The Social Evolution of Eurasian Steppe Communities in Southeastern Kazakhstan and the Rise of Ancient Civilizations

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Claudia Chang博士和她的同事将在哈萨克斯坦东南部的Chilik地区进行三个考古和民族志研究，该地区构成了天山山脉和广阔的欧亚草原之间的边界。该团队汇集了考古学、历史语言学、地质考古学、民族志和考古学方面的西方、哈萨克斯坦和中国专家，对欧亚游牧社会的起源和发展进行了协调调查。在大型冲积山谷Chilik，研究小组将开始收集植被、土壤和地貌数据，以创建现代环境基线，为解释史前放牧、农业、狩猎和采集经济提供背景。该小组将建立一个地理(地理信息系统)数据库，使他们能够实施一个以计算机为基础的制图系统，以重建史前人民如何开发该地区的多个环境地带，以及开发模式如何与不同的遗址类型相关。勘察调查将为埋藏的考古沉积物的地下测试提供基础。将选择代表整个人类居住时间跨度的六个地点进行测试。将在青铜和铁器时代遗址进行更大规模的区块挖掘。将收集关于当代哈萨克土地使用、经济、技术和社会组织的补充民族志数据，为重建过去的牧业和农业经济提供模板。尽管考古学家早就认识到游牧社会在欧亚史前发挥了重要作用，但这一发展一直被视为外围地区--这些群体接触到更多定居的农业社会的地区。哈萨克斯坦最近向外国研究人员开放，现在将允许在中心地带研究这一发展。常博士和她的合作者将关注四个问题：1.有什么证据证明欧亚草原文化在复杂社会的演变中有自己的本土起源和内在动力？2.该地区的多资源经济基础如何在一个可能是独特的发展过程中发挥作用？3.人种学数据如何作为重建过去的基线？4.该地区的考古数据如何解释目前用于解释印欧语言和相关文化传统传播的扩散和迁徙模式？这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将向国际考古调查开放一个长期封闭的区域。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并为复杂社会的发展提供新的线索。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Claudia Chang and her colleagues will conduct three field seasons of archaeological and ethnographic research in the Chilik region of southeastern Kazakhstan which constitutes the boundary between the Tien Shan Mountains and the broad Eurasian steppe. The team brings together Western, Kazakhstani and Chinese specialists in archaeology, historical linguistics, geoarchaeology ethnography and archaeology to conduct a coordinated investigation into the origins and development of Eurasian nomadic societies. At Chilik, a large alluvial valley, the team will initiate the collection of vegetation, soils and geomorphological data to create a modern-day environmental baseline which will provide a context to interpret prehistoric economies of herding, farming and hunting and gathering. The team will construct a geographic (GIS) database that will allow them to implement a computer-based cartographic system to reconstruct how prehistoric peoples exploited the multiple environmental zones in the region and how patterns of exploitation are related to different site types. Reconnaissance surveys will provide the basis for sub-surface testing for buried archaeological deposits. Six sites representing the entire chronological span of human habitation will be selected for testing. Larger scale block excavations will be conducted at Bronze and Iron Age sites. Complementary ethnographic data will be collected on contemporary Kazakh land use, economy, technology and social organization to provide a template for reconstructing past herding and farming economies. Although archaeologists have long recognized that nomadic pastoral societies played an important role in Eurasian prehistory, this development has always been viewed from the peripheries - the regions where such groups came into contact with more settled agrarian societies. The recent opening of Kazakhstan to foreign researchers will now permit this development to be studied in the heartland. Dr. Chang and her collaborators will focus on four questions: 1. What evidence exists to establish that Eurasian steppe cultures had their own indigenous origins and internal dynamics in the evolution of complex society? 2. How did the multi-resource economic base of this region play in role in what is likely a unique developmental process? 3. How can ethnographic data serve as a baseline for reconstruction the past? 4. How can the models of diffusion and migration that are currently used to explain the spread of Indo-European languages and related cultural traditions be illumined by archaeological data from this region? This research is important for several reasons. It will open a long-closed area to international archaeological investigation. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and shed new light on the development of complex societies.