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Investigating Social Complexity Through Centralization and Differentiation in Bronze Age Pastoral Societies of the Southern Urals, Russian Federation, 2100 – 900 Bc

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Investigating Social Complexity Through Centralization and Differentiation in Bronze Age Pastoral Societies of the Southern Urals, Russian Federation, 2100 – 900 Bc COMMUNITY MATTERS? INVESTIGATING SOCIAL COMPLEXITY THROUGH CENTRALIZATION AND DIFFERENTIATION IN BRONZE AGE PASTORAL SOCIETIES OF THE SOUTHERN URALS, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, 2100 – 900 BC by James Alan Johnson B.A. English/History, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 1996 M.Sc. Anthropology, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, 2006 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2014 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by James Alan Johnson It was defended on November 13, 2013 and approved by Dr. Kathleen Allen, Senior Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh Dr. Marc Bermann, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh Dr. Katheryn Linduff, Professor, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh Dr. David Anthony, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Hartwick College Dr. Robert Drennan, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh Dr. Bryan Hanks, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh Committee Chairperson ii Copyright © by James Alan Johnson 2014 iii COMMUNITY MATTERS? INVESTIGATING SOCIAL COMPLEXITY THROUGH CENTRALIZATION AND DIFFERENTIATION IN BRONZE AGE PASTORAL SOCIETIES OF THE SOUTHERN URALS, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, 2100 – 900 BC James A. Johnson, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2014 In the past ten years or more, social complexity has taken center stage as the focus of archaeologists working on the Eurasian steppe. The Middle Bronze Age Sintashta period, ca. 2100 - 1700 BC, is often assumed to represent the apex of social complexity for the Bronze Age in the southern Urals region. This assumption has been based on the appearance of twenty-two fortified settlements, chariot burials, and intensified metal production. Some of these studies have incorporated the emergence and subsequent development of mobile pastoralism as their primary foci, while others have concerned themselves primarily with early forms of metal production and their association with seemingly nascent social hierarchies. Such variables are useful indicators of more complex forms of social organization usually accompanied by strong degrees of demographic centralization and social differentiation. This dissertation explores the relationship between demographic centralization and the balance between social differentiation and integration based on the data collected during archaeological survey of 142 square km around and between two Sintashta period settlements, Stepnoye and Chernorech'ye, located in the Ui River valley of the southern Urals region, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russian Federation. Because of the multi-component nature of iv archaeological survey, materials recovered date from the Mesolithic to the twentieth century. However, the focus was on Bronze Age materials to better identify and evaluate changes between demographic centralization and social differentiation. Center-hinterland dynamics and the use of historical capital (materials, practices, and places re-used in identifiable ways) were evaluated from the Middle Bronze Age Sintashta period through to the end of the Final Bronze Age. Based on the results of the Sintashta Collaborative Archaeological Research Project (SCARP) project, the ongoing work of Russian scholars, and the results of this dissertation, there is considerable evidence that it was in the Late Bronze Age that social complexity may have become more pronounced, even as the demographically centralized Sintashta period communities dispersed. The results of the landscape and materials analyses indicate strong possibilities for land-use and craft traditions carried through to the end of the Final Bronze Age, with such traditions acting as historical capital for later communities. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................ xx 1.0 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 DISSERTATION CASE STUDY AND REGION - SINTASHTA PERIOD SOUTHERN URALS................................................................................................... 2 1.2 DISSERTATION FIELDWORK AND RESEARCH.................................................. 5 2.0 COMPLEXITY AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRADITIONS FOR THE BRONZE AGE EURASIAN STEPPE...................................................................................................... 8 2.1 CENTRALIZATION AND DIFFERENTIATION AS HISTORICAL PROCESS IN PASTORAL SOCIETIES............................................................................................. 