Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Botswana Iron Age Dynamics

在James Denbow博士的监督下，Carla Klehm将在博茨瓦纳Bosutswe和Khubu la Dintsa的铁器时代遗址进行考古发掘和分析。她的项目调查如何在Khubu la Dintsa当地的政治经济形，并在Bosutswe在其参与印度洋贸易网络的高度更广泛的政治，经济和社会变革的形状。这项研究的重要性在于它将为传统社会中权力中心和边远地区之间如何建立区域网络提供洞察力。考古学有可能将这一过程置于深层的时间背景中。博苏特维（公元700-1700年）是一个重要的区域性本地和远程交流中心，跨越喀拉哈里沙漠，最终将南部非洲与东非、中东、印度、中国和印度尼西亚连接起来。博苏茨韦的长途玻璃珠和当地的鸵鸟蛋壳珠证明了当地强大的经济，由养牛，自给农业和钢铁和青铜制造业支持。这种贸易在中失落时期（1300-1450年）达到顶峰，当时博苏茨韦的阶级分化急剧加剧。为了科普永久定居点周围的长期过度放牧，牛群放牧战略发生了变化，并可能包括与分散的枢纽（如Khubu la Dintsa）建立贸易关系，以保持高质量的放牧。Khubu la Dintsa，距离博苏茨韦12公里，符合博苏茨韦序列的这一部分。这项研究设计考虑了物质产品的生产，使用和交换，以比较Khubu和博苏茨韦之间发展的社会和经济关系。此外，它强调了区域马赛克对该地区复杂社会和国家形成的重要贡献。权力是集体行动的能力，对地方社会和经济权力关系的关注使较小规模的定居点能够在文化建设中发挥更直接的作用。 在Khubu la Dintsa进行的大规模水平挖掘调查了其维斯维斯Bosutswe的功能以及场地内和场地之间的变化。数据进行比较，使用空间和定量分析，以前在博苏茨韦进行的考古研究的结果。这些遗址之间的物质联系--饮食、牲畜与牲畜之间的关系、住房风格、珠子、金属和陶瓷等奢侈品和实用商品--被用来构建和维持权力战略，在一个日益相互联系的世界里，这些战略使社会生活更加丰富多彩。在学术界之外，这个项目在改善当地的考古学教育、保护文化遗产、这些活动有助于减少遗址文化所有权方面的争议，促进关于少数群体代表性的政治辩论，并增进人民对其国家的过去及其在南部非洲的作用的了解。该项目与博茨瓦纳政府强调纪念碑是文化遗产的新运动相吻合。计划在研究人员和附近的卡马博物馆之间建立一个史前展览，这应该会加深博茨瓦纳历史的自豪感。

Under the supervision of Dr. James Denbow, Carla Klehm will conduct archaeological excavations and analyses at the Iron Age sites of Bosutswe and Khubu la Dintsa, Botswana. Her project investigates how the local political economy at Khubu la Dintsa shaped and was shaped by the broader political, economic, and social transformations at Bosutswe during the height of its participation in the Indian Ocean trade network. The importance of the research rests on the insight it will provide into how regional networks are established between power centers and outlying regions in traditional societies. Archaeology has the potential to place this process in deep chronological context. Such issues are relevant in many regions of the world today.Bosutswe (CE 700-1700) was a major regional hub for local and long-distance exchange that extended across the Kalahari Desert and ultimately linked southern Africa to East Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and Indonesia. Long-distance glass trade beads and local ostrich eggshell beads at Bosutswe attest to a strong local economy supported by cattle herding, subsistence farming, and iron and bronze manufacture. This trade peaked in the Middle Lose period, CE 1300-1450, when class divisions sharply increased at Bosutswe. Cattle herding strategies shifted to cope with long-term overgrazing around permanent settlements, and may have included trade relationships to dispersed hubs such as Khubu la Dintsa to maintain quality grazing. Khubu la Dintsa, twelve kilometers from Bosutswe, fits into this slice of the Bosutswe sequence.This research design considers the production, use, and exchange of material goods to compare the social and economic relationships that developed between Khubu and Bosutswe. Moreover, it emphasizes the regional mosaic's crucial contribution to the rise of complex societies and state formation in the region. Power is the capacity for collective action, and a focus on local social and economic power relationships allows smaller-scale settlements to play a more direct role in cultural construction. Broad-scale horizontal excavations at Khubu la Dintsa investigate its function vis-à-vis Bosutswe and variation within and between sites. The data is compared, using spatial and quantitative analyses, to the results of previous archaeological research conducted at Bosutswe. The material connections between the sites - diet, access to cattle versus smaller stock, housing styles, luxury and utilitarian goods like beads, metals, and ceramics - is used to construct and maintain power strategies that underlay social life in an increasingly interconnected world.Outside the academic community, this project has great potential for improving local education in archaeology, preserving cultural heritage, mitigating disputes over cultural ownership of sites, contributing to political debates on minority representation, and enhancing peoples' understanding of their nation's past and its role in southern Africa. This project coincides with a new government campaign in Botswana to emphasize monuments as cultural heritage. Plans to build a prehistory exhibit between the researcher and the nearby Khama Museum should deepen pride in Botswana's history.