Nomad state formation and urbanization on the northern Silk Road:The early medieval town of Dzhankent (Aral Sea region, Kazakhstan)

这个在发展中国家的合作项目将在游牧民族国家形成和长途贸易的背景下，探索北方丝绸之路上的早期中世纪城市化进程。关键遗址是废弃的Dzhankent镇，10世纪至12世纪的阿拉伯资料中记录了它作为乌古兹游牧帝国的首都。主要问题包括该镇及其前身定居点的成立日期、布局和功能要素、人口的构成、结构和不断变化的经济活动，以及该镇消亡的原因。这些问题将以跨学科的地质考古方法加以解决，方法是对该镇内部及其周围进行非破坏性勘探、挖掘和环境研究，并对发现和发现进行分析。该项目有望通过引入新的方法，并首次将这一主题置于从中亚到西欧的理论和辩论的背景下，推动对哈萨克斯坦西部中世纪早期城市化的研究。该遗址的重要性来自其历史背景和自然环境：9/10世纪奥古兹游牧民族国家的形成及其同期的城市化，其主要城镇位于Syr-Darya的巨大河流三角洲。对这里城市发展的刺激之一可能是对中亚的南北贸易(包括奴隶和牲畜)。Khorezmian中间商在这一行业中的作用似乎反映在占肯特的陶器、家庭建筑和城市规划中。它的位置增加了该项目的环境相关性，因为它有助于更广泛地研究咸海地区的荒漠化问题。我们研究计划的环境要素将包括对Dzhankent附近的河流三角洲古河道进行年代测定，以及对该遗址的土壤、动物骨骼和鱼类遗骸进行科学分析。因此，该项目将在分析咸海以东的城市化进程时处理社会经济和环境因素，其结果将在中亚和欧洲关于中世纪早期国家形成中的城市起源和功能的辩论框架内加以解释；到目前为止，这些辩论几乎是互不相关的。计划中的项目将由来自德国和哈萨克斯坦机构的考古学家组成的团队进行，他们拥有互补的专业知识和经验，并得到来自德国、英国和俄罗斯的签约科学家和学者以及一个国际咨询委员会的支持。

This cooperative project in a developing country will explore the process of early medieval urbanization on the northern Silk Road in the context of nomad state formation and long-distance trade. The key site is the deserted town of Dzhankent which is recorded in Arab sources of the 10th to 12th centuries as the capital of the Oguz nomad empire. Key questions include the date of the foundation of the town and its predecessor settlement, its lay-out and functional elements, the composition, structure and changing economic activities of its population, and the reasons for its demise. These questions will be tackled with an interdisciplinary geoarchaeological approach by non-destructive prospection, excavation and enviromental studies in the interior of the town and in its immediate surroundings, and by analysis of finds and findings. The project promises to give an impetus to the study of early medieval urbanization in western Kazakhstan by introducing new methodologies, and by putting the subject for the first time in the context of theories and debates from Central Asia to Western Europe. The significance of the site derives from its historical context as well as its natural environment: the formation of the Oguz nomad state in the 9th/10th centuries and its contemporaneous urbanization, with its main towns located in the huge river delta of the Syr-Darya. One of the stimuli for urban development here may have been north-south trade (including slaves and livestock) to Central Asia. The role of Khorezmian middlemen in this trade appears to be reflected in the pottery, domestic architecture and urban planning of Dzhankent. Its location gives the project an added environmental relevance in that it contributes to the wider study of the desertification of the Aral Sea region. Environmental elements of our research programme will include the dating of river delta palaeochannels close to Dzhankent, and scientific analyses of soils, animal bones and fish remains from the site. The project will, thus, address socio-economic as well as environmental factors in the analysis of the urbanization process east of the Aral Sea.The results are to be interpreted within the framework of Central Asian and European debates about urban origins and functions in early medieval state formation; these have so far been virtually unconnected debates. The planned project will be conducted by a team of archaeologists from German and Kazakh institutions with complementary expertise and experience, supported by contracted scientists and scholars from Germany, Britain and Russia, and by an International Advisory Committee.