Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Politics of Agricultural Practice: An Archaeobotanical Case Study from Ziyaret Tepe, Turkey

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Kathleen Morrison, Melissa Rosenzweig will analyze botanical data gathered from archaeological excavations (led by Dr. Timothy Matney) at Ziyaret Tepe, site of the Late Assyrian garrison of Tu'han in southeastern Anatolia. Part of a network of fortresses intended to support Assyria's expansion into northern territories, Tu'han was an important provincial center for Assyrian imperialism between 900 and 600 BCE. At its zenith, the site extended 32 hectares and included upper and lower city habitations, large administrative structures, a fortified city wall, and moat. Situated upon the southern bank of the Tigris River, Ziyaret Tepe and contemporary sites in the region's river valleys are understood to have been occupied by the Late Assyrians in an effort to develop agricultural surpluses for the growing urban populations in Assyria's heartland. However, little is known about the processes by which the Assyrians intensified agriculture in this region, or how these practices affected the local environment and communities. Therefore, this project will utilize botanical artifacts to study changes in agricultural production and consumption over time at Ziyaret Tepe, in an effort to clarify the mechanics and consequences of Assyrian imperialism for this region and time period. This study will use three lines of environmental evidence to reconstruct the agricultural history of Ziyaret Tepe and its surroundings. From the site itself, macrobotanical remains of charred wood, seeds, nuts, and fruits collected by excavation will be examined in order to identify the crops grown and used over time at Ziyaret Tepe. At a broader scale, more regional and temporal depth into the environmental history of the Upper Tigris River Valley will come from trace element and pollen analyses of sediment cores extracted from a lake 10km from Ziyaret Tepe. The organic materials captured in these cores will reveal botanical signatures of human land-use practices over several thousand years, and help reconstruct a record of climate and vegetation in the region. Finally, in order to delineate the extent of land and resources utilized by inhabitants of Ziyaret Tepe, this project incorporates an internationally-coordinated landscape survey, designed to detect elements of settlement, farming, and irrigation around the ancient site. From these various sources of data, patterns in both everyday and long-term practices of agricultural production and consumption will be recovered. Because the negotiation of resources is a critical component of socio-political relations and land management, this information on agricultural strategies will help discern the impact of Assyrian agrarian control on both the people and the environment of ancient southeastern Anatolia. The proposed research will make a significant contribution toward understanding ancient political ecologies of agrarian sites under imperial government. In addition, this study is one component of a large-scale, international effort to preserve data and curated materials of the Upper Tigris River Valley prior to the construction of the Ilýsu Dam (ca. 2016), at the behest of Turkish authorities. Regular reports on the findings of this research will be made available to the Turkish Ministry of Culture, and the results of the study will be presented in Ms. Rosenzweig's Ph.D. dissertation and submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Outreach and educational efforts also include public presentations on the on-going excavations, in Turkish, for the local residents of Ziyaret Tepe.