Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Politics of Agricultural Practice: An Archaeobotanical Case Study from Ziyaret Tepe, Turkey

在凯瑟琳莫里森博士的监督下，梅丽莎·罗森茨威格将分析从考古发掘（由蒂莫西·马特尼博士领导）中收集的植物学数据，该考古发掘位于安纳托利亚东南部的亚述晚期图汉驻军遗址Ziyaret Tepe。 作为支持亚述向北方领土扩张的要塞网络的一部分，图罕在公元前900年至公元前600年之间是亚述帝国主义的重要省级中心。 在其顶点，该网站扩展了32公顷，包括上下城市居住区，大型行政结构，强化城墙和护城河。 位于底格里斯河南岸的齐亚雷特山和该地区河谷的当代遗址被认为是被晚期亚述人占领的，目的是为亚述中心地带不断增长的城市人口开发农业剩余。 然而，人们对亚述人在这一地区强化农业的过程知之甚少，也不知道这些做法如何影响当地环境和社区。 因此，本项目将利用植物文物来研究Ziyaret Tepe的农业生产和消费随时间的变化，以澄清亚述帝国主义对该地区和时间段的机制和后果。本研究将使用三条环境证据来重建Ziyaret Tepe及其周围地区的农业历史。 从遗址本身，通过挖掘收集的烧焦的木材，种子，坚果和水果的宏观植物学遗迹将被检查，以确定在Ziyaret Tepe种植和使用的作物。 在更广泛的范围内，更多的区域和时间深度到上底格里斯河流域的环境历史将来自微量元素和花粉分析的沉积物芯提取的湖泊10公里，从Ziyaret Tepe。 在这些核心中捕获的有机物质将揭示数千年来人类土地使用实践的植物特征，并帮助重建该地区的气候和植被记录。 最后，为了描绘Ziyaret Tepe居民利用土地和资源的程度，该项目纳入了国际协调的景观调查，旨在检测古代遗址周围的定居，农业和灌溉要素。 从这些不同来源的数据中，将恢复日常和长期农业生产和消费的模式。 由于资源谈判是社会政治关系和土地管理的一个重要组成部分，这方面的农业战略信息将有助于辨别亚述人的土地控制对古代安纳托利亚东南部的人民和环境的影响。 这项研究将对了解古代帝国政府统治下的农业遗址的政治生态做出重大贡献。 此外，这项研究是一个大规模的，国际努力，以保护数据和策划材料的底格里斯河上游河谷之前，建设伊洛苏大坝（约。2016年，在土耳其当局的要求下。 将向土耳其文化部提供关于这项研究结果的定期报告，研究结果将在Rosenzweig女士的博士论文中发表。论文并提交同行评审期刊发表。 外联和教育工作还包括用土耳其语向Ziyaret Tepe当地居民公开介绍正在进行的挖掘工作。

Under the supervision of Dr. Kathleen Morrison, Melissa Rosenzweig will analyze botanical data gathered from archaeological excavations (led by Dr. Timothy Matney) at Ziyaret Tepe, site of the Late Assyrian garrison of Tu'han in southeastern Anatolia. Part of a network of fortresses intended to support Assyria's expansion into northern territories, Tu'han was an important provincial center for Assyrian imperialism between 900 and 600 BCE. At its zenith, the site extended 32 hectares and included upper and lower city habitations, large administrative structures, a fortified city wall, and moat. Situated upon the southern bank of the Tigris River, Ziyaret Tepe and contemporary sites in the region's river valleys are understood to have been occupied by the Late Assyrians in an effort to develop agricultural surpluses for the growing urban populations in Assyria's heartland. However, little is known about the processes by which the Assyrians intensified agriculture in this region, or how these practices affected the local environment and communities. Therefore, this project will utilize botanical artifacts to study changes in agricultural production and consumption over time at Ziyaret Tepe, in an effort to clarify the mechanics and consequences of Assyrian imperialism for this region and time period.This study will use three lines of environmental evidence to reconstruct the agricultural history of Ziyaret Tepe and its surroundings. From the site itself, macrobotanical remains of charred wood, seeds, nuts, and fruits collected by excavation will be examined in order to identify the crops grown and used over time at Ziyaret Tepe. At a broader scale, more regional and temporal depth into the environmental history of the Upper Tigris River Valley will come from trace element and pollen analyses of sediment cores extracted from a lake 10km from Ziyaret Tepe. The organic materials captured in these cores will reveal botanical signatures of human land-use practices over several thousand years, and help reconstruct a record of climate and vegetation in the region. Finally, in order to delineate the extent of land and resources utilized by inhabitants of Ziyaret Tepe, this project incorporates an internationally-coordinated landscape survey, designed to detect elements of settlement, farming, and irrigation around the ancient site. From these various sources of data, patterns in both everyday and long-term practices of agricultural production and consumption will be recovered. Because the negotiation of resources is a critical component of socio-political relations and land management, this information on agricultural strategies will help discern the impact of Assyrian agrarian control on both the people and the environment of ancient southeastern Anatolia. The proposed research will make a significant contribution toward understanding ancient political ecologies of agrarian sites under imperial government. In addition, this study is one component of a large-scale, international effort to preserve data and curated materials of the Upper Tigris River Valley prior to the construction of the Ilýsu Dam (ca. 2016), at the behest of Turkish authorities. Regular reports on the findings of this research will be made available to the Turkish Ministry of Culture, and the results of the study will be presented in Ms. Rosenzweig's Ph.D. dissertation and submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Outreach and educational efforts also include public presentations on the on-going excavations, in Turkish, for the local residents of Ziyaret Tepe.