The Social Evolution of Eurasian Steppe Communities in Southeastern Kazakhstan and the Rise of Ancient Civilizations

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Claudia Chang博士和她的同事将在哈萨克斯坦东南部的Chilik地区进行三个季节的考古和民族学研究，该地区构成了天山山脉和广阔的欧亚草原之间的边界。该团队汇集了西方，哈萨克斯坦和中国的考古学，历史语言学，地质考古学，民族志和考古学专家，对欧亚游牧社会的起源和发展进行协调调查。在Chilik这一大型冲积河谷，该小组将着手收集植被、土壤和地貌数据，以建立现代环境基线，为解释史前放牧、耕作、狩猎和采集经济提供背景。该团队将构建一个地理（GIS）数据库，使他们能够实施基于计算机的制图系统，以重建史前人类如何开发该地区的多个环境区，以及开发模式如何与不同的地点类型相关。勘测将为地下测试埋藏的考古沉积物提供基础。将选择代表整个人类居住时间跨度的6个研究中心进行试验。 更大规模的块挖掘将在青铜器和铁器时代的网站进行。将收集关于当代哈萨克土地使用、经济、技术和社会组织的补充人种学数据，为重建过去的畜牧和农业经济提供模板。 虽然考古学家早就认识到游牧社会在欧亚史前史中发挥了重要作用，但这种发展一直是从边缘地区-这些群体与更定居的农业社会接触的地区-来看待的。哈萨克斯坦最近向外国研究人员开放，现在可以在中心地带研究这一发展。张博士和她的合作者将重点关注四个问题：1。有什么证据可以证明欧亚草原文化在复杂社会的演化中有其自身的本土起源和内在动力？2.该地区的多资源经济基础在这一可能独特的发展过程中发挥了怎样的作用？3.民族志数据如何作为重建过去的基线？4.该地区的考古资料如何解释目前用于解释印欧语系和相关文化传统传播的扩散和迁移模型？ 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将向国际考古调查开放一个长期封闭的地区。它将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据，并为复杂社会的发展提供新的线索。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Claudia Chang and her colleagues will conduct three field seasons of archaeological and ethnographic research in the Chilik region of southeastern Kazakhstan which constitutes the boundary between the Tien Shan Mountains and the broad Eurasian steppe. The team brings together Western, Kazakhstani and Chinese specialists in archaeology, historical linguistics, geoarchaeology ethnography and archaeology to conduct a coordinated investigation into the origins and development of Eurasian nomadic societies. At Chilik, a large alluvial valley, the team will initiate the collection of vegetation, soils and geomorphological data to create a modern-day environmental baseline which will provide a context to interpret prehistoric economies of herding, farming and hunting and gathering. The team will construct a geographic (GIS) database that will allow them to implement a computer-based cartographic system to reconstruct how prehistoric peoples exploited the multiple environmental zones in the region and how patterns of exploitation are related to different site types. Reconnaissance surveys will provide the basis for sub-surface testing for buried archaeological deposits. Six sites representing the entire chronological span of human habitation will be selected for testing. Larger scale block excavations will be conducted at Bronze and Iron Age sites. Complementary ethnographic data will be collected on contemporary Kazakh land use, economy, technology and social organization to provide a template for reconstructing past herding and farming economies. Although archaeologists have long recognized that nomadic pastoral societies played an important role in Eurasian prehistory, this development has always been viewed from the peripheries - the regions where such groups came into contact with more settled agrarian societies. The recent opening of Kazakhstan to foreign researchers will now permit this development to be studied in the heartland. Dr. Chang and her collaborators will focus on four questions: 1. What evidence exists to establish that Eurasian steppe cultures had their own indigenous origins and internal dynamics in the evolution of complex society? 2. How did the multi-resource economic base of this region play in role in what is likely a unique developmental process? 3. How can ethnographic data serve as a baseline for reconstruction the past? 4. How can the models of diffusion and migration that are currently used to explain the spread of Indo-European languages and related cultural traditions be illumined by archaeological data from this region? This research is important for several reasons. It will open a long-closed area to international archaeological investigation. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and shed new light on the development of complex societies.