Discovering the (R)Evolution of EurAsian Steppe Metallurgy: Social and environmental impact of the Bronze Age steppes metal-driven economy

长期以来，欧亚青铜时代的金属贸易一直被认为是东西方经济网络(后来被称为丝绸之路)的驱动力。这个网络的核心是农业国家和帝国日益崛起的政治领导层对铜基产品的需求，以及欧亚草原丰富的矿藏。以前的草原研究往往依赖于自然稀缺的材料，如有机物，或高度流动性和可回收利用的材料，如金属制品，导致对草原群落的有限看法，认为草原群落是相对同质的社会，携带着物体和基因，并通过欧亚地图上的箭头和圆圈简化它们的贸易网络。Pi和他的同事们的初步研究揭示了青铜时代金属在广袤草原内外空前规模的开采、生产和流通的证据，表明草原群落可能是整个欧亚大陆以金属为基础的、相互关联的经济的关键驱动力。青铜时代草原冶金是如何以及为什么扩大到前所未有的生产和流通水平(公元前3500-1000年)的？探索草原金属和社会流动模式的研究很少关注金属生产的创新及其对环境的影响。然而，生产废渣，特别是冶金炉渣，携带着关于环境、冶金和社会之间复杂相互作用的基本信息。我将采用一种独创的跨学科方法来分析草原金属生产和植物残渣，并创建和预测多层数据集，这些数据集将提供高分辨率解释模型，用于在欧亚联系的背景下欧亚草原冶金的演变、组织和环境影响。考古学、地理学、材料学、环境、地球和复杂性科学以及人工智能的综合方法将在产生欧亚(前)历史的新知识方面实现范式转变。

The Eurasian Bronze Age trade of metals has long been recognised as the driving force of the West-East economic network, later known as the Silk Roads. Central to this network was the demand for copper-base items from the rising political leadership of agrarian states and empires and the richness of Eurasian Steppe ore deposits. Previous steppe research often relied on materials that are scarce by nature, like organics, or highly mobile and recyclable, such as metal artefacts, leading to a limited view of steppe communities as relatively homogenous societies that carried objects and genes and simplifying their trade networks with arrows and circles on the map of Eurasia. Preliminary research by PI and colleagues has revealed evidence for an unparalleled scale of exploitation, production and circulation of Bronze Age metals within and beyond the vast grasslands, suggesting that the steppe communities might have been the key drivers of a metal-based and interconnected economy across Eurasia.How and why did Bronze Age steppe metallurgy scale up to unprecedented levels of production and circulation (c. 3500-1000 BC)? Studies exploring patterns of mobility of steppe metals and societies rarely focus on innovation in metal production and its environmental impact. Yet production debris, in particular metallurgical slag, carries fundamental information about complex interactions between environment, metallurgy and society. I will take an original interdisciplinary approach to analyse steppe metal production and plant debris, and to create and predict multi-layered datasets that will feed into high-resolution explanatory models for the evolution, organisation and environmental impact of Eurasian Steppe metallurgy in the context of Eurasian connectedness. Integrated approaches from Archaeology, Geography, Materials, Environmental, Earth and Complexity Sciences and Artificial Intelligence will deliver a paradigm shift in generating new knowledge of Eurasian (pre)history.