Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Ubaid Agriculture at Kenan Tepe, Southeastern Turkey

在Alexia Smith博士的监督下，菲利普·格雷厄姆将分析凯南·特佩遗址的乌贝德时期考古植物遗骸，以更好地了解该遗址的农业系统及其与社会变化的关系。乌贝德时期是一个社会转型时期，在小农业村庄出现之后，在第一个大的领土国家出现之前。这一发展始于美索不达米亚南部的今天的伊拉克，并逐渐向北蔓延。凯南特普位于土耳其东南部的底格里斯河附近，位于美索不达米亚北部的范围内。人们普遍认为，当时明显的社会变化是由集约化的农业推动的，乌贝德文化的传播通过增加农产品的私有化改变了现有的社会结构。这一假设从未用植物数据进行过检验。考古植物学是研究古代植物用途的学科，是研究农业实践和检验这一思想的理想工具。在乌贝德时期的后期(公元前4650年)，凯南Tepe被居住在家庭单元中的个人占据，乌贝德文化的元素，如陶器、建筑风格和其他手工艺品被采用。在一场灾难性的大火中，土丘上的一座乌贝德家庭建筑在一场古老的火灾中被烧毁。这种焚烧导致大量植物遗骸在其原始位置得到保存，为研究乌贝德时期的农业系统如何运作以及该系统如何在家庭层面上表达提供了独特的机会。凯南泰普的挖掘机特别注意微遗骸的收集，特别是烧焦的植物，在这项研究中将检查300多个样本。格雷厄姆的研究融合了家庭考古学和考古植物学，通过检查家庭之间的考古植物学组合的差异，来调查农产品私有化的水平和社会分层。将确定活动区域或发生特定活动的离散地点，并将其与农业实践和植物使用相关联。通过绘制遗址上考古植物学组合的空间差异图，可以评估植物在家庭和聚落周围的移动。该项目将在考古植物学和乌贝德考古学之外产生更广泛的影响。该项目的目标之一是教育公众了解农业经济和社会变革之间的重要关系。这将通过在土耳其和美国公布这项研究的结果来实现。结果的副本将被发送给在土耳其工作的考古学家，这样他们就可以免费和开放地访问数据。在美国，公众宣传活动包括与康涅狄格州考古中心和马萨诸塞州罗宾斯考古博物馆两家当地博物馆合作，举办一系列免费的公开讲座。同时，在相关期刊上发表文章将继续向科学界传播该项目的成果。最后，菲利普·格雷厄姆将在考古植物学方法、数据分析和生态调查方面获得宝贵的培训。

Under the supervision of Dr. Alexia Smith, Philip Graham will analyze Ubaid period archaeobotanical remains from the site of Kenan Tepe in order to better understand the agricultural system at the site and its relationship to social change. The Ubaid period was a time of social transformation that followed the emergence of small agricultural villages and preceded the first large territorial states. This development began in Southern Mesopotamia in modern day Iraq, and gradually spread north. Kenan Tepe is located near the Tigris River in Southeastern Turkey within the sphere of Northern Mesopotamia. It has generally been assumed that the social changes evident at this time were facilitated by intensified agriculture and that the spread of Ubaid culture modified existing social structures through increased privatization of agricultural produce. This hypothesis has never been tested with plant data. Archaeobotany, the study of plant use in antiquity, is an ideal tool for investigation agricultural practices and examining this idea. During the latter part of the Ubaid period (4650 BC) Kenan Tepe was occupied by individuals living in household units and elements of the Ubaid culture, such as the pottery, architectural style, and other artifacts had been adopted. One of the Ubaid household structures on the mound burned in antiquity in a catastrophic fire. This burning led to the preservation of large amounts of botanical remains in their original locations, providing a unique opportunity to investigate how the agricultural system of the Ubaid period functioned and how that system was expressed on the household level. The excavators at Kenan Tepe paid special attention to the collection of micro remains, especially charred botanicals, and over 300 samples will be examined in this study. Mr. Graham's research integrates household archaeology and archaeobotany to investigate the level of privatization of agricultural produce and social stratification by examining the differences in the archaeobotanical assemblages between households. Activity areas, or discrete locations where a specific activity occurred, will be identified and associated with agricultural practice and plant use. By mapping spatial differences in archaeobotanical assemblages across the site, the movements of plants around the household and the settlement can be assessed. This project will have broader impacts outside of archaeobotany and the archaeology of the Ubaid. One goal of this project is to educate the public about the important relationships between the agricultural economy and social change. This will be accomplished by presenting the results of this study in both Turkey and the United States. Copies of the results will be sent to archaeologists working in Turkey so that they will have free and open access to the data. In the United States, public outreach efforts include partnering with two local museums, the Connecticut Archaeology Center and the Robbins Museum of Archaeology in Massachusetts to give a series of free public lectures. At the same time, publication in referred journals will continue to disseminate the project's results to the scientific community. Finally, Philip Graham will gain valuable training in archaeobotanical methods and data analysis and ecological survey.