Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Pastoral Ecologies and Economies of the Late Bronze Age in the Middle Volga Region, Russia

博士论文改进资助：俄罗斯伏尔加河中部地区青铜时代晚期的田园生态和经济

• 批准号: 0406170
• 负责人: Kathleen Morrison
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-06-01 至 2006-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0406170&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Pastoral

Under Dr. Kathleen Morrison's supervision, Laura Popova will complete the collection of paleobotanical and archaeological data for her dissertation research on the Late Bronze Age (1700-1300BC) of the Middle Volga region, Russia (Samara province). During the Late Bronze Age (hereafter LBA), groups that inhabited the steppe and forest-steppe of Samara were strategically located between mining centers in the Ural Mountains, the desert oases of Kazakhstan, the metallurgical centers of the Don River, and dense forests to the north. In this period of unprecedented cultural interaction and trade, the Middle Volga region was a hub of activity. At the same time, there was a shift in settlement strategies from groups living in dispersed temporary communities to more long-term settlements. Most archaeologists attribute the change in settlement patterns to a change in climate (arid to humid) at the beginning of the LBA. This interpretation of the role of the environment in social change sees the environment as something static, and the group's reaction to environmental change as a given. This project seeks to re-evaluate this alteration in settlement strategies by examining how humans interacted with the environment of the Volga-Ural region during the LBA.We cannot understand why people built these long-term settlements until we have a better sense of the social, political, economic and ecological issues the people of the region faced during the LBA. This research will embed the occupational histories of places within the broader landscape histories of the region, because it is in understanding the linkages within and between places that we begin to reconstruct how resources were appropriated. Bronze Age landscape histories will be examined through excavation, survey and detailed macrobotanical, pollen, and fecal spherulite analyses highlighting a variety of spatial scales: intramural, local, and regional. The spatial and temporal dynamics of several LBA places (Peschani Dol, Kibit, Krasnosamarskoe), which correspond respectively to three environmental zones: steppe, forest-steppe, and the ecotone between these two zones, will be studied so as to illuminate how people moved through, were shaped by, and altered the LBA landscapes in the Middle Volga region. Popova's research will continue the Russian-American collaboration started by Dr. David Anthony and Dr. Igor Vasiliev. An aim of this partnership is to educate students of the Samara State Pedagogical University about the latest archaeological techniques. Students will make up the excavation crew at Kibit, where they will learn about new methods for studying pastoralism (macrobotanical, fecal spherulite, and pollen analyses). Results of this project will be disseminated in Popova's dissertation, journal publications, and in a field report prepared for the Russian Academy of Sciences. In addition, the results will be presented at national and international archaeology meetings in 2005. Popova will also create a pollen database for Samara using the pollen comparative collection at the Institute of Geography in Moscow. This database, which will be part of a larger Russian-English project website, will be the first easily accessible resource on pollen of the Russian steppe and forest-steppe and thus important for future palynological research of the region.

在Kathleen莫里森博士的指导下，Laura波波娃将完成她关于俄罗斯（萨马拉省）中伏尔加地区青铜时代晚期（公元前1700- 1300年）的论文研究的古植物学和考古学数据收集工作。 在青铜时代晚期（以下简称LBA），居住在萨马拉草原和森林草原上的群体处于乌拉尔山脉采矿中心、哈萨克斯坦沙漠绿洲、顿河冶金中心和北部茂密森林之间的战略位置。 在这个前所未有的文化互动和贸易时期，中伏尔加地区是一个活动中心。 与此同时，定居战略也从居住在分散的临时社区的群体转向更长期的定居点。 大多数考古学家将定居模式的变化归因于LBA开始时气候的变化（干旱到潮湿）。 这种对环境在社会变革中的作用的解释认为环境是静态的，而群体对环境变化的反应是给定的。 本项目旨在通过研究在大萧条时期人类如何与伏尔加-乌拉尔地区的环境相互作用来重新评估这种定居策略的改变。我们无法理解为什么人们建造这些长期定居点，直到我们更好地了解该地区人民在大萧条时期面临的社会，政治，经济和生态问题。 这项研究将把地方的职业历史嵌入该地区更广泛的景观历史中，因为正是在理解地方内部和地方之间的联系时，我们开始重建资源是如何被挪用的。 青铜时代的景观历史将通过挖掘，调查和详细的宏观植物学，花粉和粪便球粒分析，突出各种空间尺度：内部，本地和区域检查。 几个LBA的地方（Peschani多尔，Kibit，Krasnosamarskoe），分别对应于三个环境区：草原，森林草原，这两个区域之间的交错带的时空动态，将进行研究，以阐明人们如何移动通过，被塑造，并改变中伏尔加地区的LBA景观。 波波娃的研究将继续由大卫安东尼博士和伊戈尔瓦西里耶夫博士开始的俄美合作。 这一伙伴关系的一个目的是教育萨马拉国立师范大学的学生了解最新的考古技术。 学生将组成Kibit的挖掘团队，在那里他们将学习研究畜牧业的新方法（宏观植物学，粪便球粒和花粉分析）。 该项目的成果将在波波娃的论文、期刊出版物和为俄罗斯科学院编写的实地报告中传播。 此外，将在2005年的国家和国际考古会议上介绍研究结果。 波波娃还将利用莫斯科地理研究所的花粉比较收集，为萨马拉创建一个花粉数据库。 这个数据库，这将是一个更大的俄罗斯-英语项目网站的一部分，将是第一个容易访问的资源花粉的俄罗斯草原和森林草原，因此重要的是未来的孢粉学研究的地区。