Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Establishment of Long Term Group Interaction Relationships

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

As areas with an unusually high degree of interaction between peoples participating in different cultures, borderlands have been of interest to scholars of many disciplines. However, most research has focused on situations in which borders are already defined and present, as well as interactions involving at least one state or empire. This research trend leaves several issues poorly understood, including: the influence of already existing forms and contexts of interaction on the development of a border, the role of borderlanders, and the entanglement of social groups through interaction in zones of contact. This project leverages archaeology’s unique access to data on human actions over long periods of time to investigate the fluid creation and deconstruction of borders as scales of social interaction change. By focusing on a pre-state context, this project highlights conceptual tension in the social sciences between what is and is not a border, encouraging reflection on cross-border interactions in the strictly bordered world of today. The results of the project are shared with inhabitants of the nearby modern communities as well as the international academic community, providing the vital data needed to reconsider our understanding of long-term borderland interactions. In this doctoral dissertation project the research team investigates the intersection of social interaction and the formation and deconstruction of borders in in a region in which interaction has persisted for centuries. The boundary persists until the current time. However the sharing of technologies and styles of decoration of material culture, across both regions suggests cross-border interactions must have occurred with some frequency. This project examines recently excavated public architecture, ceramics, and non-local materials to test models of the intersection between the creation and maintenance of borderlands and cross-border interaction. The multi-scalar, multi-disciplinary approach emphasizes the union of archaeological expertise and specialized analysis: the project weaves together stylistic and technological analysis of ceramics and architecture; petrographic and chemical sourcing of ceramics; aDNA and isotopic analysis of camelid remains; radiocarbon dating of organic remains; and chemical and habitat sourcing of other non-local materials to clarify the presence or absence and characteristics of the border as well as its manifestation at a local scale during its first supposed appearance. 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.