Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Production And Political Economy Across Socio-Economic Mosaics

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。对铁器时代城市和州的考古研究往往盖过了其他位于更高能见度社会的“中间”地区。然而，这些“中间”空间在整个历史上都在复杂的区域系统和全球变革中发挥了关键作用。这一博士论文项目关注的是这样一个介于早期王国政治控制之外的空间，它位于不同的语言群体和远距离的交流路线之间。作为了解该地区经济和社会组织的一种方式，该项目确定了金属生产、陶器制造、象牙雕刻和其他铁器时代行业的技术和空间差异，并将这些专门活动置于当地农业、畜牧业和其他经济战略的实践中。该项目旨在随着气候的波动、人口的迁移、王国的建立和改革以及新的通信网络的发展，在地区和全球发生戏剧性变化的时期增加更多的生活质感。通过这样做，这项研究突出了几个世纪以来复杂的全球关系，这些关系跨越了文化、语言和地理边界，展示了一个地区如何独立于主要国家而蓬勃发展，并保持着深远的贸易和通信网络。该项目通过为学生提供培训机会和促进文化遗产教育，在多个机构之间建立了伙伴关系。陶器制作、金属加工和象牙雕刻等手工艺生产活动是人们制定文化规范和与他人互动的主要场所。人们进行这些活动的方式在当地和地区的差异表明了专业知识的差异，并说明了社区与邻居的关系类型--既有附近的，也有距离更远的。通过将非侵入性地球物理调查与对铁器时代村庄遗址的挖掘相结合，研究人员将工匠的活动置于他们更大的日常背景中。这些研究方法强调人们在每个社会中作出的选择，强调生产和交换在社会中具有特定意义的方式，并强调社会和经济权力是如何定位和谈判的。在更广泛的层面上，一项关于“中间”空间的手工艺品生产的研究通过帮助更好地描述以乡村社会为特征的地区和以州一级社会为人口的地区之间的互动，审查了社会政治发展不同路径的证据。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Archaeological research on Iron Age cities and states has tended to overshadow other "in-between" areas located away from more highly visible societies. These "in-between" spaces, however, have played crucial roles throughout history in complex regional systems and global transformations. This doctoral dissertation project focuses on one such "in-between" space which lay beyond the political control of early kingdoms and was situated between different language groups and long-distance exchange routes. As a way of understanding the economic and social organization of the region, the project identifies technical and spatial variation in metal production, pottery making, ivory carving and other Iron Age industries, and situates these specialized activities within local practices of agriculture, animal raising, and other economic strategies. The project is designed to add greater texture of life during a period of dramatic regional and global change, as climates fluctuated, populations moved, kingdoms formed and reformed, and new networks of communication developed. In so doing, this research highlights centuries of complex global relationships that crosscut cultural, linguistic, and geographic boundaries to demonstrate how a region thrived independent of major states, and maintained far-reaching networks of trade and communication. The project builds partnerships between multiple institutions by offering training opportunities for students,and by promoting cultural heritage education.Craft production activities such as pottery-making, metalworking, and ivory-carving were primary arenas through which people enacted cultural norms and interacted with others. Local and regional variation in how people performed these activities indicates differences in specialized knowledge and illustrates the types of relationships communities had with their neighbors – both nearby and those located more distantly. By pairing a non-invasive geophysical survey with excavations of Iron Age village sites, the researchers place artisans' activities into their larger daily context. These research approaches underscore the choices people make in every society, emphasizing the ways production and exchange carry specific significance within societies, and highlighting how social and economic power was situated and negotiated. At a broader level, a study of craft production in "in-between" spaces examines the evidence for diverse pathways of sociopolitical development by helping to better characterize interactions between regions characterized by village societies and those populated by state-level societies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.