Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Emergence of Social Inequality

研究人员试图了解史前社会不平等的出现及其对文化组织和发展的影响。欧洲青铜时代，大约在公元前2500年到公元前800年，是一个文化迅速变革的时代，产生了新的社会、政治和经济生活方式。青铜工具和武器开始以标准化的形式大量生产。社会分化和等级变得更加根深蒂固，人们和思想在欧洲变得越来越流动。考古方法非常适合于确定这一时期发生的物质和组织变化（如地位、饮食、信仰体系、定居的变化），以及它们对当地人口的影响。该项目考察了青铜时代克罗地亚北部日益复杂的社会经济系统中不断变化的埋葬习俗、定居模式和生存策略。结果将描述史前社会复杂性和不平等的轨迹，但也可用于研究现代群体中不平等的出现和维持。数据收集将积极参与并训练本科生和研究生对研究人类过去至关重要的定量方法。研究小组将分析博物馆收藏的埋葬组合和坟墓背景，以重建基本的社会结构水平，重点是家庭和社区水平随时间的变化。尸体和骨骼数据将由骨骼的考古分析补充，包括AMS 14C放射性碳定年程序和稳定的碳和氮同位素。稳定同位素值的变化可以表明人口内部的社会差异，并将用于补充社会政治组织的更传统的考古相关性（例如，定居点和建筑，埋葬，异国情调或象征性文物的分布）。放射性碳定年法将用于确定这些材料标记物的发展年代，并将它们与更广泛的社会政治和经济变化联系起来。将对目前保存在克罗地亚萨格勒布考古博物馆（AMZ）的Iapodian文化组的晚期青铜器（公元前1300 ~ 800年）和早期铁器（公元前800 ~ 600年）收藏品进行研究。该项目代表了在欧洲青铜和铁器时代背景下对伊波迪亚社会政治发展进行长期调查的重要的第一步。更一般地说，研究结果将有助于理解社会不平等如何以及何时成为现实，对个人和群体产生的后果，以及这些权力结构如何随着时间的推移而维持（或不维持）。研究结果将发表在国际出版物上，并在美国和克罗地亚的讲座和讲习班上向公众介绍。

Researchers seek to understand the emergence of social inequality in prehistory and its effect on cultural organization and development. The European Bronze Age, roughly ca. 2500 to 800 B.C., was a time of swift cultural change that resulted in new social, political, and economic lifeways. Bronze tools and weapons began to be mass-produced in standardized forms. Social differentiation and ranking became more entrenched, and peoples and ideas became increasingly mobile in Europe. Archaeological methods are well suited for identifying both the material and organizational changes that happened during this time (e.g. changes in status, diet, belief systems, settlement), and their effect on local populations. This project examines changing burial practices, settlement patterns, and subsistence strategies as proxies for increasingly complex socio-economic systems in Bronze Age northern Croatia. Results will characterize trajectories of social complexity and inequality in prehistory, but can also be used to inform research on the emergence and maintenance of inequality in modern groups. Data collection will actively involve and train undergraduate and graduate students in quantitative methodology crucial for studying the human past.The research team will analyze burial assemblages and grave contexts from museum collections to reconstruct basic levels of social structure, with an emphasis on changes over time at both household and community levels. Mortuary and osteological data will be complemented by archaeometric analyses on bone, including an AMS 14C radiocarbon dating program and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes. Variation in stable isotope values can signal social differences within the population, and will be used to complement more traditional archaeological correlates of sociopolitical organization (e.g., settlements and architecture, burials, distribution of exotic or symbolic artifacts). Radiocarbon dating will be used to date the progression of these material markers, and link them to broader sociopolitical and economic changes. Research will be conducted on Late Bronze (1300-800 BC) and Early Iron (800-600 BC) Age collections of the Iapodian cultural group, currently held at the Archaeological Museum Zagreb (AMZ) in Croatia. This project represents an important first step in a long-term investigation of Iapodian sociopolitical development in the context of the European Bronze and Iron Ages. More generally, results will contribute to understanding of how and when social inequality materializes, the resulting consequences for individuals and groups, and how these power structures are maintained (or not) over time. Results will be published in international publications and presented in lectures and workshops to public audiences in the US and Croatia.