A glance at the Early Trans-Caucasian culture through its pastoral-nomadic component: A case study from eastern Anatolia. (original) (raw)
Nomadic Peoples, 2017
Archaeological and historical data show that pastoral systems in Anatolia over the last ten thousand years were characterised by a high degree of variability in degree of mobility, land-use and animal preferences, target products and herd management strategies, and political organisation. Long-distance pastoral nomadism was a historically late development in the region, occurring over the last 1,500 to 1,000 years. Ethnographic analogy currently structures the majority of archaeological conclusions concerning pre-modern pastoralism, but obscures the variability that recent archaeological work brings to light. Multidisciplinary studies seeking empirical data on ancient pastoralism and mobility are critical for developing a more subtle and accurate picture.
Archaeological Explorations of Bronze Age Pastoral Societies in the Mountains of Eastern Eurasia
2017
Throughout history, nomadic societies of the Eurasian steppes are known to have played a major role in the transfer of technology, commodities, language, and culture between East Asia, the Near East, and Europe (e.g. The Silk Road). However, the organization of Eurasian steppe societies in prehistory is still poorly understood. The problem lies in the lack of scientifically analyzed archaeological data from the region, and in the ineffectiveness of previous archaeological approaches to provide a dynamic model of social interactions between pastoral societies during the Bronze Age (c. 2500-1000 BCE).
Doctoral Dissertation, 2017
What degree of authority do mobile pastoralists demonstrate during the emergence of complex settlement systems? Archaeology has historically marginalized mobile populations or ignored their contribution to the development of social complexity. This research employs isotopic analyses on human skeletal remains in context with mortuary practice to explain how mobile pastoralists integrated into the emerging complex settlement centers of the Middle Bronze Age (2400-1500BC) South Caucasus in the Sǝrur Valley of Naxçıvan, Azerbaijan. Small, fragmentary groups of mobile pastoralists and trace evidence of small- scale settlements characterize the Middle Bronze Age (2400-1500BC) in the South Caucasus (Smith, 2005a). However, at the Qızqala settlement complex in the Aras River Valley of Naxçıvan, Azerbaijan, the Middle Bronze Age features major political transformations and dense settlements on a scale that precedes traditional chronologies of the emergence of complex settlements in the Late Bronze Age (1500-1150 B.C) (Ristvet et al., 2012; Smith, 2012). Unlike most emergent Near Eastern urban societies, where the development of states and urban centers was predicated on control of agricultural production and sedentism, this region presents a case where the development of sociopolitical complexity relied on a regional population hypothesized as depending primarily on mobile pastoral subsistence (Smith, 2003). While the lack of long-term settlement across most the region supports seasonal and recurrent mobility patterns during the Middle Bronze Age, little is known about the specific modes of mobile subsistence in the earliest fortified complex settlements and how mobility functioned in emergent complex settlement contexts. How the administrative system of the fortress and these mobile populations negotiated space and power is thus a key consideration in unraveling the development of polities in the South Caucasus and expanding on traditional models of social complexity (Arbuckle, 2012; Frachetti, 2012; Honeychurch, 2014; McCorriston, 2013; Porter, 2012; Szuchman, 2009). How do pastoralists engage in mobility in emerging polities? How did changing mortuary practices generate and/or reflect negotiations of mobile people in a new political landscape? This dissertation tests the hypotheses of seasonal highland mobility and dynamic negotiations between mobile and sedentary factions at the Qızqala cemetery to investigate how mobile pastoral mobility, mortuary space construction and funerary ritual changed in this region during the emergence of complex polities. Strontium (87Sr/86Sr), oxygen (δ18O), and carbon (δ13C) isotopic analyses on sequentially sampled human dental enamel provide data on seasonal diet and water sourcing behaviors over dental development to track degree of individual mobility across the regional landscape and shifting dietary habits. The heterogeneity in intra-individual and intra-tooth isotopic values for all isotopes studies supports the hypothesized intensive pastoral mobility that characterizes the Middle Bronze Age populations of the South Caucasus. Results reveal a range of residential and seasonal mobility patterns, which support that the Qızqala population continued reliance on nomadic lifeways even during the emergence of complex settlement. Most individuals fluctuate between lowland and highland zones, which correspond to periods of increased C4 millet consumption, a highland summer crop. This dissertation examines how individual mobility behaviors relate to local and individual expressions of funerary ritual in order to reflect on how pastoralist communities shaped their political landscape through reproducing, transforming, and/or resisting political and economic conditions of power through manipulations of funerary objects and spaces. The location, orientation, style, and elaboration of each individual’s burial context provide data to examine distribution of economic resources available to mobile pastoralists in emerging complex settlement systems. Results suggest mobility patterns closely relate to placement in the cemetery, supporting the importance of mobility in maintaining social cohesion around elite individuals.By taking a bioarchaeological approach that includes details from the human skeleton as well as mortuary archaeology, this dissertation offers an encompassing perspective on interactions between mobile pastoralists and political institutions, elucidating the subject’s perspective on mobility and power that has otherwise been overlooked.