Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role Of Fortifications In Reifying Social Structure

现代世界的特点是无数的差异切断了经济、社会和政治的界限。人类社会中的这种结构化和等级划分既不是集体生活的必要条件，也不是必然条件，而是在特定的历史条件下发展起来的。考古学在研究这种“复杂的社会”是如何产生的方面是独一无二的，因为它允许研究人员通过人类活动的物质遗迹来追踪数千年来社会组织的变化。这样的理解有助于人们更好地认识到不同的政治生活方式带来的机会和权衡。康奈尔大学的Eilis Monahan女士将进行研究，通过特别关注景观和建筑环境，调查复杂社会的早期形成。具体地说，这项研究试图解释防御工事等防御结构在创造我们今天视为现代社会基本特征的社会和政治边界方面所扮演的角色。在世界许多地区，防御工事和其他对景观的戏剧性变化发生在向更加复杂的过渡时期。因此，这项研究具有广泛的社会科学意义，有助于就权力、社会和国防之间的关系进行更广泛的辩论。莫纳汉的研究是与塞浦路斯文物局合作进行的，将促进美国、欧盟和塞浦路斯学生和学者之间的学术和职业合作关系。该项目还将记录具有文化和历史意义的受威胁遗址，这将有助于制定该地区未来的文物管理规划。莫纳汉将调查防御工事的建设如何创造一种改变人们体验和感知空间的“学科格局”，以及这对不平等的发展和加强产生的影响。该项目的重点是塞浦路斯中部阿伊奥斯·索索梅诺斯地区的四座中青铜时代堡垒。这些巨大的防御工事位于重要的铜矿资源附近，并位于全岛交通和贸易的十字路口，出现在塞浦路斯从一个以村庄为基础的孤立和平等主义社会向社会分层的城市社会的戏剧性转变期间，与东地中海的主要政治机构建立外交关系和进行贸易。结合发掘、调查和博物馆研究，研究将调查这些堡垒是如何建造和使用的，并与该地区其他遗址的位置和年代相结合。通过评估堡垒如何改变人们移动、观看和行动的方式，并通过分析不断变化的聚落模式，这项研究将揭示堡垒如何改变人们彼此互动的方式，以及这反过来如何促进社会转型。

The modern world is characterized by countless differences that cut along economic, social, and political lines. Such structured and hierarchical divisions within human society are neither an essential nor inevitable condition of collective life, but develop under specific historical circumstances. Archaeology is uniquely poised to study how such "complex societies" come about, as it allows researchers to trace changes in social organization over the span of millennia through the material remains of human action. Such understanding helps one to better recognize both the opportunities and tradeoffs that come with different approaches to political life. Ms. Eilis Monahan of Cornell University will undertake research that investigates the early formation of complex societies, through a particular focus on landscapes and the built environment. Specifically, the research seeks to explain the roles played by defensive structures, such as fortifications, in creating the kinds of social and political boundaries that we take for granted today as basic features of modern societies. In many parts of the world, fortifications and other dramatic alterations to the landscape occur during times of transition to increased complexity. This research is therefore of broad social scientific relevance, contributing to wider debates on the relationships among power, society, and defense. Ms. Monahan's study is undertaken in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus and will foster collegial intellectual and professional relationships between U.S., E.U. and Cypriot students and scholars. This project will also document threatened sites of cultural and historical significance, which will aid in the development of future heritage management planning in the region.Ms. Monahan will investigate how the construction of fortifications creates a "disciplinary landscape" that alters how people experience and perceive space, and the impacts this has on the development and reinforcement of inequality. This project focuses on a cluster of four Middle Bronze Age fortresses in the Ayios Sozomenos region in central Cyprus. Located near vital copper sources, and situated at crossroads of communication and trade across the island, these massive fortified sites appear during the dramatic transformation of Cyprus from an insular and egalitarian village-based society to a socially-stratified urban society, engaged in diplomatic relations and trade with the great polities of the Eastern Mediterranean. Combining excavation, survey, and museum study, the research will investigate how these fortresses were constructed and used in conjunction with the location and chronology of other sites in the region. By evaluating how fortresses alter the ways that people can move, see, and act, and by analyzing shifting patterns of settlement, this research will reveal how fortifications change the ways in which people interact with each other and how, in turn, this contributes to the transformation of society.