Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Animal Management and the Development of Social complexity

This doctoral dissertation project will investigate the roles and impacts of human-animal interactions on early urbanization and state development. Despite the significant impact of human-animal relationships on the development of urban societies and early states, animal economies have been comparatively understudied, and often oversimplified, compared to other economic spheres.

Within this project, researchers investigate the types of human-animal interactions that facilitated the development of one of the world’s first urban and imperial societies. Combining rigorous empirical analyses and an innovative theoretical framework, this project expands upon traditional models of urbanization and political and economic power. Applying an innovative theoretical framework that emphasizes heterogeneity in urban and state societies, researchers acknowledge the agency of diverse communities within early cities by highlighting the existence of multiple co-existing systems of animal management resulting from diverse community-specific needs.

This “low power” approach to urban animal economy complicates traditional top-down narratives, de-centers the state, and is widely applicable to the study of urban and imperials landscapes in multiple regions of the world. Additionally, the project itself promotes international cooperation and scholarly connections between academic institutions in the United States and multiple international collaborators.

Zooarchaeological training will also be provided to archaeology students participating in the excavation, facilitating the development of a methodological specialization that is in demand.

Within this project, researchers investigate the complex agropastoral programs and geographically expansive economic networks that managed human-animal interactions in early urban and state societies. The project provides a new understanding of the economic networks that met the specific needs of early urban communities and institutions, including subsistence, industry, and ideologically motivated animal provisioning.

Researchers will investigate the systems that managed these human-animal interactions through the targeted analysis of archaeological animal bones. Specifically, researchers ask, how were animal economies structured and how did human-animal relationships impact urban and state development? Using a combination of zooarchaeology (i.e., the study of archaeological animal bones), isotope analysis (i.e., the chemical analysis of archaeological animal bones and teeth), and historical and iconographic comparison, researchers will investigate 1) specialized animal economies on a micro- (e.g., households) and macroscale (e.g., city districts), 2) the geographic scale of animal provisioning, and 3) the development of the city’s economies from an independent kingdom into the imperial capital.

Framed using an innovative “low power” model of urban animal economy, highlighting multiple co-existing networks designed to meet the specific needs of diverse communities and institutions within the urban landscape, this project provides a novel framework to the study of urban economies and the maintenance of urban and imperial 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.