Under the direction of Dr. Ofer Bar-Yosef, Mr. Zinovi Matskevich will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. With NSF support he will explore the nature of social interactions and 'prehistoric ethnicity' during the spread of the Neolithic complex - domesticated plants and animals - from a heartland in the Near East into the Southern Caucasus region. The project will investigate the potential mechanisms which include diffusion, migration or indigenous transformation responsible for this expansion. In collaboration with Georgian colleagues, he will conduct small scale excavations at four prehistoric sites in the Caucasus which span the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Eneolithic (ca 11,000 - 4,000 BC) The fieldwork is expected to provide stratified assemblages of material culture which encompass the period when agriculture and pastoralism first appeared. Radiocarbon dating will provide the basis for an absolute chronology. A combined study of archaeological assemblages from prior excavations, currently stored in the State Museum of Georgia, as well as those obtained in the course of the present study will be considered in a broader context of the archaeology of the spread of agriculture in the Near East and South-Eastern Europe.
The Neolithic marks a profound change in humans' relation both to the environment and to one another. With the domestication of plants and animals a trajectory was established which led from hunter gatherers living in small bands to early civilizations encompassing tens of thousands of individuals. While archaeologists have focused considerable attention on the multiple 'cradles' of domestication, much less is understood about how they spread across cultures and space. Multiple mechanisms including the diffusion of people vs. plants and animals per se vs. ideas have been proposed. This research will help to establish the basic cultural and chronological context in a region adjacent to such a cradle and permit multiple hypotheses to be examined.
The research will also further the academic and intellectual advancement of a promising graduate student and strengthen scientific relations between the US and the Republic of Georgia.
