Plant economy of the Kura-Araxes : a comparative analysis of agriculture in the Near East from the Chalcolithic to the Middle Bronze Age

• Main Author: Longford, Catherine
• Other Authors: Jones, Glynis
• Published: University of Sheffield 2015
• Subjects: 930
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.675059

This thesis investigates the nature of the Kura-Araxes cultural horizon by examining archaeobotanical evidence from sites across the Near East from the Chalcolithic to Middle Bronze Age. Using the concept of food as material culture, this thesis explores the cultural integrity of the Kura-Araxes horizon and the extent of mobile pastoralism in the Kura-Araxes economy. This thesis presents a detailed archaeobotanical study of a Kura-Araxes site, Sos Höyük from northeastern Anatolia, which dates from the Late Chalcolithic to Middle Bronze Age (3500-1500B.C.). From the archaeobotanical evidence, Sos Höyük appears to have been a settled agro-pastoral community. The thesis also investigates the Kura-Araxes cultural horizon through a comparative analysis of crop remains from Kura-Araxes and other Near Eastern sites from 6100-1500 B.C. Crop data from 117 sites, including 21 Kura-Araxes sites, are compared using correspondence analysis. Over the period studied there is a decline of in the proportion of glume wheat at sites across the Near East. In some regions this is accompanied by an increase in barley remains and in other areas by an increase in free threshing wheat remains. The shift from glume wheat to barley at sites in low rainfall areas appears to have been related to climatic change at c.2200 B.C. The increase in free threshing wheat appears directly related to the spread of the Kura-Araxes cultural horizon. At Kura-Araxes sites there is a preference for hexaploid free threshing wheat that distinguishes Kura-Araxes sites from non-Kura-Araxes sites in every region that Kura-Araxes material culture is present. The distinctive crop signature of Kura- Araxes sites supports the interpretation of the Kura-Araxes horizon as a shared cultural identity. Archaeobotanical evidence also indicates that the Kura-Araxes practiced settled agropastoralism rather than transhumant pastoralism. The expansion of the Kura-Araxes across the Near East may have been motivated by the search for new agricultural land.