9 2.2 THEORY AND HISTORICAL PROCESS IN THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE EURASIAN STEPPE.................................................................................................. 13 2.3 SOCIAL CONTEXTS FOR INTRA- AND INTER-COMMUNITY CHANGE AND DIFFERENTIATION IN THE BRONZE AGE EURASIAN STEPPE...................... 21 2.4 MIDDLE BRONZE AGE SINTASHTA PERIOD OF THE SOUTHERN URALS... 22 2.5 LATE BRONZE AGE CULTURES AND CULTURAL TERRITORY..................... 31 2.5.1 The Andronovo Problem - Culture or Cultural Horizon?............................. 32 2.6 LATE BRONZE AGE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN THE SOUTHERN URALS.. 34 2.7 FINAL BRONZE AGE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN THE SOUTHERN URALS.39 2.8 CHANGE AND CONTINUITY FROM THE SINTASHTA PERIOD TO THE FINAL BRONZE AGE.............................................................................................................. 41 3.0 METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................... 42 vi 3.1 PREVIOUS WORK IN THE VALLEY........................................................................ 43 3.2 2011 SURVEY BETWEEN SINTASHTA PERIOD SETTLEMENTS....................... 45 3.2.1 Surface Visibility and Recording Scheme in Survey Area............................ 49 3.2.2 Test Excavations............................................................................................ 53 3.3 DISCUSSION OF CHRONOLOGY............................................................................. 55 3.4 EVALUATING DEMOGRAPHIC CENTRALIZATION: POPULATION HISTORIES AND DISTRIBUTION.................................................................................................. 58 3.5 TERRITORY AND COMMUNITY: PASTURAGE, VISIBILITY, AND INTEGRATION............................................................................................................ 59 3.6 POTTERY PRODUCTION/USE, DIFFERENTIATION, AND INTEGRATION IN THE BRONZE AGE SOUTHERN URALS................................................................. 61 4.0 POPULATION HISTORIES OF THE BRONZE AGE SOUTHERN URALS.............. 63 4.1 POPULATION HISTORIES OF THE SINTASHTA PERIOD OF THE SOUTHERN URALS.......................................................................................................................... 64 4.2 POPULATION LEVELS AND DISTRIBUTIONS FOR THE SINTASHTA PERIOD AND LATE BRONZE AGE OF THE SOUTHERN URALS...................................... 68 4.3 POPULATIONS LEVELS AND DISTRIBUTIONS IN THE SINTASHTA PERIOD THROUGH FINAL BRONZE AGE UI RIVER VALLEY.......................................... 75 4.3.1 Late Bronze Age Populations in the Ui River Valley.................................... 78 4.3.2 Final Bronze Age Populations in the Ui River Valley................................... 85 4.4 SUMMARY - POPULATION HISTORIES AND DEMOGRAPHIC CENTRALIZATION IN THE BRONZE AGE OF THE SOUTHERN URALS......... 92 5.0 TERRITORY, COMMUNITY, AND DIFFERENTIATION IN THE BRONZE AGE SOUTHERN URALS....................................................................................................... 94 5.1 TERRITORY, COMMUNITY, AND DIFFERENTIATION IN THE SINTASHTA PERIOD OF THE SOUTHERN URALS...................................................................... 95 5.2 TERRITORY, COMMUNITY, AND DIFFERENTIATION IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE OF THE SOUTHERN URALS.......................................................................... 105 vii 5.2.1 Summary of Territory, Community, and Differentiation in the Late Bronze Age of the Southern Urals............................................................................ 113 5.3 TERRITORY, COMMUNITY, AND DIFFERENTIATION IN THE FINAL BRONZE AGE OF THE SOUTHERN URALS.......................................................................... 114 5.3.1 Summary of Territory, Community, and Differentiation in the Final Bronze Age of the Southern Urals............................................................................ 119 5.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY.............................................................................................. 120 6.0 CRAFT PRODUCTION, DIFFERENTIATION, AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION IN THE BRONZE AGE OF THE SOUTHERN URALS................................................... 121 6.1 SINTASHTA POTTERY PRODUCTION................................................................. 123 6.2 POTTERY PRODUCTION AND USE IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE OF THE SOUTHERN URALS.................................................................................................. 125 6.2.1 Decorated and Non-Decorated Pottery in the Late Bronze Age of the Southern Urals............................................................................................. 126 6.2.2 Late Bronze
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