Under the supervision of Dr. Michael Frachetti, Robert N. Spengler III will analyze paleoethnobotanical data gathered during NSF sponsored excavations from 2005-2007 and from excavations this coming summer of three new archaeological sites in southeastern Kazakhstan (Semirechye). He will conduct comparative archaeobotanical analyses from the multi-period sites of Begash, Mukri, and Tuzusai, Focusing on the poorly understood time periods of the Middle to Late Bronze Age (2300-800 B.C.) and Iron Age (800 B.C.-A.D. 500). The purpose of the project is to elucidate patterns of plant use at each site through time and to combine this information with other archaeological data sets. He will investigate the following questions: 1) What variation in plant use and subsistence strategy existed among Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age mobile pastoralists living in the foothills and plains of Semirechye? (2) To what extent did local environmental variables influence their reliance on food production, gathering, and fodder selection? (3) What role did agriculture play: how important was it; what crops were produced or acquired through exchange; and how did it fit into the pastoral system? He will investigate these questions diachronically and intraregionally to relate how changes in subsistence articulate on the sociocultural landscape during the Bronze and Iron Ages.
All aspects of society are intertwined in their economy; therefore, in studying economy, specifically subsistence economy, this project provides a necessary foundation for understanding Central Asian mobile pastoralists. Paleoethnobotany has only recently emerged as a methodological approach in the wider Eurasian steppe region and this project, specifically, will be the first systematic paleoethnobotanical study in Kazakhstan. This study will provide a regional analysis of human-plant interactions, leading to a better understanding of strategic variation among prehistoric Eurasian mobile populations. By studying plant use researchers will gain a wider understanding of subsistence economy, general dietary diversity, and agricultural dispersal in a region once seen as homogenous and having an economy dominated by animal products.
This project is collaborative, incorporating American as well as Kazakh researchers, and the results are of interest to all involved parties. This research will contribute to the growing body of knowledge relating to Central Asian archaeology, helping to address questions about economy. The geographic area encompassed by this project has been a pivotal location in the shaping of Eurasian history on a macro-scale. Because of the connecting role Central Asia played in Eurasian history, understanding Central Asian archaeology will help us develop a clearer picture of culture flow and social interaction across Eurasia. These results will be pertinent to a wider range of academic professionals, including historians, botanists, economists, political scientists, and sociologists. In addition to the academic contributions, this research has considerable potential to address several contemporary sociopolitical issues. For example, modern Kazakhs have turned to archaeology in their struggle to establish national identity in a post-Soviet world. The results of this research will provide a non-biased resource for the development of cultural identity and national narrative.
This project synthesized data from four sites in the Semirech’ye region of southeastern Kazakhstan with Bronze and Iron Age components: Begash; Mukri; Tasbas; and Tuzusai. Soil samples from these sites were analyzed for remains of ancient plants. Using these ancient plant remains, we investigate the following questions: (1) What variation in plant use and subsistence strategy existed among Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age pastoralists living in the foothills and plains of Semirech’ye? (2) To what extent did local environmental variables influence their reliance on food production, gathering, and herd-forage selection? (3) What role did agriculture play, and what crops were produced or acquired through exchange; and how did it fit into the pastoral system? This study is important because there has been a long-held model of economy that suggests a shift toward a mobile pastoral system starting in the Bronze Age and intensifying in the Iron Age. This model has been the core for most prehistoric economy studies in this part of the world; however, it has not been tested using modern paleoethnobotanical methods. The identification of an agricultural component in pastoralist economies of Semirech’ye makes the Iron Age sites of the Talgar region and nearby Bronze Age sites such as Tasbas key for understanding the adoption of agriculture and domesticated plant use throughout Central Asia. Studies of macrobotanical remains from these sites, located in significantly different environmental settings, form the basis for comparing patterns of plant use and for modeling pastoralist strategies among neighboring populations at the key chronological interface of the Bronze and Iron Ages. This dissertation has three main contributions that counter the current model of archaeological economy across Central Asia: 1) we show that agricultural goods played a role in economy and discuss how they may have fit into an agropastoral system; 2) we discuss the role exchange networks might have played in the early spread of agriculture across Eurasia; and 3) we discuss the role of wild plants as a vital resource in the economy as herd forage and how the distribution of these wild plants helped shape society. Residents at the sites of Tasbas and Tuzusai seem to have had complex agropastoral systems at a time period when researchers have claimed that no agriculture existed in this part of Eurasia. People at Begash, on the other hand, may have used low-investment agriculture to complement their pastoral system. We further propose that second millennium B.C. exchange networks brought agriculture into Central Asia from both China and South Asia simultaneously. These exchange networks brought various crops and crop varieties across Eurasia along with an array of exchange goods. In this sense, the Bronze Age world was loosely interconnected by and undifferentiated network and the spread of agriculture was similar to data moving through the internet, jumping from one hotspot to the next. In the period since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been a surge in identity building across the former Soviet states. Many of these newly formed nations have turned to history and archaeology to justify independence and develop a unified national identity. Modern Kazakhs have turned to archaeology in their struggle to establish such a national identity in a post-Soviet world. There are many examples of archaeology in the national imagery and narrative of Kazakhstan, possibly the most famous being the Issyk "Golden Man". A replica of the Saka armored warrior, excavated from a fourth or third century B.C. Issyk burial mound, currently stands in the central square of Almaty (the former capital city of Kazakhstan). This project contributes essential scientific data to the growing corpus of new information about past societies in the territory of Kazakhstan. This paleoethnobotanical study is significant in Central Asian archaeology because it helps researchers understand the regional adaptations and variations among Bronze and Iron Ages peoples. This analysis fills in gaps in the picture of the various sociocultural adaptations to restricted environments on the Eurasian steppe. This study also provides evidence for the complicated and dynamic aspects of social interactions and cultural adaptations to the political landscapes of the Bronze and Iron Ages. By conducting and interpreting the archaeobotanical data at these sites and other sites in Central Asia, a greater understanding of the nature of human plant interactions will ensue.
