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Agro-Pastoral Strategies and Food Production on The View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Kosmopolis University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Papers and Anthropology 2015 Agro-Pastoral Strategies and Food Production on the Achaemenid Frontier in Central Asia: A Case Study of Kyzyltepa in Southern Uzbekistan Xin Wu University of Pennsylvania Naomi F. Miller University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Pam Crabtree Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/penn_museum_papers Part of the Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons, Agricultural Economics Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Asian History Commons, Botany Commons, Economic History Commons, and the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons Recommended Citation Wu, X., Miller, N. F., & Crabtree, P. (2015). Agro-Pastoral Strategies and Food Production on the Achaemenid Frontier in Central Asia: A Case Study of Kyzyltepa in Southern Uzbekistan. Iran, LIII 93-117. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/ penn_museum_papers/1 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/penn_museum_papers/1 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Agro-Pastoral Strategies and Food Production on the Achaemenid Frontier in Central Asia: A Case Study of Kyzyltepa in Southern Uzbekistan Abstract This article discusses aspects of the agro-pastoral economy of Kyzyltepa, a late Iron Age or Achaemenid period (sixth–fourth century BC) site in the Surkhandarya region of southern Uzbekistan. The na alysis integrates archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses with textual references to food production and provisioning in order to examine local agro-pastoral strategies. Preliminary results suggest an economy that included both an intensive agricultural component, with summer irrigation of millet, and a wider-ranging market-oriented pastoral component that provided meat to the settlement. Keywords Achaemenid, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, Kyzyltepa, agro-pastoralism Disciplines Agricultural and Resource Economics | Agricultural Economics | Agronomy and Crop Sciences | Archaeological Anthropology | Asian History | Botany | Economic History | History of Science, Technology, and Medicine This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/penn_museum_papers/1 AGRO-PASTORAL STRATEGIES AND FOOD PRODUCTION ON THE ACHAEMENID FRONTIER IN CENTRAL ASIA: A CASE STUDY OF KYZYLTEPA IN SOUTHERN UZBEKISTAN By Xin Wu*, Naomi F. Miller** and Pam Crabtree*** *University of Pennsylvania & Beijing Normal University, **University of Pennsylvania Museum, ***New York University Abstract This article discusses aspects of the agro-pastoral economy of Kyzyltepa, a late Iron Age or Achaemenid peri- od (sixth–fourth century BC) site in the Surkhandarya region of southern Uzbekistan. The analysis integrates archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses with textual references to food production and provisioning in order to examine local agro-pastoral strategies. Preliminary results suggest an economy that included both an intensive agricultural component, with summer irrigation of millet, and a wider-ranging market-oriented pastoral component that provided meat to the settlement. Keywords Achaemenid; zooarchaeology; archaeobotany; Kyzyltepa; agro-pastoralism I. KYZYLTEPA PROJECT BACKGROUND economic, and social conditions in the Kyzyltepa AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS region following its annexation by the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550–330 BC). This contribution focuses on The site of Kyzyltepa (N 38° 03' 16.6", E 67° 43' the plant and animal remains recovered from the site 16.4") is located near the modern town of Shurchi in in order to begin to understand whether and how the the Denau region of the Surkhandarya Oblast in south- changing political landscape affected local economic ern Uzbekistan (Fig. 1). Archaeologists and historians, strategies. The study also considers the relations following the Soviet tradition, usually refer to the re- between mobile pastoralism and sedentary irrigation gion as northern Bactria;1 southern Bactria lies south agriculture in Central Asia. The article illustrates an of the Amu Darya (Oxus river). Since the 1970s, So- approach that integrates the study of plant and animal viet scholars have conducted surveys and excavations remains in a historical context. at the site and in the surrounding area, during which architectural remains such as buildings, moats, and city walls were revealed. In 2010 and 2011, under the I.1. Historical and archaeological background auspices of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), New York