Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Agriculture And The Development Of Social Complexity

康涅狄格大学的Alexia Smith博士和Madelynn von Baeyer博士将利用考古植物学（研究植物与古人类之间的关系）来研究植物的使用如何促进社会复杂性的过程。考古学家经常将获取或控制农产品的变化作为社会等级发展的重要因素，本项目将检验这些假设。这项研究将有助于全球讨论农业实践、一系列环境因素以及人群的社会、政治和经济角色之间的动态关系。在此背景下，本项目将通过解决环境变化时期社会复杂性与作物生产之间的关系，拓宽当前关于食物和食物生产影响的文化话语。这项研究将为Madelynn的博士论文提供基础，从而有助于一个有前途的科学家的智力和学术发展。Smith和von Baeyer将研究来自Çadýr Höyük的晚铜器时代（公元前4000年-公元前3100年）遗迹，这是位于安纳托利亚中部的一个跨越中铜器时代到拜占庭时期的多时期遗址，以确定植物使用的模式，包括：使用的物种和植物部位，整个遗址中与植物有关的活动的多样性，家庭劳动组织，以及早期社会复杂性的植物标志。该项目将整合植物数据、人种学和生态数据，以及Çadýr Höyük挖掘数据，包括建筑背景、样本空间分布和人工制品分布。安纳托利亚中部的晚铜石器时代是研究植物如何促进美索不达米亚腹地以外的社会复杂性的理想时期，因为当时出现了农村区域中心，如Çadýr、防御墙和广泛的贸易网络。这个项目将有助于加深对社会复杂性在西南亚和世界各地出现的各种不同轨迹的理解。

Dr. Alexia Smith and Madelynn von Baeyer, of the University of Connecticut, will use archaeobotany, the study of the relationship between plants and ancient people, to examine how plant use contributes to the process of social complexity. Archaeologists often cite changes in access to or control of agricultural goods as an important factor in developing social hierarchies, and this project will examine these assumptions. This research will contribute to global discussions of the dynamic relationship between agricultural practices, a range of environmental factors, and the social, political, and economic roles of groups of people. Within this context, this project will broaden the current cultural discourse on food and the impacts of food production by addressing the relationship between social complexity and crop production during a time of environmental flux. The research will provide the basis for Madelynn's doctoral dissertation thesis and thus contribute to the intellectual and academic development of a promising scientist.Smith and von Baeyer will examine Late Chalcolithic (4000 B.C.- 3100 B.C.) remains from Çadýr Höyük, a multi-period site in central Anatolia that spans the Middle Chalcolithic to Byzantine periods in order to identify patterns of plant use including: species and plant parts used, the diversity of plant-related activities across the site, household labor organization, and plant-based markers of incipient social complexity. This project will integrate plant data with ethnographic and ecological data, as well as data from the Çadýr Höyük excavations including architectural context, spatial distribution of samples, and artifact distribution. The Late Chalcolithic period in central Anatolia is an ideal period to study how plants contribute to bourgeoning social complexity outside of the Mesopotamian heartland owing to the emergence of rural regional centers like Çadýr, defensive walls, and extensive trade networks at that time. This project will contribute to the growing understanding of the variety of different trajectories by which social complexity emerged in SW Asia and around the world.