Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Late Bronze Age Power Dynamics in the Armenian Highlands: A Community Perspective

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The process by which sociopolitical inequality becomes institutionalized in prehistoric societies has been a topic of great research interest to archaeologists during the past decade. The aim of this dissertation research project is to work in concert with Armenian archaeologists to explore the prehistoric political economy of the Tsaghkahovit plain of northwestern Armenia during a time of dramatic social transformations between the Middle and Late Bronze Age periods culminating in the emergence of the region's first political institutions. This project will focus specifically on the excavation and analysis of a Late Bronze Age settlement located at the base of the Tsaghkahovit fortress to explore how the power strategies of elites are reflected in the settlements of those living in the shadow of the fortress. Archaeology has a long tradition of focusing on the more glamorous temples and tombs of elites, but more recently excavations of non-elite community contexts are being seen as increasingly important to establishing a more holist picture of social and economic organization of cultural systems.The beginning of the Late Bronze Age (1500-1150 B.C.) in the southern Caucasus was marked by a reformulation of the social and political landscape as the socially stratified, nomadic, pastoral societies of the Middle Bronze Age (2200-1500 B.C.) transformed the outward projection of authority from richly adorned burial mounds (kurgans) to the construction of imposing fortresses overlooking the fertile agricultural plains and valleys. Accompanying these shifts in the aesthetics of power in the region were far-reaching changes in mortuary practices, settlement and subsistence patterns, advances in metallurgy and horsemanship, and a marked increase in population. The development of lasting political institutions can be hindered by the decentralizing effect of the mobility inherent in a nomadic pastoral economy which occurred during the Middle Bronze Age, raising a number of interesting questions relating to the region's political economy and the emergence of institutionalized authority: What advantages did the bounded landscape of the Tsaghkahovit plain offer elites for encouraging the permanent settlement of populations during the Late Bronze Age? How did elites finance the construction of the imposing fortresses circumventing the fertile agricultural plain? Why did the manifestation of institutional authority between the two periods shift from sacred to secular (i.e. from richly furnished monumental burials to hilltop fortresses)? This project, including fieldwork and analysis, will be conducted under the mentorship of the leaders of Project ArAGATS (Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian States), a collaborative international expedition co-directed by Dr. Adam T. Smith of the University of Chicago and Dr. Ruben BadalyanError! Bookmark not defined. of the Armenian Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. Despite the rich prehistoric traditions in Armenia, this is the only American archaeological expedition currently operating in the countryThe broad themes that play out in the study of Bronze Age Caucasia - issues of economic and political turmoil, territoriality, and sovereignty over strategic resources and trade routes - resonate throughout the history of the region. The proposed research offers a framework for exploring the earliest manifestations of complex political and economic dynamics in the Caucasus, a topic that as taken on increased relevance given the rise of essentialist nationalism in the region since the disintegration of the USSR. Publications stemming from the proposed research will also serve to reintroduce southern Caucasian prehistory to the consciousness of Western scholarship and scientific inquiry where it has long been neglected, and engage the southern Caucasian Late Bronze Age in cross-cultural studies on the dynamics of elite authority in non-state complex societies.