University, and the Institute We know little about the history of Central Asia before of Fine Arts of the Academy of Sciences of the Repub- Alexander the Great’s invasion, except that the region lic of Uzbekistan, a two-season survey and excavation was subjugated by the Great King of Persia in the sixth was conducted at the site by an American-Uzbek Joint century BC and became part of the Achaemenid Em- Expedition led by Xin Wu and Leonid Sverchkov. pire. Yet the Achaemenid period is a crucial time when The broad goal was to elucidate the environmental, Central Asia was dramatically transformed politically, socially, and culturally. It is during this time that the 1 A number of French archaeologists, represented by Claude Parthians, Arians, Bactrians, Sogdians, Choresmians, Rapin, however, believe that the region to the north of the Arachosians, and the various nomadic groups of the Oxus River belonged to the territory of ancient Sogdia Saka people were first documented in historical texts. (Rapin 2007: 31; 2013). Iran LIII 2015, 93–117 © 2015 The British Institute of Persian Studies 94 XIN WU, NAOMI F. MILLER AND PAM CRABTREE Fig. 1. A map showing Achaemenid period sites and sites mentioned in the article (marked by larger grey dots). During this period societies in Central Asia started the capital of the region of Paretacene (or “Paretaka” to adopt administrative tools and practices such as or “Paretakena”), which Alexander the Great invaded writing, coinage, and a large-scale, centralised taxa- during his campaign to Sogdiana in 328–327 BC.5 In tion system, and the region’s position in long-distance his latest work, Claude Rapin proposes that Kyzyltepa trade networks increased significantly in importance. could be the ancient city of Gazaba, where Alexander Investigations of the site conducted by former So- met and married Roxanne, daughter of a Central Asia viet scholars in the 1970s and 1990s have led to the aristocrat.6 conclusion that Kyzyltepa is the biggest Iron Age site in southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, with an occu- pied area of about 20 ha. The site represents a large I.2. Current research and its significance and unique urban settlement equipped with an elabo- rate citadel as well as a fortification system reinforced The two seasons of archaeological research at Kyz- by a strong circumferential wall with a moat. The town yltepa include photo-documentation of the site, topo- was established before the Achaemenid period and oc- graphic mapping, a geomagnetic survey, a surface cupied throughout the first half of the first millennium survey of the site and its surrounding area, and seven BC.2 More than 10 smaller sites cluster around Kyz- test trenches, the depth of which ranges between 0.5 m yltepa,3 most of which were occupied contemporane- and around 4 m. The work has provided renewed ously. Excavation of two of the small sites, Kyzylcha knowledge about the site, such as its topography, 1 and 6, revealed remains of large houses, which the spatial organisation, the history of its occupation, and excavators interpreted as manors of the rich citizens of the development of its layout.7 These new data make Kyzyltepa.4 E. Rtveladze has identified Kyzyltepa as Kyzyltepa one of the best-known Achaemenid period settlements of Central Asia. 2 Pugachenkova 1972: 47–49; 1973: 467–68; Pugachenkova and Rtveladze 1990; Rtveladze 1974: 82; Sagdullayev and 5 Arrian, The Anabasis of Alexander, Book IV: 22.1; Rtve- Khakimov 1976: 24–30; 1978: 538; Khakimov 1972a: 55; ladze 2002: 133, 139. For a recent detailed study of the 1972b: 286; Belyaeva and Khakimov 1973: 35–51. route of Alexander’s campaign, see Rapin 2013. 3 Sagdullayev 1987: fig. 1; Stride 2005, V.5: figs. 27, 61. 6 Rapin, forthcoming. 4 Sagdullayev 1987: 6; 1989: 37. 7 Sverchkov et al. 2012, 2013; Sverchkov and Wu, forthcoming. AGRO-PASTORAL STRATEGIES AND FOOD PRODUCTION 95 Sample A 750–690 cal BC c. 0.20 g barley fragments Sample B 800–760 cal BC c. 0.10 g mixed barley and pulse fragments Sample E 490–460 cal BC c. 0.05 g mixed barley and pulse fragments Sample F 910–810 cal BC c. 0.20 g barley fragments Sample G 840–790 cal BC 3 pieces (0.84 g) willow or poplar charcoal Sample H 900–800; 810–780 cal BC 1 barley grain, 3 twiglets Table 1. Calibrated radiocarbon dates from Kyzyltepa, 2-sigma. In this article, we discuss archaeobotanical ma- Such examination would potentially also shed light on terial excavated in the 2010 and 2011 seasons and the roles that both the sedentary farmers and mobile zooarchaeological material excavated in 2011. The pastoralists played within the longer-term regional plant remains were analysed by Naomi F. Miller at transition to an agro-pastoral economy. the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
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