With National Science Foundation support, Dr. David Anthony will lead a multinational team and conduct three seasons of archaeological excavation and follow-up analysis in the Samara oblast, an administrative region of ca. 54,000 square km in the middle Volga region of Russia. The Samara oblast lies at the ecotone between the forest-steppe (to the North) and the treeless steppe (to the South) and thus, because of the sensitivity of its vegetation to climate change, provides an excellent venue to study the human environment interactions. During preliminary work in the region, Dr. Anthony and his colleagues have located a number of sites which date to the Bronze Age period. They will now conduct extensive lateral excavation in a series of them.
In the opening centuries of the Late Bronze Age (LBA) between 2,000 and 1,700 BC, a complex of broadly shared traits -- similar subsistence strategies, ceramic and weapon types, house and settlement types and ritual practices - spread across the Eurasian steppes. For the first time a bridge of broadly similar cultures occupied the steppes from the borders of China to the edges of Europe. It is from this base that the cultures which later had a major impact on both historic Europe and China arose. This LBA phenomenon is of great interest to archaeologists because widespread settlements appear suddenly with no apparent antecedents. Although the preceding Early and Middle Bronze Age cultures are known from burial mounds, settlements have not been located. A number of hypotheses have been proposed. Some speculate that long distance trade, especially in copper, necessitated the development of sedentary communities; others believe that still unproven climate change permitted either the development or increased reliance on agriculture which in turn required people to abandon a nomadic pastoralist way of life. Data is lacking however to support either of these scenarios. Although archaeologists believe that pastoralism played an important role during the Bronze Age, no pastoralist sites have been excavated and at no sites has careful dietary reconstruction been attempted. Dr. Anthony and his team will focus on the transition to the Late Bronze age and through isotopic analysis of both earlier and Late Bronze age human skeletons document dietary change. Excavation at a large settlement as well as a series of smaller presumed pastoral sites will permit further reconstruction of diet as well as social organization. Coring of lake sediments and analysis of pollen and other botanical material contained therein will provide information on climate change.
This research is important for several reasons. It will generate data of interest to many archaeologists. It will increase understanding of human environment interactions and further international scientific collaboration. Because several US graduate students are included in the project the educational impact will be significant.
