Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Rise of Iron in the Land of the Golden Fleece: The Technology and Organization of Metal Production in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Colchis

现代的观念认为，技术的成功和失败完全是客观的、可量化的物质特性的结果，这种观念影响了学者们过去研究技术变革的方式。冶金的发展特别容易受到这些误解的影响，部分原因是金属仍然是现代工业的基本组成部分。要了解社会和文化因素如何影响技术变化，需要更广泛的人类学视角。NSF支持的学位论文研究将由Nathaniel Erb-Satullo在Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky教授的指导下进行，将调查关于青铜时代末期和铁器时代开始(约公元前1500-500年)金属生产的技术和组织的一些关键问题。在西亚的许多地区，广泛使用铁的开始与重大的政治和社会变化有关。考古学家长期以来一直试图将这种技术变革置于政治和社会变革的更广泛框架中。一些人辩称，铁技术的兴起与精英控制的铜和锡贸易网络的崩溃有关，导致了地质上丰富的铁矿石的开采。其他人认为，这一发展与一系列技术创新有关，这些创新使铁成为一种比青铜更硬、更有效的工具。很少有研究从金属生产商自身的角度来关注这一转变。由这笔赠款资助的研究计划将研究铜和铁生产之间的关系，重点放在生产的主要背景上。主要调查人员假设，铁和青铜的生产彼此密切相关，早期的铁生产者广泛利用了从早期技术传统中获得的知识。此外，初步数据表明，与其他更深入研究的地区相比，青铜生产高度分散，冶炼、铸造和锻造都在大量小规模的地点进行。这种组织模式与中东研究更深入的地区形成了鲜明的对比，质疑了长期以来关于铁代表精英控制的青铜的“民主”替代品的观念。通过结合调查、测试挖掘和对生产废渣的实验室分析，Erb-Satullo和他的英国和格鲁吉亚同事将检验这些假设，在其社会、经济和政治背景下审查技术决策。除了解决有关西亚铁生产发展的关键问题外，这项研究还将有助于越来越多的研究表明，技术发明和采用深深植根于一个社会的社会和文化系统中。在一个快速技术转让为解决许多紧迫的社会和环境问题提供机会和陷阱的世界里，理解技术变革的这些方面是至关重要的。更直接的是，这项研究将促进格鲁吉亚和西方学者之间的更多合作，并提高对乔治亚共和国的认识。尽管有着丰富的历史、多样的风景和热情好客的传统，格鲁吉亚在西方仍然是一个鲜为人知的国家。通过合作项目和负责任的旅游，加强格鲁吉亚与国际社会之间的接触，可以帮助格鲁吉亚面对一个新独立国家的许多挑战。

The modern perception that technological success and failure are exclusively the result to objective, quantifiable material properties has colored the way scholars have studied technological change in the past. The development of metallurgy has been particularly susceptible to these misperceptions, in part because metals remain a fundamental part of modern industry. A broader anthropological perspective is necessary to understand how social and cultural factors influence technological change.The NSF-supported dissertation research, to be carried out by Nathaniel Erb-Satullo with the supervision on Professor Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky, will investigate a number of key questions about the technology and organization of metal production at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age (c. 1500-500 BC). In many areas of western Asia, the beginnings of widespread iron usage are correlated with substantial political and social change. Archaeologists have long sought to place this technological change into a broader framework of political and social changes. Some argue that the rise of iron technology was related to a breakdown in elite-controlled copper and tin trade networks, leading to the exploitation of geologically abundant iron ores. Others argue that the development related to a series of technological innovations which made iron a harder and more effective tool than bronze. Little research has focused on this transition from the perspective of the metal producers themselves. The research program funded by this grant will examine the relationship between copper and iron production, with a focus on the primary contexts of production. The principal investigators hypothesize that that iron and bronze production were closely linked with one another, and that early iron producers drew extensively on knowledge gained from earlier technological traditions. Moreover, initial data suggests that, in contrast to other more intensively studied regions, bronze production was highly dispersed, with smelting, casting, smithing occurring at large numbers of small-scale sites. This mode of organization contrasts dramatically from more intensively studied regions of the Middle East, calling into question long-held notions about iron representing a "democratic" alternative to elite-controlled bronze.Using a combination of survey, test excavations, and laboratory analysis of production debris, Erb-Satullo and his British and Georgian colleagues will test these hypotheses, examining technological decision-making in its social, economic, and political context. In addition to addressing key questions about the development of iron production in western Asia, the research will contribute to the growing body of research which shows that technological invention and adoption is deeply embedded within a society's social and cultural systems. Understanding these dimensions of technological change is essential in a world where rapid technology transfer offers both opportunities and pitfalls for solving many pressing social and environmental problems. More directly, this research will foster increased collaboration between Georgian and Western scholars, and increase awareness of the Republic of Georgia. Despite its rich history, varied landscapes, and traditions of hospitality, Georgia remains a little known country in the West. Greater engagement between Georgia and the international community, through collaborative projects and responsible tourism, can assist Georgia in facing the many challenges of a newly independent country.