States of Clay: Integrated Scientific Approaches to Clay Bureaucratic Objects from Early Mesopotamia, 3700-2700 BCE

世界上第一个官僚记录系统是在公元前3700-2700年由生活在古代美索不达米亚最早的国家(伊拉克和叙利亚东北部)的社会发展起来的。精英团体使用复杂的记录方法来控制大宗商品的生产、储存和再分配。这些早期官僚使用的物理媒介是粘土，模拟成三种主要形式：(1)用于计数的代币，(2)用于保护储存设施的粘土印章，以及(3)印有印章、数字符号和原始楔形符号的象形文字的石碑。这种用粘土计数、封存和书写的综合系统作为古代近东地区的官僚框架持续了3000多年。在粘土之国项目中，我们开发并应用一种综合的科学方法来研究美索不达米亚早期城市和州一级社会的运作。我们的重点是公元前3700-2700年的千年，当时乌鲁克、乌尔、杰姆德特纳斯尔、法拉、布拉克、尼尼微和其他遗址崛起。所有这些中心都使用社区组织来管理其资源，但每个中心都在空间和时间上形成了不同的社区组织使用模式。我们建议在一千年的城市兴衰中阐明这些粘土使用的模式，以解决主要的社会问题，包括(1)性别在使用CBO方面的重要性和女性在古代官僚机构中的角色，(2)逐个城市选择和使用粘土扮演特定角色，询问CBO在当代住区内和之间流动的证据，以及(3)CBO与与其在国内家庭和更高地位背景下使用相关的背景证据的关联。我们将应用一种高度创新的方法，通过与地理信息系统相关的数据库和解释性网络分析进行综合。我们建议研究总共6500个CBO，主要收藏在柏林的Vorderasiatisches博物馆以及德国、伊拉克、荷兰和英国的其他博物馆藏品中。我们的方法将包括：(1)记录CBO的属性，包括考古背景、印章印记、指纹、文字内容和功能证据；(2)将高分辨率成像应用于CBO，以重建细节，如作为年龄和性别指标的指纹，以及残缺的印章印记；(3)CBO粘土的考古计量分析，包括pXRF和选定CBO的最小破坏性分析，以及粘土内微型动植物的显微分析，以建立粘土参考库；(4)通过地理信息系统数据库使用网络分析，追踪社区组织在时间和空间上的不同和变化的使用模式，解决上述社会问题。该项目的成果和解释将作为开放获取研究资源和德国数字图书馆主办的在线展览共享。

The world's first system of bureaucratic recording was developed during 3700-2700 BCE by the societies living in the earliest states of ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq and NE Syria). Elite groups used sophisticated recording methods to control the production, storage and redistribution of commodities. The physical medium employed by these early bureaucrats was clay modelled into three major forms: (1) tokens used in counting, (2) clay sealings used to secure storage facilities, and (3) tablets bearing seal impressions, number signs and pictographic signs in proto-cuneiform style. This integrated system of counting, sealing, and writing with clay endured for more than 3000 years as the bureaucratic framework across the ancient Near East.In the States of Clay project, we develop and apply an integrated scientific methodology to the full spectrum of clay bureaucratic objects, or CBOs, to address the functioning of early urban and state level societies of Mesopotamia. Our focus is on the millennium 3700-2700 BCE, when sites such as Uruk, Ur, Jemdet Nasr, Fara, Brak, Nineveh and others rose to prominence. All these centres used CBOs to administer their resources, but they each developed divergent patterns of CBO usage through space and time. We propose to articulate these patterns of clay use across a thousand years of urban rise and fall, addressing major societal issues, including (1) the significance of gender in use of CBOs and the role of females within ancient bureaucracy, (2) the choice and use of clays for specific roles city by city, interrogating evidence for mobility of CBOs within and between contemporary settlements, and (3) the associations of CBOs with contextual evidence relating to their use within domestic households and higher status contexts. We will apply a highly innovative methodology, synthesised through a GIS-related database and interpretive Network Analysis. We propose to study a total of 6500 CBOs housed principally in the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin and in other museum collections in Germany, Iraq, Holland and the UK. Our methods will comprise: (1) recording of CBO attributes, including archaeological context, seal impression iconography, fingerprints, textual content, and evidence for function; (2) application of high-resolution imaging to CBOs for reconstruction of details such as fingerprints as indicators of age and sex, and of fragmentary seal impressions; (3) archaeometric analyses of CBO clays, including pXRF and minimally destructive analyses from selected CBOs, plus microscopic analysis of micro-fauna and -flora within the clays to build up a reference library of clays; (4) use of Network Analysis through a GIS-database to trace divergent and shifting patterns of usage of CBOs in time and space, addressing the societal issues articulated above. The project's results and interpretations will be shared as Open Access research resources, and as an online exhibition hosted by the German Digital Library.