Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Changing Technologies and Transformations in the Value of Metalwork During the Bronze Age in Samara, Russia

博士论文改进补助金：俄罗斯萨马拉青铜时代金属制品的技术变革和价值转变

• 批准号: 0431940
• 负责人: Michael Dietler
• 金额: --
• 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: 2004-07-15 至 2006-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0431940&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Changing

Under the supervision of Dr. Michael Dietler, David Peterson will develop a social history of prehistoric metalwork through intensive analysis of materials gathered during his archaeological fieldwork in Samara, a Russian administrative district in the western Eurasian steppes. Metalworking was first practiced in this region by 5000/4500 BC. Local researchers have concluded that during the Bronze Age (circa 3500-1000 BC), along with pastoralism, metallurgy provided a principal way of making a living by producing a commodity that could be exchanged for food and other goods. The Samara River Valley links the region to extensive ore deposits in the Ural Mountains, while the Volga River connects it to sources of arsenical copper in the Caucasus, by way of the Caspian Sea and its western shoreline, which was utilized in the western Eurasian steppes by the Middle Bronze Age. These factors have made Samara an ideal setting for an investigation of early metal technology and the role of metalwork in ancient Eurasian societies.Peterson conducted a field survey and test excavations near traces of ancient copper mining in northeastern Samara, which recorded the first evidence for the Bronze Age settlement of the area. He will gain training in metallography, wavelength dispersive spectrometry (WDS) and energy dispersive spectrometry (WDS) at the Department of Materials, Oxford University, in the analysis of samples from over 100 pieces of metalwork and production debris from Samara, together with comparative samples of Early Bronze Age metalwork from the northeastern Caucasus. His analysis will examine the combinations of techniques and materials that metalworkers used in creating characteristics such as color, form, hardness, and durability from which the value of their products was arguably derived, and how metal technology changed over the course of the Bronze Age. This will be joined with an examination of the social uses of metalwork in representations of identity, and ceremonial expressions of value, in the burials in which these artifacts were found. The project will thereby demonstrate an innovative archaeological approach to the value of prehistoric material culture, which is often considered to be simply a function of scarcity and distance from raw materials, or an elusive quality that is inaccessible to archaeology. Faunal analysis and AMS radiocarbon dating of materials Peterson collected in his fieldwork will create the basis for examining the relationship between metallurgical and pastoral economies, and will more precisely determine the period in which these activities took place.The doctoral dissertation that is developed from this research will incorporate relevant material culture and social theory in an approach to ancient material culture and technology, which will be of broad interest to researchers in archaeology, anthropology, and other areas of the social sciences. It will enhance current knowledge of the prehistory of the Eurasian steppes, a pivotal area of interactions in the ancient world which is still poorly understood in the US. The dissemination of these findings to researchers in the US, Russia and Dagestan will increase the level of understanding and cooperation between scholars in these countries.

在迈克尔·迪特勒（Michael Dietler）博士的监督下，戴维·彼得森（David Peterson）将通过对他在西欧亚草原俄罗斯行政区的考古野战期间收集的材料进行的深入分析来发展史前金属制品的社会历史。金属加工首先在公元前5000/4500年在该地区实行。当地的研究人员得出的结论是，在青铜时代（大约3500-1000公元前3500 - 100年），冶金学提供了一种主要方式来谋生，通过生产可以换成食品和其他商品的商品。萨马拉河谷将该地区与乌拉尔山脉的广泛矿床联系起来，而Volga河将其连接到高加索地区的砷铜来源，通过卡里亚海及其西部海岸线，该海岸线被用来在西部的欧亚阶层中使用，该海岸线是中间布朗兹时代的西部欧亚阶梯。这些因素使萨马拉成为对早期金属技术进行调查以及金属工程在古代欧亚社会中的作用的理想场所。Peterson在萨马拉东北部的古代铜矿开采痕迹附近进行了现场调查，并测试了该地区青铜年龄定居点的第一个证据。他将在牛津大学材料系进行培训，在牛津大学材料系的金材，波长色散光谱法（WDS）和能量色散光谱法（WDS）方面进行培训，以分析来自萨马拉的100多种金属制品和生产碎屑的样品，以及来自东北高层的早期青铜年代金属工程的比较样品。他的分析将研究金属工人在创建特征（例如其产品价值的颜色，形式，硬度和耐用性）中使用的技术和材料的组合，可以说是从中得出的，以及金属技术在整个青铜时代的变化。在发现这些文物的埋葬中，将对金属制品的社会用途和价值表达进行检查，并将其加入。因此，该项目将展示一种创新的考古学方法，以实现史前物质文化的价值，通常被认为仅仅是稀缺和与原材料的距离的函数，或者是无法访问考古学的难以捉摸的质量。彼得森在实地考察中收集的彼得森的材料的动物分析和AMS放射性碳年代将为检查冶金和田园经济体之间的关系，并将更准确地确定这些活动的期间，从本研究中开发的博士学位。社会科学。它将增强对欧亚草原的史前史前的当前知识，欧亚草原是古代世界中相互作用的关键领域，在美国仍然很熟悉。这些发现向美国，俄罗斯和达格斯坦的研究人员传播将提高这些国家的学者之间的理解与合作水平。