DHB-Origins and Development of Tribal Social Identities and Territorial Behaviors in Ancient Southern Arabia

这个项目考察了也门古代流动牧民有形标志的变化，以及自然和政治环境的深刻变化在今天这样以部落为基础的强大社会和领土的形成中所起的作用。尽管对部落的定义千差万别，但大多数学者都同意，部落社会的特点是作为政治和领土群体基础的亲属关系的社会关系。该项目将调查这些群体在很长一段时间内的形成，这是只有考古学才能提供的，为涉及中东部落社会的现代地缘政治提供了独特和重要的基线。为了理解古代社会认同，考察亲属社会认同的物质遗存是至关重要的。随着时间的推移，领土和领土地理的变化提供了部落动态的必要表现。先前的研究已经证实，阿拉伯南部的领土上有独特的凯恩斯标志和纪念碑，作为部落权利、仪式和路线的象征。这组拥有考古学、地理信息科学和统计学专业知识的调查人员将绘制这些古代领土和边界变化的地图，将它们与该地区环境和政治变化的年表相关联。调查人员将使用高分辨率卫星图像确定凯恩在该地区的位置和类型；他们将在也门南部偏远高地部署一个考古小组数季，以定位和核实图像上的凯恩；他们将制定适当的统计方法来估计凯恩的时空分布。这个项目突出了美国、法国和也门学者在这一国际科学努力中的合作努力。它将培养跨学科科学的研究生，弥合以高技术学科为重点出现的差距，以培养人类社会动力格局中的新一代学术。

This project examines changes in the tangible markers of Yemen's mobile herders during ancient times and the role that profound changes in the natural and political environments played in the onset of strong tribe-based societies and territories such as seen today. Despite widely varying definitions of a tribe, most scholars agree that tribal societies are marked by social bonds of kinship as the basis for political and territorial groups. The project will investigate the formation of these groups over a very long time span that only archaeology can provide, giving a unique and important baseline for modern geo-politics involving tribal societies in the Middle East. In order to understand ancient social identity, examination of material remains of kin-based social identity is crucial. Territories and changes in territorial geography over time provide the necessary manifestation of tribal dynamics. Previous research has established that territories in Southern Arabia were marked with distinctive cairns and monuments as symbols of tribal rights, rites, and routes. This group of investigators, with expertise in archaeology, geographic information science, and statistics, will map these ancient territories and changes in boundaries, correlating them to the chronology of environmental and political change in the region. The investigators will use high resolution satellite images to identify cairn locations and types in the region; they will field an archaeological team for several seasons in southern Yemen's remote highlands to locate and verify the cairns located on the images; and they will develop appropriate statistical methodology for estimating spatio-temporal distribution of cairns. This project highlights the collaborative efforts of Americans, French, and Yemeni scholars in this international scientific endeavor. It will train graduate students in interdisciplinary science, bridging the gaps that emerge with hyper-technical disciplinary focus, to foster a new generation of scholarship in the landscape of human social dynamics.