Inter-Regional Exchange and Urbanism in the Indus Valley: Lithic Source Provenience Studies at Harappa

在J. Mark Kenoyer博士的监督下，Randall Law将分析来自巴基斯坦Harappa古代遗址的各种原材料，以重建公元前4世纪末至公元前2世纪初印度河流域存在的区域间交流和资源获取的途径。南亚第一个国家级社会的衰落，印度河文明，与美索不达米亚和埃及的早期国家同时代。 这项研究是通过对哈拉帕的原岩和矿产商品组合进行系统的、大规模的出处检查来完成的。 与过去对史前南亚岩石交换网络的研究不同，这项研究使用了最新的地质参考资料，现代矿物学鉴定技术和考古材料的地球化学来源分析，以产生一个新的，更准确的区域间相互作用模型。 哈拉帕是众多石器工艺活动的中心，哈拉帕考古研究项目自1986年以来的挖掘收集了大量不同数量的岩石和矿物碎片。此外，为了进行比较，还从巴基斯坦和印度的印度河流域周围的潜在来源地区收集了地质样本。对选定的考古和现代材料进行的地球化学来源研究表明，一个扩大的分析方案将提供所需的各类信息，以绘制南亚这一地区史前时期可能的来源和贸易路线图，将利用国家科学基金会的支助，从印度和巴基斯坦收集和分析更多的地质样本，以建立一个数据库对这些材料来说，这是更全面的区域和统计意义。 资金还将支持对哈拉帕所有年代和职业领域的考古样本进行分析，以便能够产生遗址材料获取和分布的完整历史画面。 过去对贸易网络、手工艺生产和自给剥削的研究表明，这些活动的变化伴随着哈拉帕城市发展的进程。这项研究将产生一个新的框架，以审查统治哈拉帕市的一个或多个群体的政治和经济战略，更广泛的影响来自史前南亚地区间互动和城市发展的区域和地方进程的新科学视角。地球化学特征数据库将极大地有助于今后在南亚其他地点和其他时期进行物源研究。由此产生的数据和区域间交流和资源访问的解释模型可以用于早期国家研究的更大领域的学者进行跨文化比较，并与世界这一地区当前的地缘政治互动有关。PI和Co-PI参与了与巴基斯坦和印度学者和研究生的重要外联活动。这一外联活动包括在会议上提交合作论文，对学生进行样本收集和处理方面的培训，以及向当地机构和图书馆提供选本和研究成果。

Under the supervision of Dr. J. Mark Kenoyer, Randall Law will analyze a wide range of raw materials from the ancient site of Harappa, Pakistan in order to reconstruct the avenues of inter-regional exchange and resource access that existed in the Indus Valley during the late 4th to early 2nd millennium B.C. This time period is important because it encompasses the emergence, existence, and decline of South Asia's first state-level society, the Indus Civilization, a contemporary of early states in Mesopotamia and Egypt. This study being accomplished through a systematic, broad-scale provenience examination of Harappa's raw rock and mineral commodity assemblage. Unlike past examinations of prehistoric South Asian lithic exchange networks, this study uses up-to-date geologic reference material, modern mineralogical identification techniques, and geochemical provenience analyses of archaeological materials to generate a new, more accurate model of inter-regional interaction. Harappa was a center of numerous lithic craft activities and excavations by the Harappa Archaeological Research Project since 1986 have collected abundant and highly varied amounts of rock and mineral debris. In addition, for comparative purposes, geologic samples have been collected from potential source areas surrounding the Indus Valley in Pakistan and India. Geochemical provenience studies of selected archaeological and modern materials have indicated that an expanded program of analysis will provide the types of information needed to produce a map of possible sources and the trade routes used during the prehistoric period in this region of South Asia.Support from the National Science Foundation will be used to collect and analyze additional geologic samples from India and Pakistan in order to create a database for these materials that is more regionally comprehensive and statistically significant. Funding will also support the analysis of archaeological samples from all chronological periods and occupational areas of Harappa so that a full diachronic picture of material acquisition and distribution at the site can be generated. Past studies of trade networks, craft production and subsistence exploitation suggest that changes in those activities accompanied the process of urban development at Harappa. This study will result in a new framework for examining the political and economic strategies of the group or groups that ruled the city of Harappa.The broader impacts derive from the new scientific perspective on regional and local processes relating to inter-regional interaction and urban development in prehistoric South Asia. The geochemical characterization database will be of great benefit in future provenience studies at other South Asian sites and during other periods. The resulting data and interpretive models of inter-regional exchange and resource access can be used for cross-cultural comparisons by scholars in the larger field of early state studies and are relevant to the current geo-political interactions in this region of the world. The PI and Co-PI have been involved in significant outreach with scholars and graduate students in both Pakistan and India. This outreach has included presenting collaborative papers at conferences, training students in sample collection and processing as well as providing offprints and research results to local institutions and libraries.