Dissertation: Zooarchaeological Anlaysis of Native Local Economic Systems in the Roman Imperial Frontier

University Of Iowa, Iowa City IA

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. Henry Wright MS Zoe Crossland will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. Building on her past research in the area she will conduct archaeological survey and excavation in the Andrantsay region in the central highlands of Madagascar. The area provides rich agricultural land for wet rice cultivation and was the locus of an historically documented 'kingdom' observed by early European visitors at the end of the 18th century. Although they occurred relatively late in Madagascar, the processes which led to the rise of early states in other parts of the world also occurred on this island. The kingdom of Andrantsay was one of several which developed in Madagascar at approximately the same time and it was eventually incorporated, in the early 19th century into the Merina state. While written documents provide some detail about the strategies used by the Merina to subjugate this outlying region, they reflect a conqueror's perspective and require on the ground substantiation and (likely) revision. MS Crossland will examine the processes which led first to the development of the Andrantsay kingdom and then the changes which occurred during its incorporation. She will focus on shifts in the organization of settlement and transformations in mortuary architecture as a hierarchically structured and centralized polity developed. She will compare these patterns of landscape occupation and use with later changes. The research includes two components. The first involves a systematic surface survey of archaeological remains which consist mostly of ceramics. The results should provide insight into changes in population distribution and settlement pattern. Secondly MS Crossland will conduct a series of small scale excavations at selected sites. Test trenches will be placed at a minimum of 6 sites with the goal of refining ceramic chronology and providing absolute dates. Archaeologists wish to understand the processes which led over millennia to increasing social complexity and culminated in the rise of states and empires. Normally researchers focus their effort on capitals which represented the apex of the hierarchical structure. MS Crossland's study is unusual because it looks at a periphery and examines state formation within a broader regional perspective, working from the assumption that a regional scale of analysis is most suitable. In comparison to other aspects of state formation, relatively little has been written about polities at the edges of an emergent state. MS Crossland's research will provide a useful counterbalance. It will also assist in training a promising young scientist.