Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant - Investigating The Effects of State Expansion in Rural Greece

本研究的一个基本目标是了解，在国家或帝国等大型政治单位中，农村或“外围”社区是如何整合到更大的经济主导社会中心的。目前，由于缺乏这种一体化，在世界许多地区的发展中国家造成了动乱。考古研究，比如这个项目，有能力为这个问题带来一个长达几个世纪的视角。随着帝国的兴起、扩张和衰落，生活在其边界内的人民受到了截然不同的影响。在她的博士导师威廉·帕金森博士的指导下，丽贝卡·塞弗里德将研究帝国扩张的潮起潮落，该地区以其位于希腊文化和地理边缘而闻名——伯罗奔尼撒半岛南部的马尼半岛。该项目将重点关注从拜占庭（1204-1453）到奥斯曼（1453-1830）统治的过渡如何影响人们的生活，以及他们长期保持的物理和视觉联系的类型。为了完成这项任务，她将采用创新的方法组合，包括航空摄影和卫星图像分析，考古调查，历史档案研究以及地理信息系统（GIS）软件的空间分析。数据将从几个不同的来源收集：陶瓷、建筑传统、鹅卵石道路系统、村庄人口和定居点的地理位置。在绘制出定居点和连接它们的道路的地图和年代之后，塞弗里德将使用空间分析来确定奥斯曼帝国统治在该地区建立后它们之间的关系是如何变化的。最后，这些发现将与前奥斯曼帝国的其他地区进行比较，包括阿尔巴尼亚高地、塞浦路斯岛以及邻近的梅塞尼亚半岛和拉科尼亚半岛。关于国家扩张的考古研究往往集中在最重要的城市及其经济生产力的腹地。人们提出了不同的人类学模型（通常称为“核心-外围”模型）来理解这些类型的地方是如何相互作用的。然而，帝国边界内的大部分农村地区相对来说还没有被开发过。该项目通过探索帝国领土的外围地区，挑战了这些核心-外围模式。这项工作与现代地缘政治景观直接相关，因为像马尼一样，世界上的大部分地区并不能完全归入“核心”或“外围”的类别。因此，该项目旨在阐明国家系统与其边境地区之间的关系，而不考虑地点或时间。该项目还将在国际合作、培训和教育方面产生更广泛的影响。它还将展示多学科方法，结合考古学、地球物理学和历史学领域的技术，如何极大地促进我们对近期农村社会经济变化的理解。它将积极促进美国和希腊学者之间的合作，鼓励妇女参与科学，并为希腊学生提供创新技术和实际考古实地经验方面的培训。Pyrgos Dirou当地考古博物馆的陶瓷收藏将扩大这些后期的材料，这些材料在大多数希腊博物馆中都严重缺乏代表性。更一般地说，所有数据将通过菲尔德博物馆网站、同行评议期刊和编辑卷的出版物、希腊的新闻稿以及希腊机构和学术会议的讲座向公众和科学界传播。Seifried还将为马尼当地人做演讲，提供有关该项目的信息，促进对近期文化遗产的参与，并鼓励对拜占庭和奥斯曼考古遗址和特征的保护。

A fundamental goal of this research is to understand how, in large scale political units such as states or empires, rural or "peripheral" communities are integrated into larger economically dominant social centers. Currently, the lack of such integration has resulted in unrest in developing countries in many regions of the world. Archaeological research, such as this project, has the ability to bring a centuries-long perspective to this question. As empires rise, expand, and fall, the people living within their borders are affected in dramatically different ways. With the guidance of her doctoral advisor, Dr. William Parkinson, Rebecca Seifried will study the ebb and flow of imperial expansion in a region famed for its location on the cultural and geographical edge of Greece - the Mani peninsula in the southern Peloponnese. The project will focus on how the transition from Byzantine (1204-1453) to Ottoman (1453-1830) rule affected where people lived and the types of physical and visual connections they maintained over time. To accomplish this task, she will use an innovative combination of methods, including analysis of aerial photography and satellite imagery, archaeological survey, study of historical archives, and spatial analysis with geographic information systems (GIS) software. Data will be gathered from several different sources: ceramics, architectural traditions, cobbled road systems, village populations, and geographic locations of settlements. After mapping and dating the settlements and the roads that connect them, Seifried will use spatial analysis to determine how their relationships changed after Ottoman rule was established in the region. Finally, the findings will be compared with other regions in the former Ottoman Empire, including the Albanian highlands, the island of Cyprus, and the neighboring peninsulas of Messenia and Laconia.Archaeological research on state expansion has tended to focus on the most important cities and their economically productive hinterlands. Different anthropological models (generally referred to as "core-periphery" models) have been proposed to understand how these types of places interacted. However, most of the rural areas within imperial borders have been left relatively unexplored. This project challenges these core-periphery models by exploring a region on the outskirts of an imperial territory. This work is directly relevant to the modern geopolitical landscape, since, like the Mani, much of the world does not fit neatly into the categories of "core" or "periphery." As such, the project seeks to illuminate the relationship between state systems and their borderlands, regardless of place or time period.The project will also have a broader impact in terms of international collaboration, training, and education. It will also demonstrate how a multidisciplinary approach, combining techniques from the fields of archaeology, geophysics, and history, can greatly benefit our understanding of rural socioeconomic changes in the recent past. It will actively promote collaboration between American and Greek scholars, encourage involvement of women in the sciences, and provide Greek students with training in innovative techniques and hands-on archaeological field experience. The ceramic collection of the local archaeological museum in Pyrgos Dirou will be expanded with material from these later periods, which are severely underrepresented in most Greek museums. More generally, all data will be disseminated to the public and the scientific community through The Field Museum website, publications in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, press releases in Greece, and lectures at Greek institutions and scholarly conferences. Seifried will also give presentations for locals in the Mani to provide information about the project, promote engagement with recent cultural heritage, and encourage the protection of Byzantine and Ottoman archaeological sites and features.