic communities in Central Asia have focused on lowland urban communities. Here, the authors report on recent geophysical survey and excavation of an Early Islamic cemetery at Tashbulak in south-eastern Uzbekistan. AMS dating places the establishment of the cemetery in the mid-eighth century AD, making it one of the earliest Islamic burial grounds documented in Central Asia. Burials at Tashbulak conform to Islamic prescriptions for grave form and body deposition. The consistency in ritual suggests the existence of a funerary community of practice, challenging narratives of Islamic conversion in peripheral areas as a process of slow diffusion and emphasising the importance of archaeological approaches for documenting the diversity of Early Islamic communities.

Archaeological Research in Asia, 2021

Abstract Bronze Age eastern Kazakhstan sat at the intersection of two distinct cultural interacti... more Abstract Bronze Age eastern Kazakhstan sat at the intersection of two distinct cultural interaction spheres: the Eurasian Steppe and the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor. Despite its importance, the region has not been extensively researched by archaeologists. Recent fieldwork in the Kokentau Mountains in eastern Kazakhstan has uncovered a multi-period archaeological sequence, presenting an opportunity to document this crucial area in detail. We present preliminary data obtained from initial settlement and cemetery excavations at the site of Koken that contribute to ongoing research about economy and interaction in the Eurasian Bronze Age. The site's long occupational history, supported by radiocarbon dates, reveals shifting cultural patterns stretching from the Mesolithic to the historical period. Current and future research in the Kokentau Mountains can clarify the timing and local trajectories of Bronze Age economic and cultural transitions through the integration of evidence from ritual, craft production, and habitation contexts at a resolution rare for this region and time period.

The Biological Affinity in Medieval Central Asia dataset includes images and tables of archaeolog... more The Biological Affinity in Medieval Central Asia dataset includes images and tables of archaeological remains. It is the data which accompanies: Kinship and Religious Identities in Medieval Central Asia (8th-13th c. CE): Tracing Communities of Mortuary Practice and Biological Affinity

, you have all been incredible friends and role models and I'm so glad I got to go through this j... more , you have all been incredible friends and role models and I'm so glad I got to go through this journey with all of you. Super special thanks to Ximena Lemoine, Grace Apfeld, Mana Hayashi Tang, Lorraine Hu, and Ann Merkle without whom I would have surely gone insane and who's friendship makes me want to be the best person I can. And thank you to all of the other WashU anthropology grad students who provided advice, friendship, and support, I could not have asked to be a part of a warmer more inspiring community. Thank you BrieAnna Langlie, David Mixter, Steven

Urban Cultures of Central Asia from the Bronze Age to the Karakhanids, 2019

Archaeology from the newly discovered town of Tashbulak illustrates the development of a highland... more Archaeology from the newly discovered town of Tashbulak illustrates the development of a highland urbanism on the part of the Karakhanid (Qarakhanid) Empire, starting in the late 10th century CE. Located roughly 2,100 m asl, the architecture of Tashbulak covers 7 ha and its planning reflects urban principles common to known cities of the medieval period. From the results of our geophysical survey, we mapped major sectors of the town, including the citadel (and possible caserns), a lower town area with metallurgical workshops, and a large necropolis. Conspicuously absent at Tashbulak is a large and dense residential quarter and fortification wall, but at least one defensive tower is likely on the town’s south-eastern corner. While the planning of this highland centre was broadly in line with lowland cities, the Karakhanids adapted their construction at Tashbulak in the highlands to better align with the nomadic political structure, land tenure, economy, craft and industrial development that prevailed across Central Asia’s mountainous regions at the time. We argue that the Karakhanids innovated this unique form of highland “nomadic” urbanism, possibly to increase political integration of nomads across diverse geographic settings and to leverage a wider geographic range of demographic and economic resources fundamental to the growth and control of their empire. While still at an early stage of research at Tashbulak, we offer here a first look at nomadic highland urbanism and its relationship with the diverse institutional domains that defined the Karakhanid state.

