DHB-Origins and Development of Tribal Social Identities and Territorial Behaviors in Ancient Southern Arabia

该项目研究了也门移动的牧民在古代的有形标志的变化，以及自然和政治环境的深刻变化在今天所看到的强大的部落社会和领土的开始中所发挥的作用。 尽管对部落的定义差异很大，但大多数学者都认为部落社会的特点是以亲属关系为基础的政治和领土团体。该项目将调查这些群体在很长一段时间内的形成，只有考古学才能提供，为涉及中东部落社会的现代地缘政治提供独特而重要的基线。为了理解古代社会身份，对基于亲属的社会身份的物质遗存进行考察至关重要。随着时间的推移，领土和领土地理的变化提供了部落动态的必要表现。先前的研究已经确定，阿拉伯南部的领土上有独特的凯恩斯和纪念碑，作为部落权利、仪式和路线的象征。这组具有考古学、地理信息科学和统计学专业知识的调查人员将绘制这些古代领土和边界变化的地图，将它们与该地区环境和政治变化的年表相关联。调查人员将利用高分辨率卫星图像确定该地区的石堆位置和类型;他们将派遣一个考古队在也门南部偏远高地实地考察几个季节，以确定并核实图像上的凯恩斯;他们将制定适当的统计方法，以估计凯恩斯的时空分布。该项目突出了美国，法国和也门学者在这一国际科学奋进中的合作努力。 它将培养跨学科科学的研究生，弥合与超技术学科重点出现的差距，以促进人类社会动态景观的新一代奖学金。

This project examines changes in the tangible markers of Yemen's mobile herders during ancient times and the role that profound changes in the natural and political environments played in the onset of strong tribe-based societies and territories such as seen today. Despite widely varying definitions of a tribe, most scholars agree that tribal societies are marked by social bonds of kinship as the basis for political and territorial groups. The project will investigate the formation of these groups over a very long time span that only archaeology can provide, giving a unique and important baseline for modern geo-politics involving tribal societies in the Middle East. In order to understand ancient social identity, examination of material remains of kin-based social identity is crucial. Territories and changes in territorial geography over time provide the necessary manifestation of tribal dynamics. Previous research has established that territories in Southern Arabia were marked with distinctive cairns and monuments as symbols of tribal rights, rites, and routes. This group of investigators, with expertise in archaeology, geographic information science, and statistics, will map these ancient territories and changes in boundaries, correlating them to the chronology of environmental and political change in the region. The investigators will use high resolution satellite images to identify cairn locations and types in the region; they will field an archaeological team for several seasons in southern Yemen's remote highlands to locate and verify the cairns located on the images; and they will develop appropriate statistical methodology for estimating spatio-temporal distribution of cairns. This project highlights the collaborative efforts of Americans, French, and Yemeni scholars in this international scientific endeavor. It will train graduate students in interdisciplinary science, bridging the gaps that emerge with hyper-technical disciplinary focus, to foster a new generation of scholarship in the landscape of human social dynamics.