Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Development of Trans-Asian Trade Route

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Through the examination of glazed ceramics, this project will investigate the evolving nature of production, trade, and innovation resulting from increased mobility and cultural contact facilitated by the Silk Road. Catherine Klesner, a graduate student at the University of Arizona under the direction of Dr. Pamela Vandiver, will characterize the provenience of finely decorated glazed pottery from Central Asia to determine the scale of local production and technological innovations and to understand the stylistic models for local development provided by long distance trade during the Medieval Period. The ceramics in study were excavated from archaeological sites which lie on the northern edge of the Tien Shen Mountains. This narrow corridor occupies an important geographical position on the Silk Road and for millennia facilitated the complex trade and knowledge networks that transverse Eurasia. By examining the ceramics, the researchers will better understand both the physical trade networks in place during the 9th-15th centuries, but also how technologies were transmitted, and local traditions adapted with the influx of nonlocal goods. The research will shed light on how complex trade networks are developed and the role they play in the development of social complexity. The researchers will examine the composition and isotope signatures of the lead-glazed pottery from sites in southern Kazakhstan as well as the microstructure of the ceramic bodies and glazes in an effort to reconstruct their production technology. The analyses of the ceramic composition will be based on neutron activation analysis (NAA), laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), and lead-isotope analysis, whereas the production technology will be determined by petrographic thin section analysis, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and electron microprobe analysis (EMPA). This research will address three main questions about ceramic production in Southern Kazakhstan during the Medieval Period. [1] Did the ceramic workshops in Central Asia produce fine decorated pottery in the style of ceramics from China and Southwest Asia, or were the ceramics from these medieval cities imported into the region through Silk Road trade? [2] How many centers in the region produced glazed ceramics, and how homogeneous was the production technology for fine glazed wares? [3] How do glazed ceramics that were produced in this region differ technologically from the imported ceramics from Southwest Asia and China? This project is one of the first systematic compositional and technological analysis of Islamic ceramics from Central Asia and will better define the ceramic technologies of the Medieval Period. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.