Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Sociopolitical Complexity in Northern Mesopotamia

本研究的基本目标是了解传统国家层面社会中统治者和被统治者之间的相互作用。中心问题集中于后者在中央集权加强期间为保持经济独立所采取的战略。在Richard Meadow博士的指导下，Max Price将研究早期复杂社会中不同社会阶层之间的关系如何影响农业决策。他将通过研究美索不达米亚北部（今天的叙利亚、土耳其南部和伊拉克北部）在第一个国家出现期间（公元前6500-2100年）养猪实践的变化来做到这一点。这项研究将揭示国家和官僚精英的行为如何影响非精英城市居民的经济决策，反之亦然。古代美索不达米亚北部的领导人和他们的官僚们控制着经济的许多方面，以便为国家开支提供资金。在动物经济方面，他们控制绵羊、山羊和牛群，试图垄断肉类和其他动物产品的市场。然而，从古代美索不达米亚的文本中可以明显看出，他们没有控制养猪。此外，猪的生长和繁殖速度很快，使猪肉成为非精英公民特别有用的食物来源，特别是在城市中心，当时对肉类分销的控制是最大的。在领导人越来越多地利用他们对农业生产的控制，以牺牲非精英阶层的利益为代价来增加自己的权力的时期，猪肉就显得尤为重要。在这些情况下，猪可以作为防止官僚控制的肉类来源不可靠的保险。因此，这项研究的假设是，当集中的政治权力达到顶峰时，养猪业就会加强。为了调查非精英农学家如何改变养猪实践以应对不断变化的政治环境，Price将采用一系列考古分析技术。他将研究来自15个考古遗址的动物骨骼和牙齿，这些文物目前收藏在美国和土耳其的博物馆里。他将采用的方法是通过观察猪饲养、繁殖和围栏实践随着时间的变化来重建古代畜牧业实践。此外，他将在伊拉克北部（库尔德斯坦地区）的Tell Surezha遗址进行考古发掘，那里的人类居住历史悠久，将为国家形成过程中早期畜牧业实践的变化提供重要数据。这项研究具有更广泛的影响，而不仅仅是提高对早期国家对非精英多数的影响的考古学和人类学理解。它将包括在哈佛大学皮博迪考古与民族学博物馆进行公众宣传。普莱斯已经并将继续向各个年龄段的博物馆赞助人展示他的研究成果，帮助公众了解古代社会的日常生活。此外，这项研究的挖掘部分在伊拉克北部的库尔德地区进行，将为当地考古学学生提供现代恢复和分析技术方面的培训。培训新一代伊拉克考古学家是必要的，以便帮助防止抢劫和破坏考古遗址和文化遗产。

The fundamental goal of this research is to understand the interactions between the governing and the governed in traditional state level societies. The central question focuses on the strategies taken by the latter to maintain economic independence during periods in which centralized authority increases.Under the direction of Dr. Richard Meadow Max Price will study how relations between different segments of society affected agricultural decision-making in early complex societies. He will do this by examining changes in pig husbandry practices in northern Mesopotamia (modern day Syria, southern Turkey, and northern Iraq) over the period during which the first states emerged (6500-2100 BC). This research will shed light on how the actions of state and bureaucratic elites influenced the economic decisions of non-elite urban residents and vice-versa.Ancient northern Mesopotamian leaders and their bureaucrats maintained control over many aspects of the economy in order to fund state expenses. In the case of the animal economy, they controlled sheep, goat, and cattle herds in an attempt to corner the market on meat and other animal products. However, it is apparent from ancient Mesopotamian texts that they did not control pig husbandry. In addition, pigs grow and reproduce rapidly, making pork a particularly useful food source for non-elite citizens, especially in urban centers, where the control over meat distribution was at that time greatest. Pork would have been particularly important in periods during which leaders increasingly used their control over agricultural production to increase their power at the expense of the non-elite. In these cases, pigs would have acted as insurance against the unreliability of bureaucrat-controlled meat sources. The hypothesis of this research, therefore, is that pig husbandry intensified when and where centralized political power was at its greatest.In order to investigate how non-elite agriculturalists altered pig husbandry practices in response to changing political circumstances, Price will employ a range of archaeological analytical techniques. He will study collections of animal bones and teeth from 15 archaeological sites, which are currently curated in museums in the United States and Turkey. The methods he will employ are designed to reconstruct ancient husbandry practices by looking at changes in pig feeding, breeding, and penning practices over time. In addition, he will conduct archaeological excavations at the site of Tell Surezha in northern Iraq (Kurdistan region), where a long history of human habitation will provide important data on changes in husbandry practices early on in the process of state formation. This research has broader impacts beyond those relating to improving the archaeological and anthropological understanding of the impact of early states on the non-elite majority. It will include public outreach at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. Price has presented and will continue to present his research to museum patrons of all ages, helping to educate the public about daily life in ancient societies. Additionally, the excavation component of this research, which takes place in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, will provide training to local archaeology students in modern recovery and analytical techniques. Training the new generation of Iraqi archaeologists is imperative in order to help prevent looting and the destruction of archaeological sites and cultural heritage.