| NSF Org: |
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 20, 2020 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | March 20, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 2015819 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
John Yellen
jyellen@nsf.gov (703)292-8759 BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2020 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $22,653.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $22,653.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1400 S LAKE SHORE DR CHICAGO IL US 60605-2827 (312)665-7240 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1400 S LAKE SHORE DR CHICAGO IL US 60605-2827 |
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Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Archaeology DDRI |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
Under the direction of Dr. William A. Parkinson at the Field Museum of Natural History, William P. Ridge, a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago will conduct archaeological fieldwork to examine the social responses and adaptations in small-scale societies to large-scale population shifts and economic changes. The modern world is characterized by dense urban landscapes and massive degrees of political and economic inequality, but these are recent developments within the human experience. Since the end of the Pleistocene, most humans have lived in small, autonomous, village societies. Through archaeological research, archaeologists can examine extended periods of time ? centuries or millennia ? and trace the emergent forms of characteristics that have come to define the contemporary world, such as social differentiation, economic inequality, the negotiation of cultural identities, and the physiological effects of dense populations. Why do people come together to live in ever larger populations? How are social relationships and cultural identities reshaped by shifting populations? How and under what circumstances do such aggregations fail? With global and domestic population movements more frequent than ever before, such questions are increasingly pertinent.
The doctoral student and colleagues will examine how social structure and population changed in prehistoric village societies. The research will consist primarily of targeted excavations at prehistoric settlement sites. Excavations will take place at prehistoric villages that belong to a period when there was a juxtaposition between, on the one hand, the disappearance of large settlements, and, on the other hand, the establishment of rich burial grounds. Combining excavation data from households with the high-precision chronological data of radiocarbon dates the project will elucidate how demographic and economic processes occurring at the regional level effected the nature of local society and at what pace these changes took place. The research team will generate models to explain human responses to population and economic fluctuations. The project will focus on training and data generation and will provide educational and research opportunities for both students and scholars.
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.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The foundations that define modern human society can be traced back to the ancient village societies that existed thousands of years ago. This project investigated social dynamics within such ancient villages on the Great Hungarian Plain during the Early and Middle Copper Age (4500-3600 BC). Specifically, the research was aimed at determining the chronological relationship between the different archaeological cultures of the period known as the Tiszapolgár and Bodrogkeresztúr cultures and explaining the drop in the number of sites in the Bodrogkeresztúr period. More broadly, the research examined how non-hierarchical village societies respond to large-scale socioeconomic and demographic shifts.
Summary of project outcomes
Between June 2021 and June 2023, the NSF funds were used to conduct multiple components of a doctoral research project on the dynamics of social change in the Copper Age in Hungary. The first component was focused on obtaining AMS radiocarbon dates to build a precise chronological understanding of the period in the Körös Region. Between June 2021 and January 2023, 36 radiocarbon dates were acquired from eight Copper Age sites in the region, from both new fieldwork and existing museum collections. This collection of radiocarbon dates doubled the number of Copper Age dates in the region and included the first radiocarbon dates for the Bodrogkeresztúr culture and the Late Copper Age. The radiocarbon dates further clarified the chronological relationship of the Tiszapolgár and Bodrogkeresztúr cultures, demonstrating that they represent the earlier and latter parts of the Early Copper Age (4500-4000 BC). Additionally, combined with the existing radiocarbon dates from the Körös Region, the dates collected as part of this project support a period of depopulation and a chronological gap during the 4th millennium.
Excavations at the Bodrogkeresztúr settlement of Békés-Ludad, Iskola were conducted in July 2022. This represented the first systematic excavation at the Bodrogkeresztúr settlement in the region and was informed by previous surface and geophysical surveys at the site in 2018-2019. The excavations recovered a massive number of artifacts, including over 140 kg of ceramics, 50 kg of animal bones, and dozens of obsidian bladelets. The ceramics were analyzed in June 2023 and revealed a diverse range of vessel types and decorations. The animal bones were studied in the spring of 2023 and showed a marked increase in cattle over earlier periods, suggesting a change in subsistence and economic strategies.
Intellectual merit
By focusing on settlements and the chronology of the Copper Age, this project addressed significant gaps in the archaeological research of Hungary and Southeastern Europe. One of the principal challenges in studying the Copper Age is the lack of chronological precision, mainly due to a lack of radiocarbon dates for the period. This project more than doubled the number of Copper Age radiocarbon dates for the Körös Region and included some of the only radiocarbon dates from settlements of the Bodrogkeresztúr and Baden cultures for the entire Great Hungarian Plain. The collection of radiocarbon dates obtained in the project has greatly improved the chronological understanding of the whole region and allows for a more precise examination of the social changes that occurred in the 5th and 4th millennia. Furthermore, most of what is known about the Copper Age has come from cemeteries, with very few settlements being systematically investigated. The excavation at Békés-Ludad, Iskola represents one of the only research projects conducted at a settlement of the Bodrogkeresztúr culture of the Early Copper Age (4500-4000 BC). The results of the excavation and analyses will set up a more extensive exploration of the site in the near future. The research also contributes to the growing research on ancient village societies.
Broader impacts
This research project built on over 20 years of collaboration between archaeologists and institutions in the United States and Hungary. This has strengthened ties between scholars in both countries and allowed the Körös Region in Eastern Hungary to be one of the most extensively researched places in European prehistory. This has created a unique regional database that covers thousands of years of human social development, to which this project has contributed. This regional database allows for studying long-term transformations in early human societies in a diachronic and comparative fashion that is impossible in most areas. In the archaeological record of village societies, we can identify the emerging social dynamics that eventually led to the development of modern social conditions. Today, many issues at the center of public discourse, such as migration, climate change, and wealth inequalities, were also challenges in the prehistoric world. This connects the static and, at times, irrelevant archaeological record with the dynamic and complex world people experience daily.
Last Modified: 09/08/2023
Modified by: William Ridge
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