States of Clay: Integrated Scientific Approaches to Clay Bureaucratic Objects from Early Mesopotamia, 3700-2700 BCE

粘土状态：公元前 3700-2700 年早期美索不达米亚粘土官僚物品的综合科学方法

• 批准号: AH/X001717/1
• 负责人: Roger Matthews
• 金额: $ 34.74万
• 依托单位: University of Reading
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX001717%2F1
• 关键词: States; Clay; Integrated; Scientific; Approaches

The world's first system of bureaucratic recording was developed during 3700-2700 BCE by the societies of ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq and NE Syria). In the context of the development of the earliest cities and states, elite groups used sophisticated recording methods to control the production, storage and redistribution of many commodities, including land, crops, animals, people and other resources. Fortunately for the archaeologist and historian, the physical medium employed by these early bureaucrats was clay, which they modelled into three major forms: (1) tokens used in counting, (2) sealings bearing seal impressions, used to secure storage facilities such as pots, baskets and storeroom doors, and (3) tablets bearing seal impressions, number signs and pictographic signs in the so-called proto-cuneiform style. This integrated system of counting, sealing, and writing with clay was so successful that it endured for more than 3000 years as the bureaucratic framework across Mesopotamia and adjacent regions of the ancient Near East. In the States of Clay project, we propose for the first time to develop and apply an integrated scientific methodology to the full spectrum of clay bureaucratic objects, or CBOs, to maximise their interpretive potential for understanding early urban and state level societies of Mesopotamia. Our focus is on the millennium 3700-2700 BCE, when major sites such as Uruk (often cited as 'the world's first city'), Ur, Jemdet Nasr, Fara, Brak, Nineveh and many others rose to prominence within networks of interregional engagement across Mesopotamia and adjacent regions. While all these centres used CBOs to administer their resources in a range of ways, they each developed divergent patterns of CBO usage through space and time. In this project we propose to articulate these patterns of clay use across a thousand years of urban rise and fall, region by region. In so doing we will address major societal issues, including (1) the significance of gender in use of CBOs, considering new evidence for a major role for females within ancient bureaucracy, (2) the choice and use of clays for specific roles city by city across Mesopotamia, interrogating evidence for mobility of CBOs within and between contemporary settlements, and (3) the associations of CBOs with contextual evidence relating to their use, including within domestic households and within higher status contexts such as temples and palaces. To address these issues, we will apply a highly innovative methodology, synthesised through a GIS-related database and interpretive Network Analysis, which will maximise the combined potential of a range of scientific approaches to CBOs. We propose to study a total of 6500 CBOs housed principally in the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin and in other museum collections in Germany, Iraq, Holland and the UK. Our methods will comprise: (1) recording of CBO attributes, including archaeological context, seal impression iconography, fingerprints, textual content, and evidence for function; (2) application of high-resolution imaging to CBOs for reconstruction of details such as fingerprints (indicators of age and sex) and fragmentary seal impressions; (3) a range of archaeometric analyses of CBO clays, including portable x-ray fluorescence and destructive analyses of tiny clay fragments from selected CBOs, plus microscopic analysis of micro-fauna and micro-flora within the clays to build up a reference library of clays city by city, region by region; (4) use of Network Analysis through a GIS-database to generate and interpret divergent and shifting patterns of usage of CBOs in spatial and chronological patterns across the study sites and regions, addressing the societal issues articulated in the preceding paragraph. Finally, the project's results and interpretations will be publicly shared both as Open Access research resources, and as an online exhibition hosted by the German Digital Library.

世界上第一个官僚记录系统是在公元前3700 - 2700年由古代美索不达米亚社会（伊拉克和叙利亚）开发的。在最早的城市和州的发展背景下，精英团体使用复杂的记录方法来控制许多商品的生产，存储和再分配，包括土地，农作物，动物，人，人和其他资源。幸运的是，对于考古学家和历史学家而言，这些早期官僚使用的物理媒介是粘土，它们将其模型为三种主要形式：（1）用于计数中的令牌，（2）带有密封印象的密封件，用于保护储存设施，以固定锅，篮子和篮子和储室门，以及（3）片剂，以及（3）片剂，（3）片剂，均匀地构成印象和图形，以示例和图表符号，以示例和图像符号符号和图形。这种与粘土进行计数，密封和写作的综合系统非常成功，以至于它持续了3000多年，就像美索不达米亚和古代近东邻近地区的官僚框架一样。在粘土项目的状态中，我们首次提出，将综合的科学方法论开发和应用粘土官僚对象或CBO，以最大程度地理解美索不达米亚早期城市和州一级社会的解释性潜力。我们的重点是公元前3700 - 2700年，当时的主要网站（通常被称为“世界第一个城市”），Ur，Jemdet Nasr，Fara，Brak，Brak，Nineveh和许多其他人在整个美索不达米亚和邻近地区的外部订婚网络中浮出水面。尽管所有这些中心都使用CBO以多种方式管理其资源，但它们各自通过空间和时间开发了CBO使用的不同模式。在这个项目中，我们建议在一千年的城市上升和跌落中阐明这些粘土使用模式。这样我们将解决重大社会问题，包括（1）性别在使用CBO中的重要性，考虑到古代官僚机构中女性在主要作用的主要作用的新证据，（2）（2）选择和使用在美索不达米亚的城市中选择和使用特定角色，在美索不达米亚范围内以及在范围内的CBOS中的CBOS及其范围的证据，包括与他们之间的CBOS及其范围的交往，包括与他们的相关性，以及（3），以及（3）。在国内家庭和较高地位的环境中，例如寺庙和宫殿。为了解决这些问题，我们将采用高度创新的方法，通过与GIS相关的数据库和解释性网络分析合成，这将最大程度地发挥CBO科学方法的综合潜力。我们建议研究总共6500个CBO，主要在柏林的Vorderasiatisches博物馆和德国，伊拉克，荷兰和英国的其他博物馆收藏中。我们的方法将包括：（1）记录CBO属性，包括考古背景，印章印象肖像，指纹，文本内容和功能证据； （2）将高分辨率成像应用于CBO，以重建细节，例如指纹（年龄和性别指标）和碎片密封印象； （3）对CBO粘土的一系列考古分析，包括可移植的X射线荧光和对所选CBO的微小粘土片段的破坏性分析，以及在粘土中对微型粉丝和微绿色的微观分析，以构建Clay City City by City by Aregy的Clays Come of Clays of Clays by Aregy by Aregy by clay by clay by clay by agre by acegrom by Agey by acegroy by acegroy。 （4）通过GIS数据库利用网络分析来生成和解释在研究地点和地区之间在空间和年代学模式中使用CBO使用的不同和转移模式，以解决前一段中阐明的社会问题。最后，该项目的结果和解释将作为开放访问研究资源公开共享，也是由德国数字图书馆主持的在线展览。