Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Production And Political Economy Across Socio-Economic Mosaics

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

Archaeological research on Iron Age cities and states has tended to overshadow other "in-between" areas located away from more highly visible societies. These "in-between" spaces, however, have played crucial roles throughout history in complex regional systems and global transformations. This doctoral dissertation project focuses on one such "in-between" space which lay beyond the political control of early kingdoms and was situated between different language groups and long-distance exchange routes.

As a way of understanding the economic and social organization of the region, the project identifies technical and spatial variation in metal production, pottery making, ivory carving and other Iron Age industries, and situates these specialized activities within local practices of agriculture, animal raising, and other economic strategies. The project is designed to add greater texture of life during a period of dramatic regional and global change, as climates fluctuated, populations moved, kingdoms formed and reformed, and new networks of communication developed.

In so doing, this research highlights centuries of complex global relationships that crosscut cultural, linguistic, and geographic boundaries to demonstrate how a region thrived independent of major states, and maintained far-reaching networks of trade and communication. The project builds partnerships between multiple institutions by offering training opportunities for students,and by promoting cultural heritage education.

Craft production activities such as pottery-making, metalworking, and ivory-carving were primary arenas through which people enacted cultural norms and interacted with others. Local and regional variation in how people performed these activities indicates differences in specialized knowledge and illustrates the types of relationships communities had with their neighbors – both nearby and those located more distantly.

By pairing a non-invasive geophysical survey with excavations of Iron Age village sites, the researchers place artisans' activities into their larger daily context. These research approaches underscore the choices people make in every society, emphasizing the ways production and exchange carry specific significance within societies, and highlighting how social and economic power was situated and negotiated.

At a broader level, a study of craft production in "in-between" spaces examines the evidence for diverse pathways of sociopolitical development by helping to better characterize interactions between regions characterized by village societies and those populated by state-level societies.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.