Inter-Regional Exchange and Urbanism in the Indus Valley: Lithic Source Provenience Studies at Harappa

在J. Mark Kenoyer博士的指导下，Randall Law将分析来自巴基斯坦哈拉帕古遗址的大量原材料，以重建公元前4世纪末至公元前2千年初存在于印度河流域的区域间交流和资源获取途径。这一时期很重要，因为它包含了南亚第一个国家级社会——印度河文明的出现、存在和衰落。美索不达米亚和埃及早期国家的同代人。这项研究是通过对哈拉帕原始岩石和矿物商品组合进行系统的、大规模的物源检查来完成的。与过去对史前南亚岩石交换网络的研究不同，本研究使用最新的地质参考资料、现代矿物学鉴定技术和考古材料的地球化学物源分析，生成了一个新的、更准确的区域间相互作用模型。哈拉帕是众多石器工艺活动的中心，自1986年以来，哈拉帕考古研究项目已经收集了大量不同数量的岩石和矿物碎片。此外，为了比较的目的，从巴基斯坦和印度的印度河流域周围的潜在来源地区收集了地质样本。对选定的考古和现代材料进行的地球化学来源研究表明，扩大的分析方案将提供所需的各种资料，以便绘制南亚这一地区史前时期可能来源和贸易路线的地图。国家科学基金会的支持将用于从印度和巴基斯坦收集和分析更多的地质样本，以便为这些材料建立一个区域性更全面和统计意义更大的数据库。资金还将支持对哈拉帕所有年代和职业地区的考古样本进行分析，以便能够生成该地点材料获取和分布的完整历时图。过去对贸易网络、手工业生产和生存剥削的研究表明，这些活动的变化伴随着哈拉帕城市发展的进程。这项研究将产生一个新的框架，用于审查统治哈拉帕市的团体或团体的政治和经济战略。更广泛的影响源于对史前南亚区域间相互作用和城市发展的区域和地方进程的新的科学观点。地球化学特征数据库将对今后在其他南亚地点和其他时期进行的物源研究大有裨益。由此得出的区域间交流和资源获取的数据和解释模型可以被早期国家研究这一更大领域的学者用于跨文化比较，并且与当前世界该地区的地缘政治互动有关。PI和联合PI参与了与巴基斯坦和印度的学者和研究生的重要外联活动。这种拓展包括在会议上发表合作论文，培训学生收集和处理样本，以及向当地机构和图书馆提供印本和研究成果。

Under the supervision of Dr. J. Mark Kenoyer, Randall Law will analyze a wide range of raw materials from the ancient site of Harappa, Pakistan in order to reconstruct the avenues of inter-regional exchange and resource access that existed in the Indus Valley during the late 4th to early 2nd millennium B.C. This time period is important because it encompasses the emergence, existence, and decline of South Asia's first state-level society, the Indus Civilization, a contemporary of early states in Mesopotamia and Egypt. This study being accomplished through a systematic, broad-scale provenience examination of Harappa's raw rock and mineral commodity assemblage. Unlike past examinations of prehistoric South Asian lithic exchange networks, this study uses up-to-date geologic reference material, modern mineralogical identification techniques, and geochemical provenience analyses of archaeological materials to generate a new, more accurate model of inter-regional interaction. Harappa was a center of numerous lithic craft activities and excavations by the Harappa Archaeological Research Project since 1986 have collected abundant and highly varied amounts of rock and mineral debris. In addition, for comparative purposes, geologic samples have been collected from potential source areas surrounding the Indus Valley in Pakistan and India. Geochemical provenience studies of selected archaeological and modern materials have indicated that an expanded program of analysis will provide the types of information needed to produce a map of possible sources and the trade routes used during the prehistoric period in this region of South Asia.Support from the National Science Foundation will be used to collect and analyze additional geologic samples from India and Pakistan in order to create a database for these materials that is more regionally comprehensive and statistically significant. Funding will also support the analysis of archaeological samples from all chronological periods and occupational areas of Harappa so that a full diachronic picture of material acquisition and distribution at the site can be generated. Past studies of trade networks, craft production and subsistence exploitation suggest that changes in those activities accompanied the process of urban development at Harappa. This study will result in a new framework for examining the political and economic strategies of the group or groups that ruled the city of Harappa.The broader impacts derive from the new scientific perspective on regional and local processes relating to inter-regional interaction and urban development in prehistoric South Asia. The geochemical characterization database will be of great benefit in future provenience studies at other South Asian sites and during other periods. The resulting data and interpretive models of inter-regional exchange and resource access can be used for cross-cultural comparisons by scholars in the larger field of early state studies and are relevant to the current geo-political interactions in this region of the world. The PI and Co-PI have been involved in significant outreach with scholars and graduate students in both Pakistan and India. This outreach has included presenting collaborative papers at conferences, training students in sample collection and processing as well as providing offprints and research results to local institutions and libraries.