Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, United States of America.
Department of Anthropology, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Mar 4;15(3):e0229339. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229339. eCollection 2020.
The Kura-Araxes cultural tradition (ca. 3500-2200 BCE) was one of the most widespread archaeological horizons in Southwest Asian prehistory, spanning from the Caucasus to the southern Levant. Although several decades of research have considerably increased our knowledge about this Early Bronze Age tradition, the social and economic organization of its communities remains a matter of much debate. Interpretations of the organization of Kura-Araxes craft economies range from need-based household production to extra-household specialized production for exchange and elite consumption. This issue stems from the absence of a systematic approach to studying the spatial organization of craft production; that is the study of the spatial distribution of archaeological material across multiple contexts to reconstruct the location of various activities involved in craft production. Extensive evidence for craft production at Köhne Shahar (KSH)-one of the largest Kura-Araxes sites ever discovered-provides an opportunity for such a study. Faunal remains are among the most abundant types of remains recovered at KSH Phases IV and V (ca. 2800-2500 BCE), where bone and antler were cached and then shaped into tools that were used to manufacture other objects like beads. We use zooarchaeology to study the spatial distribution of worked and unworked animal remains to analyze the function of several structures and spaces in the craft production areas to ultimately gain better insight into the organization of labor and the social organization of the community. We identify evidence for two antler storage units, numerous waste dumps, and several workshops. Some workshops manufactured a similar range of small, possibly ornamental objects, while others specialized in the manufacture of certain goods, textiles, and objects made of animal horn. When combined with other lines of evidence, our observations point to a community-wide production economy with little direct evidence for a stratified social organization. We argue that the absence of a strict social hierarchy at KSH and across the Kura-Araxes world is not evidence of the absence of social complexity, but the presence of a horizontal or heterarchical social order.
库拉-阿拉克斯文化传统（公元前 3500-2200 年）是西南亚史前时期分布最广泛的考古学领域之一，从高加索地区延伸到黎凡特南部。尽管几十年来的研究极大地增加了我们对这一青铜时代早期传统的了解，但它的社区的社会和经济组织仍然是一个争论的焦点。对库拉-阿拉克斯手工艺经济组织的解释范围从基于需求的家庭生产到为交换和精英消费而进行的家庭外专业化生产。这个问题源于缺乏系统的方法来研究手工艺生产的空间组织；也就是说，研究考古材料在多个背景下的空间分布，以重建手工艺生产中涉及的各种活动的位置。科恩沙赫尔（KSH）——迄今为止发现的最大的库拉-阿拉克斯遗址之一——为这样的研究提供了广泛的手工艺生产证据。在 KSH 第四和第五阶段（公元前 2800-2500 年），动物骨骼和鹿角是最丰富的遗物类型之一，在那里，骨头和鹿角被储存起来，然后被塑造成工具，用于制造其他物品，如珠子。我们使用动物考古学来研究经过加工和未经加工的动物遗骸的空间分布，以分析手工艺生产区的几个结构和空间的功能，最终更好地了解劳动力组织和社区的社会组织。我们确定了两个鹿角储存单元、多个废料堆和几个车间的证据。一些车间制造了类似的小型、可能是装饰性的物品，而其他车间则专门制造某些商品、纺织品和角制物品。当与其他证据线结合时，我们的观察结果表明存在一个社区范围内的生产经济，几乎没有直接证据表明存在分层的社会组织。我们认为，KSH 以及整个库拉-阿拉克斯世界缺乏严格的社会等级制度并不是缺乏社会复杂性的证据，而是存在水平或异质社会秩序的证据。
