The Role of Highland-Lowland Interactions in the Development of Social Complexity

杰西·卡萨纳教授(达特茅斯学院)、克劳迪娅·格拉茨博士(格拉斯哥大学)和一个国际研究小组将调查高原和低地社区之间的区域间互动在推动早期帝国国家的出现和发展中所起的关键作用。该项目的重点是伊拉克南部的美索不达米亚平原和伊朗西部的扎格罗斯山脉之间的一个考古未开发的边境地区，该项目将记录大量关于历史时期居住在该地区的社区的信息，这段历史时期见证了世界上第一批帝国的崛起。结果将改变对大美索不达米亚高原-低地相互作用的理解，从而为在全球范围内考虑类似的过程提供一个新的模型。在当今世界上的许多国家，海拔高度变化在划分种群和构建种群之间的关系方面发挥着重要作用。这项研究将这种互动放在一个长期的时间背景下。此外，这项工作将在该地区提供宝贵的文化遗产管理数据，记录新的考古遗址、抢劫或破坏的证据，以及对扩大农业和建筑业未来威胁的评估。作为唯一在伊拉克这一地区开展的国际考古项目，该项目还将通过培训、技术转让和公共工作室，在发展当地文物当局的能力方面发挥重要作用。该项目讲述并挑战了悠久的学术历史，即认为从尼罗河到长江的旧世界复杂社会的起源是一个直接嵌套在低地河谷城市中心的过程。相比之下，山区通常被视为边缘地带，居住在低地国家宣传，进而被许多现代研究描绘为不文明和野蛮的社区。在美索不达米亚这个众所周知的文明摇篮，关于高地和低地的观点之间的分歧可能是最明显的，因为几乎所有的考古和历史数据都来自低地城市，而扎格罗斯山脉两侧的高地在考古地图上仍然模糊地空白，被认为是游牧民族的家园。该项目以伊拉克北部库尔德斯坦地区的上迪亚拉(Sirwan)河谷为重点，采用了多尺度研究战略，涉及区域考古调查、新发现的公元前两千年Khani Masi遗址的发掘和文物分析，包括古植物学研究、动物群材料的稳定同位素分析和陶瓷的有机残留物分析。结果将揭示对聚落和土地利用模式、牧场策略、手工艺生产和食物方式的细微差别，展示不同环境区的居民参与共同文化习俗的程度，这些关系如何改变低地和高地群体，以及在公元前第三和第二个千年的过程中发生的变化。

Prof. Jesse Casana (Dartmouth College), Dr. Claudia Glatz (University of Glasgow), and an international team of researchers will investigate the crucial role that inter-regional interaction among highland and lowland communities had in driving the emergence and development of early imperial states. Focusing on an archaeologically unexplored borderland region between the Mesopotamian plains of southern Iraq and the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, this project will document a wealth of information regarding the communities who inhabited the area during a historical period that saw the rise of the world's first empires. Results will transform understanding of highland-lowland interaction in greater Mesopotamia, and will thereby offer a new model for considering similar processes globally. In many states in the world today altitudinal variation plays a significant role in partitioning populations and structuring relations among them. This research places such interactions into a long term chronological context. Furthermore, this effort will provide invaluable cultural heritage management data in the region, documenting new archaeological sites, evidence of looting or damage, and an assessment of future threats from expanding agriculture and construction. As the only international archaeological project to have ever worked within this part of Iraq, the project will also play an important role in developing capacities of the local antiquities authorities through training, technology transfer, and public workshops.This project speaks to and challenges a long history of scholarship which views the origin of Old World complex societies, from the Nile to the Yangtze, as a process nested squarely in the urban centers of lowland river valleys. Mountainous regions, by contrast, are generally seen as peripheral zones inhabited by communities who lowland state propaganda, and by extension much modern research, depicts as uncivilized and barbarous. In Mesopotamia, the proverbial cradle of civilization, the dichotomy between perspectives on highlands and lowlands is perhaps most stark, as virtually all archaeological and historical data are derived from lowland cities, while the flanking highlands of the Zagros Mountains remain nebulously blank on archaeological maps, presumed to have been home to pastoral nomads. Focusing on the Upper Diyala (Sirwan) River Valley in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, this project employs a multi-scalar research strategy involving regional archaeological survey, excavations at the newly-discovered second millennium BC site of Khani Masi, and artifactual analyses of finds, including paleobotanical studies, stable isotope analysis of faunal materials, and organic residue analysis of ceramics. Results will reveal nuanced insights into settlement and land use patterns, pastoral strategies, craft production, and foodways, demonstrating the degree to which inhabitants of distinct environmental zones engaged in shared cultural practices, how these relationships transformed both lowland and highland groups as well as changed over the course of the third and second millennia BC.