AHRC-NSF MOU: Metallurgical Practice, Technology and Social Organization during the Middle to Late Bronze Age in the Southern Urals, Russia

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Bryan Hanks博士将进行考古实地考察和实验室分析，以调查青铜时代中期至晚期（公元前2100年至1500年）居住在俄罗斯南部草原的青铜时代社区的铜冶金和社会经济组织的性质。该项目将集中在两个青铜时代的聚落，包括1)地球化学调查，2)有针对性的小规模挖掘，3)额外的遗址集水区研究，4)考古冶金材料和相关特征的比较分析。许多学者将铜生产与广泛的区域和区域间贸易以及社会冲突联系起来，这反过来又使冶金在试图解释社会不平等和地区等级的出现的模型中占据了强大的地位。本研究将检验冶金学的发展在这一过程中起主要作用的命题。研究的目标是与区域社会经济发展、技术实践和社会组织之间的界面有关的持久的人类学问题，以及与欧亚大陆中北部青铜时代中期至晚期的社会变化有关的更具体的问题。金属的生产和消费经常与史前晚期欧亚大陆的社会和经济发展模式联系在一起。然而，关于在哪里和如何开采区域矿石，区域社会组织如何与作为分段过程的冶金相联系，以及地方和区域在铜冶炼和金属生产技术方面的变化发展到何种程度，实际上所知甚少。该项目的广泛影响建立在美国、英国和俄罗斯的个人和机构之间非常成功和已经建立的合作学习计划的基础上。拟议的研究是其主要目的之一，整合和训练学生在考古实地工作和实验室分析。

With support from the National Science Foundation Dr Bryan Hanks will conduct archaeological fieldwork and laboratory analysis to investigate the nature of copper metallurgy and socio-economic organization as practiced by Bronze Age communities who inhabited the Southern Russian steppe from the Middle to Late Bronze Age phases (2100 to 1500 BC). This project will focus on two Bronze Age settlements and include 1) geochemical survey, 2) targeted small-scale excavation, 3) additional site catchment study and 4) the comparative analysis of archaeometallurgical materials and associated features. Many scholars have tied copper production to both extensive regional and inter-regional trade and societal conflict, which in turn has afforded the role of metallurgy a powerful position in models that seek to explain the emergence of social inequality and regional hierarchies. This research will examine the proposition that the development of metallurgy plays a major role in this process.The research targets both persistent anthropological questions relating to the interface between regional socio-economic development, technological practice and social organization and more specific questions connected with social change during the Middle to Late Bronze Age in north central Eurasia. Metal production and consumption are frequently tied to models of social and economic development in Eurasia during the late prehistoric period. Yet, very little is actually known about where and how regional ores were being exploited, how regional social organization varied in connection with metallurgy as a segmented process, and to what degree local and regional variability in copper smelting and metal production technologies developed. The broader impacts of this project build on a highly successful and already established collaborative program of study between individuals and institutions in the United States, United Kingdom and Russia. The proposed research has as one of its principal aims the integration and training of students in both archaeological fieldwork and laboratory analysis.