Dzhungar Mountains Archaeology Project: Intensive Studies of Settlement and Landuse of Bronze Age Mobile Pastoralists

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Support from the National Science Foundation for the Dzhungar Mountains Archaeology Project (DMAP) will enable 3 years of research and discovery concerning the prehistory of pastoral nomadic societies in a little studied part of the world - the Semirech'ye region of eastern Kazakhstan. Directed by Dr. Michael Frachetti and bolstered by a team of scientists from Canada, Germany, Kazakhstan, and the USA, the DMAP combines state-of-the-art archaeological methods such as computer mapping, simulations, and satellite image analysis with more traditional archaeological methods such as excavation, botanical studies, and biological studies, in order to understand the social organization, subsistence strategies, mobility patterns, and regional interactions that defined the unique way of life for societies living in this part of eastern Eurasia more than 4000 years ago. In Eurasia, the Bronze Age (c. 2500-1000 BCE) is considered to be a time in prehistory when a number of major technological, linguistic, and cultural innovations changed the way societies of Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Near East interacted. Among these innovations are: 1) the proliferation of horse riding and chariot technology; 2) the spread of Indo-European languages; and 3) the widespread dispersal of metallurgy and ceramics across the Eurasian steppe. All of these innovations are understood in association with mobile pastoral societies who occupied Eurasia during the 2nd millennium BC, and are framed in terms of their economic and cultural relationships across the steppe. Yet unfortunately, these conditions are still under-documented by scientific archaeology in the steppe region, thereby limiting ability to discuss the political economy and cultural character of this key region in greater detail. In response to the lacuna of data from this region, the current project aims to provide a focused and analytically rigorous reconstruction of prehistoric pastoral adaptations, in order to understand how Bronze Age populations exploited their local environments, the degree to which their various economic, social, and political strategies generated inter-regional contacts, and how specific forms of interaction played a role in generating a wider scale cultural landscape across Eurasia throughout the 2nd millennium BCE. To answer these questions, the DMAP builds on 4 years of previous research, to carry out comprehensive archaeological excavations and sampling of Bronze Age seasonal settlements and cemeteries throughout the study zone of the Koksu Valley in Kazakhstan. These excavations will provide data for analysis of paleo-botany, archaeo-fauna, geo-morphology, and physical anthropology, as well as data for spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems. The project's operations will also contribute essential data to debates surrounding the chronology of Bronze Age steppe societies and their material culture, as well as the emergence and evolution of pastoral nomadism as a prevalent social and economic system in the steppe region. In addition to its intellectual merit, the DMAP also has broader impacts in areas such as training, education, and international scientific collaboration. The project is structured to introduce and train American graduate students in an exciting new frontier of archaeological discovery. In terms of collaboration, the DMAP contributes state-of-the-art technology and contemporary archaeological methods to a developing academic community in Kazakhstan. The proposed project joins forces with scholars and students from Kazakhstan, and contributes to the training of scientists and future archaeologists from around the world through the application of contemporary analytical methods, technology, and field techniques. The Dzhungar Mountains Archaeology Project represents one of today's most scientifically integrated studies of the evolution of Eurasian nomadic pastoralism, and strives to make a substantial impact on our broader understanding of the historical and cultural geography of Central and Inner Asia.