Paths to Bronze Age Complexity: Monitoring the Rise of Pecica "Santul Mare"

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，John O’shea博士和一个由来自美国、罗马尼亚、匈牙利和意大利的同事组成的国际团队将在罗马尼亚西南部的Pecica“ªanþul Mare”遗址重新进行考古发掘。Pecica“ªanþul Mare”是欧洲最重要的青铜时代遗址之一，也是青铜工具、装饰品和武器的主要生产和贸易中心。此前由美国国家科学基金会支持的研究表明，Pecica是一个复杂的政体，拥有集中的公共建筑、工艺专家和隔离的社会阶层。研究还表明，Pecica与驯养马匹的传播密切相关，可能还有战车，进入欧洲。虽然之前的工作展示了Pecica在其鼎盛时期的画面，以及它的迅速崩溃，但目前的研究工作关注的是了解Pecica是如何崛起的。Pecica残存的考古层保存着独特的记录，记录了导致Pecica社会存在的内部和外部因素。此次发掘将为Pecica作为主要区域中心的出现提供详细的视图，并阐明这一发展的背景，无论是在当代当地社区还是在欧洲青铜时代更大的区域网络中。这项研究将有助于我们理解社会不平等和复杂性是如何发展的，并突出了一种社会组织形式，它是欧洲青铜时代文化发展的核心，但可能与世界其他地区看到的复杂酋长型组织不同。这次发掘将提供有关冶金和工艺生产的发展和组织的重要新信息，并提供有关青铜器时代生存和生产经济的关键证据，特别是关于国内马匹和相关运输技术进入欧洲的变革性传播。最后，挖掘工作将提供一个完整的记录，不仅是这个重要的欧盟文化遗产遗址的物质文化，还有青铜器时代的气候和环境，特别是Pecica的发展对当地和区域环境的文化影响，这可能与中期青铜器时代末期严重的环境恶化有关。除了了解Pecica定居点本身，这项研究还带来了许多更广泛的好处。Pecica的工作将有助于对喀尔巴阡盆地青铜器时代的更大研究。匈牙利、罗马尼亚和塞尔维亚同时进行的研究项目正在联合起来，为考古研究提供一个宏观区域数据集，这在欧洲是独一无二的，可能与墨西哥谷或瓦哈卡等地相媲美，成为研究文化变迁的实验室。该研究为美国研究生和本科生提供国际研究经验，并为罗马尼亚初级和高级学生提供培训机会。合作和跨学科的努力为所有参与者提供培训利益，无论是高年级还是低年级，并支持罗马尼亚境内研究设计和挖掘战略的创新。该项目还为考古研究的基础设施做出了贡献，为这个重要地点的考古收藏提供了更好的管理和访问。

With National Science Foundation Support, Dr. John O'Shea and an international team of colleagues from the United States, Romania, Hungary, and Italy will renew archaeological excavations at the site of Pecica "ªanþul Mare" in southwestern Romania. The great tell of Pecica "ªanþul Mare" is among the most important Bronze Age sites in Europe, and was a major center for the production and trade of bronze tools, ornaments and weapons. Previous National Science Foundation supported research has shown that Pecica was a complex polity with centralized public architecture, craft specialists, and segregated social strata. The research also demonstrated that Pecica was deeply involved in the spread of domestic horses, and possibly also chariots, into Europe. While this prior work presented a picture of Pecica at its peak, and of its rapid collapse, the present research effort is concerned with understanding how Pecica rose to prominence. The remaining archaeological layers at Pecica hold a unique record of the internal and external factors which brought the Pecica society into existence. The excavations will provide a detailed view of the emergence of Pecica as a major regional center and clarify the context of this development, both among the contemporary local communities and within the larger regional networks of the European Bronze Age. The research will contribute to our understanding of how social inequality and complexity develop, and highlight a form of societal organization that is central to cultural developments in the European Bronze Age but which may differ from the complex chiefdom type organization seen in other parts of the World. The excavation will generate important new information relating to the development and organization of metallurgy and craft production, and provide critical evidence relating to the Bronze Age subsistence and productive economies, and particularly to the transformative spread of the domestic horse and associated transport technologies into Europe. Finally, the excavations will provide a complete record of not only the material culture of this important EU Cultural Heritage site, but also of the Bronze Age climate and environment, and particularly the cultural impacts of Pecica's development on the local and regional environment that may be linked to significant environmental deteriorations at the end of the Middle Bronze Age.Apart from understanding the settlement of Pecica, itself, the research promises a number of broader benefits. The work at Pecica will contribute to the larger research effort in the Carpathian Basin Bronze Age. Concurrent research projects in Hungary, Romania, and Serbia are combining to provide a macro-regional dataset for archaeological research that is unique in Europe and may rival places such as the Valley of Mexico or Oaxaca as a laboratory for the study of culture change. The research provides international research experience for American graduate and undergraduate students, and provides training opportunities for beginning and advanced Romanian students. The collaborative and interdisciplinary effort provides training benefits to all participants, senior and junior alike, and is supporting innovations in research design and excavation strategies within Romania. The project is also contributing to the infrastructure of archaeological research by providing improved curation and access for the archaeological collections from this important site.