Collaborative Research: The Fortress and the Grassroots: Archaeological Investigations of Early Complex Societies on the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Armenia

合作研究：要塞与草根：亚美尼亚察卡霍维特平原早期复杂社会的考古调查

• 批准号: 0964012
• 负责人: Ian Lindsay
• 金额: $ 5.69万
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-01 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0964012&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Fortress; Grassroots; Archaeological

Funding from the National Science Foundation will underwrite two years of archaeological research by Drs. Adam T. Smith (University of Chicago), Ian Lindsay (Purdue University), and Lori Khatchadourian (Cornell University) into the rise of the earliest complex sociopolitical regimes in southern Caucasia during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500-1150 BC). The co-PIs will join their long-time collaborator, Dr. Ruben Badalyan (Armenian Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography), and an interdisciplinary team of specialists in faunal and floral analysis, archaeometallurgy, and geochemistry to investigate regionally distinctive approaches to political authority through two seasons of excavations at the fortress sites of Gegharot and Tsaghkahovit in central Armenia. Traditional models of the rise of political complexity, built around archetypal centers such as Mesopotamia and the Maya lowlands, typically describe the origins of archaic states as the result of a gradual coalescence of settled agricultural communities, the surpluses from which fueled emerging political economies. In southern Caucasia, our research to date has revealed a different course of political coalescence during the mid-2nd millennium BC, when complex polities emerged not from settled farming villages but from nomadic, hierarchical pastoral groups.Prior excavations at the fortresses of Gegharot and Tsaghkahovit have uncovered tantalizing evidence of emergent political formation manifested in architecturally discrete areas for elite institutions. Most intriguingly, cultic buildings at Gegharot, complete with altar and ritual equipment (such as censors), revealed evidence of storage and metalworking, suggesting well-integrated political, economic, and ritual institutions. At the other end of the social spectrum, test excavations and a pilot magnetometry survey at the base of the Tsaghkahovit fortress have provided the first documented accounts of a Late Bronze Age residential complex; significantly, however, the informality of the domestic architecture, combined with relatively thin, single-floor occupation layers, hints that the settlement may not have been as enduring as the fortresses that oversaw them, possibly a result of seasonal occupation by transhumant pastoralists. Our research seeks to understand the internal factors through which solidarity was maintained as sedentary political institutions faced the prospect of legitimizing their right to rule over subject populations seeking to maintain their historical legacy of mobility. Through continued detailed excavations and geophysical survey, our goal is to develop a detailed model of the practices that bound the region into a coherent socio-political order by charting the formation, operation, and ultimate collapse of Late Bronze Age regimes at the intersection of the fortress and the grassroots.The resulting data will impact broader debates that center on the formation of complex socio-political regimes, the constitution of subject communities, and the inter-digitation of settled institutions and nomadic pastoralists. The project will also train American and Armenian graduate students in advanced archaeological data collection, recording, sampling, and remote sensing techniques. Materials from the proposed excavations will provide the foundation for exhibits planned for the Yerevan Museum in 2012 and the Oriental Institute (Chicago) in 2013. Project staff will also continue to offer periodic lectures on its activities in the local schools of the Tsaghkahovit plain.

国家科学基金会的资金将资助博士进行两年的考古研究。 Adam T. Smith（芝加哥大学）、Ian Lindsay（普渡大学）和 Lori Khachadourian（康奈尔大学）深入研究了青铜时代晚期（约公元前 1500-1150 年）南高加索地区最早的复杂社会政治政权的兴起。 联合首席研究员将与他们的长期合作者 Ruben Badalyan 博士（亚美尼亚考古与民族志研究所）以及动物和花卉分析、考古冶金学和地球化学专家组成的跨学科团队一起，通过在亚美尼亚中部的 Gegharot 和 Tsaghkahovit 堡垒遗址进行的两个季节的发掘，研究区域性独特的政治权威方法。 围绕美索不达米亚和玛雅低地等原型中心建立的政治复杂性兴起的传统模型通常将古代国家的起源描述为定居农业社区逐渐合并的结果，其中的盈余推动了新兴政治经济的发展。在高加索南部，我们迄今为止的研究揭示了公元前 2 世纪中期政治联合的不同进程，当时复杂的政体不是从定居的农庄中出现的，而是从游牧的、等级森严的游牧群体中出现的。格哈洛特和察卡霍维特要塞的先前发掘发现了新兴政治形成的诱人证据，这些证据表现在精英建筑离散的区域中 机构。 最有趣的是，格哈洛特的祭祀建筑配有祭坛和仪式设备（例如检查器），揭示了储存和金属加工的证据，表明政治、经济和仪式机构的一体化。 在社会光谱的另一端，在 Tsaghkahovit 堡垒底部进行的测试挖掘和试点磁力测量提供了有关青铜时代晚期住宅区的第一份有记录的记录；然而，值得注意的是，国内建筑的非正式性，加上相对薄弱的单层居住层，暗示着该定居点可能不像监管它们的堡垒那样持久，这可能是游牧牧民季节性占领的结果。我们的研究旨在了解维持团结的内部因素，因为久坐的政治机构面临着将其统治臣民的权利合法化的前景，以维持其流动性的历史遗产。 通过持续的详细挖掘和地球物理调查，我们的目标是通过绘制堡垒和基层交汇处青铜时代晚期政权的形成、运作和最终崩溃的图表，开发一个详细的实践模型，该模型将该地区纳入连贯的社会政治秩序。由此产生的数据将影响更广泛的辩论，这些辩论集中在复杂的社会政治政权的形成、主体社区的构成和 定居机构和游牧民的相互数字化。 该项目还将培训美国和亚美尼亚研究生先进的考古数据收集、记录、采样和遥感技术。 拟议发掘的材料将为 2012 年埃里温博物馆和 2013 年东方学院（芝加哥）计划的展览奠定基础。项目工作人员还将继续在 Tsaghkahovit 平原的当地学校定期举办有关其活动的讲座。