Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Domesticated Plants, Animals and the Emergence of Social Complexity

人类学考古学一直专注于世界许多地区早期出现的氏族制度和动植物驯化过程。关注与这些趋势相关的人口变化的研究常常将新出现的人口增长和资源开采与更严重的社会冲突和战争联系在一起。这些事态发展往往导致更大程度的区域集中和组织，以及社会、经济和政治发展的全新轨迹。这项研究项目考察了公元前6-5千年东南欧早期乡村生活发展中的这些动态。此时，驯化的动植物的使用以及陶瓷和金属工艺生产的新形式发生了明显的变化。技术和社会组织方面的这些重要转变促成了巴尔干地区随后出现的复杂社会，以及随后早期欧洲文明的基础。考古学具有独特的地位，可以提供深入的时间尺度分析，并有可能产生可用于评估和模拟这种过渡的特定形式的数据。这种研究不仅确定了这种变化发生的时间，还有助于回答为什么早期人类社会从平等主义的狩猎采集群体转变为高度专业化和等级森严的有组织社区的问题。这项研究计划将鼓励人类学考古领域的国际智力合作和交流，将加强对聚落模式和人口分析的区域方法方法，并将产生一个重要的数据库，将有助于在全球范围内对早期村庄社会的未来研究。在这一更广泛的背景下，在匹兹堡大学的布莱恩·汉克斯博士的指导下，博士生米罗斯拉夫·科西奇将研究塞尔维亚中部出现的大规模新石器时代乡村社会。这项研究将产生关于人口增长、标量压力和社会不平等的出现以及区域中心-腹地随时间变化的动态的新数据。具体而言，研究问题将侧重于审查：(1)调查区内可辨认地点的分布及其在空间和时间上的相互关系；(2)人口统计学方面的估计聚落规模和可能的等级排列模式；(3)聚落与当地地形和环境资源及相关集水区的关系；(4)聚落内人工制品的空间格局和密度，以及聚落和手工艺品生产区之间的差异。为了解决这些问题，实地研究活动将侧重于巴尔干中部格鲁阿河流域内110平方公里的区域。数据将通过区域规模的行人调查、地面文物收集和统计分析、有针对性的测试坑挖掘以及调查数据、地形特征和当地环境资源的地理信息系统分析来产生。这将产生一个健壮的径向空间数据集，在其中模拟村庄规模、空间组织和手工艺生产趋势的转变。与塞尔维亚中部地区考古学家和机构的合作也将为学生创造一个重要的教育机会和培训，有助于这些重要考古遗址的长期知识和遗产。

Anthropological archaeology has focused intently on the early emergence of sedentism and animal and plant domestication processes in many regions of the world. Research focused on demographic changes connected with these trends has frequently linked emerging population growth and resource exploitation to greater levels of social conflict and warfare. These developments often led to greater levels of regional centralization and organization and completely new trajectories of social, economic and political development. This program of research examines these dynamics in the development of early village life in southeastern Europe during the 6th-5th millennia BCE. At this time, distinct changes occurred in the use of domesticated plants and animals and new forms of ceramic and metal craft production. These important shifts in technology and social organization contributed to the subsequent emergence of complex societies in the Balkans region and subsequent foundation of early European civilizations. Archaeology is in a unique position to provide a deep chronological scale of analysis and has the potential to produce specific forms of data that can be used to evaluate and model such transitions. Such research not only identifies when such changes occurred but also contributes to answering the question of why early human societies changed from egalitarian hunter-gatherer groups to more highly specialized and hierarchical organized communities. This program of research will encourage international intellectual collaboration and communication in the field of anthropological archaeology, will enhance regional methodological approaches to settlement patterning and demographic analysis, and will produce an important database that will contribute to future studies of early village societies in a global context. Within this broader context, and under the supervision of Dr. Bryan Hanks of the University of Pittsburgh, doctoral candidate Miroslav Kocic will investigate the emergence of large scale Neolithic village societies in central Serbia. This study will produce new data on demographic growth, the emergence of scalar stress and social inequality, and regional center-hinterland dynamics through time. In particular, research questions will focus on examining: (i) the distribution of identifiable sites within the survey zone and their relationship to each other spatially and chronologically; (ii) estimated settlement sizes and possible rank order patterns in terms of demography; (iii) relationship of settlements to local topographical and environmental resources and related catchment zones; and (iv) spatial patterning and density of artifacts within settlements and variation between settlements and identification of craft production zones. In order to address these questions, field research activities will focus on a 110 square kilometer region within the Grua River valley of the central Balkans. Data will be produced through regional scale pedestrian survey, surface collection of artifacts and statistical analysis, targeted test pit excavations, and GIS analysis of survey data, topographical features and local environmental resources. This will produce a robust diachonic, spatial dataset in which to model transitions in village size, spatial organization and trends in craft production. Collaboration with regional archaeologists and institutions in central Serbia also will create an important educational opportunity and training for students contribute to the long term knowledge and heritage of these important archaeological sites.