Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Agriculture And The Development Of Social Complexity

博士论文改进补助金：农业与社会复杂性的发展

• 批准号: 1463705
• 负责人: Alexia Smith
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-02-01 至 2018-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1463705&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Agriculture

Dr. Alexia Smith and Madelynn von Baeyer, of the University of Connecticut, will use archaeobotany, the study of the relationship between plants and ancient people, to examine how plant use contributes to the process of social complexity. Archaeologists often cite changes in access to or control of agricultural goods as an important factor in developing social hierarchies, and this project will examine these assumptions. This research will contribute to global discussions of the dynamic relationship between agricultural practices, a range of environmental factors, and the social, political, and economic roles of groups of people. Within this context, this project will broaden the current cultural discourse on food and the impacts of food production by addressing the relationship between social complexity and crop production during a time of environmental flux. The research will provide the basis for Madelynn's doctoral dissertation thesis and thus contribute to the intellectual and academic development of a promising scientist.Smith and von Baeyer will examine Late Chalcolithic (4000 B.C.- 3100 B.C.) remains from Çadýr Höyük, a multi-period site in central Anatolia that spans the Middle Chalcolithic to Byzantine periods in order to identify patterns of plant use including: species and plant parts used, the diversity of plant-related activities across the site, household labor organization, and plant-based markers of incipient social complexity. This project will integrate plant data with ethnographic and ecological data, as well as data from the Çadýr Höyük excavations including architectural context, spatial distribution of samples, and artifact distribution. The Late Chalcolithic period in central Anatolia is an ideal period to study how plants contribute to bourgeoning social complexity outside of the Mesopotamian heartland owing to the emergence of rural regional centers like Çadýr, defensive walls, and extensive trade networks at that time. This project will contribute to the growing understanding of the variety of different trajectories by which social complexity emerged in SW Asia and around the world.

康涅狄格大学的Alexia Smith博士和Madelynn von Baeyer将利用考古植物学，研究植物与古代人之间的关系，来研究植物的使用如何促进社会复杂性的过程。考古学家经常将获取或控制农产品的变化作为发展社会等级的重要因素，本项目将研究这些假设。这项研究将有助于全球讨论农业实践，一系列环境因素以及人群的社会，政治和经济角色之间的动态关系。在这一背景下，该项目将通过解决环境变化时期社会复杂性与作物生产之间的关系，扩大当前关于粮食和粮食生产影响的文化讨论。这项研究将为Madelynn的博士论文提供基础，从而有助于一位有前途的科学家的智力和学术发展。公元前3100年）Höyük遗址，这是一个位于安纳托利亚中部的多时期遗址，跨越了中铜器时代到拜占庭时期，以确定植物使用的模式，包括：使用的物种和植物部分，整个遗址与植物相关的活动的多样性，家庭劳动组织，以及早期社会复杂性的植物标记。该项目将整合植物数据与人种学和生态学数据，以及来自Höyük考古发掘的数据，包括建筑背景，样本的空间分布和人工制品分布。安纳托利亚中部的铜器时代晚期是研究植物如何促进美索不达米亚中心地带以外的社会复杂性的理想时期，因为当时出现了农村区域中心，如阿卡德米尔，防御墙和广泛的贸易网络。该项目将有助于人们对社会复杂性在亚洲西南部和世界各地出现的各种不同轨迹的理解。