International Journal of Paleopathology, 2021

OBJECTIVE This analysis aims to clinically and socially contextualize a set of human remains (TBK... more OBJECTIVE This analysis aims to clinically and socially contextualize a set of human remains (TBK Br8) with severe systemic skeletal dysmorphology from Tashbulak, Uzbekistan (8th-11th c. Common Era [CE]). MATERIALS One well-preserved and nearly-complete human skeleton. METHODS Remains were assessed and documented macroscopically. RESULTS Endochondrally derived skeletal elements in TBK Br8 were observed to be underdeveloped. Extensive proliferation of bone had invaded all but one observable joint, variably occluding most intervertebral foramina, the lumbar vertebral canal, and transverse foramina of the cervical spine. CONCLUSIONS The remains were diagnosed with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia (SED), possibly the subtype progressive pseudorheumatoid dysplasia (spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda with progressive arthropathy. Rendered functionally paraplegic by the time of death, TBK Br8 likely suffered from widespread areas of numbness, tingling, weakness and/or pain in the lower limbs and thorax, and perhaps transient psychological symptoms. SIGNIFICANCE The severity of TBK Br8's disease would have had significant implications to their daily interactions in a society with deep roots in nomadic lifeways, and is a testament to the care required to enable survival. LIMITATIONS Radiology, genetic, and histologic analyses are unavailable. SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Focused genetic testing for mutations previously shown to be associated with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasias.

Globalization refers to a multidimensional set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch... more Globalization refers to a multidimensional set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensify worldwide social interdependencies and exchanges while at the same time fostering in people a growing awareness of deepening connections between the local and the global. Manfred Steger (2003 , 13) Although globalization emerged as a way of describing the conditions and processes shaping the world in the late twentieth century, over the last fi fteen years there has been a marked increase in its application to the study of the premodern world. Though rarely operating at anything like a global scale, the concept of globalization is gaining currency in archaeological contexts, as a framework for exploring large-scale interactive processes attested in the archaeological record and a means of dissolving some of the boundaries between the ancient and modern worlds. Though it has been applied most successfully in the study of classical antiquity, its use has also been extended into earlier periods. However, with more limited material evidence and lower chronological resolution, it is important to consider what we mean by globalization in prehistory and at what stage it ceases to be a useful way to describe the patterns of the past. This chapter examines some of these issues within a general discussion of early ceramic vessel technology in northern Eurasia. It considers how changing

PloS one, 2018

During the first millennium A.D., Central Asia was marked by broad networks of exchange and inter... more During the first millennium A.D., Central Asia was marked by broad networks of exchange and interaction, what many historians collectively refer to as the "Silk Road". Much of this contact relied on high-elevation mountain valleys, often linking towns and caravanserais through alpine territories. This cultural exchange is thought to have reached a peak in the late first millennium A.D., and these exchange networks fostered the spread of domesticated plants and animals across Eurasia. However, few systematic studies have investigated the cultivated plants that spread along the trans-Eurasian exchange during this time. New archaeobotanical data from the archaeological site of Tashbulak (800-1100 A.D.) in the mountains of Uzbekistan is shedding some light on what crops were being grown and consumed in Central Asia during the medieval period. The archaeobotanical assemblage contains grains and legumes, as well as a wide variety of fruits and nuts, which were likely cultivated ...

Scientific reports, Jan 26, 2018

The ancient 'Silk Roads' formed a vast network of trade and exchange that facilitated the... more The ancient 'Silk Roads' formed a vast network of trade and exchange that facilitated the movement of commodities and agricultural products across medieval Central Asia via settled urban communities and mobile pastoralists. Considering food consumption patterns as an expression of socio-economic interaction, we analyse human remains for carbon and nitrogen isotopes in order to establish dietary intake, then model isotopic niches to characterize dietary diversity and infer connectivity among communities of urbanites and nomadic pastoralists. The combination of low isotopic variation visible within urban groups with isotopic distinction between urban communities irrespective of local environmental conditions strongly suggests localized food production systems provided primary subsistence rather than agricultural goods exchanged along trade routes. Nomadic communities, in contrast, experienced higher dietary diversity reflecting engagements with a wide assortment of foodstuffs ...

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2014

Archaeological research in Central Eurasia is exposing unprecedented scales of trans-regional int... more Archaeological research in Central Eurasia is exposing unprecedented scales of trans-regional interaction and technology transfer between East Asia and southwest Asia deep into the prehistoric past. This article presents a new archaeobotanical analysis from pastoralist campsites in the mountain and desert regions of Central Eurasia that documents the oldest known evidence for domesticated grains and farming among seasonally mobile herders. Carbonized grains from the sites of Tasbas and Begash illustrate the first transmission of southwest Asian and East Asian domesticated grains into the mountains of Inner Asia in the early third millennium BC. By the middle second millennium BC, seasonal camps in the mountains and deserts illustrate that Eurasian herders incorporated the cultivation of millet, wheat, barley and legumes into their subsistence strategy. These findings push back the chronology for domesticated plant use among Central Eurasian pastoralists by approximately 2000 years. ...

Schriften zur Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, 2019