Research Catalog

Title

A Bronze Age landscape in the Russian steppes : the Samara Valley Project / edited by David W. Anthony, Dorcas R. Brown, Oleg D. Mochalov, Alexandr A. Khokhlov, and Pavel F. Kuznetsov.

Publication

[Los Angeles, California] : UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, [2016]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Anthony, David W.
• Brown, Dorcas R.
• Mochalov, Oleg D.
• Khokhlov, Aleksandr A.
• Kuznet͡sov, P. F. (Pavel Fedorovich)

Description

xxi, 513 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color); 29 cm.

Summary

"The Samara Valley Project (SVP) was a US-Russian archaeological investigation in the steppes east of Samara, Russia between 1995 and 2002. This 21-author volume is the project's final report. It describes the changing organization and subsistence resources of pastoral steppe economies from the Eneolithic (4500 BC) through the Late Bronze Age (1900-1200 BC) across a steppe-and-river valley landscape in the middle Volga region, with particular attention to the role of agriculture during the unusual episode of sedentary, settled pastoralism that spread across the Eurasian steppes with the Srubnaya (Timber-Grave) and Andronovo cultures (1900-1200 BC). We excavated a permanently occupied Srubnaya domestic residence at Krasnosamarskoe dated about 1900-1700 BC and a series of contemporaneous seasonal Srubnaya herding camps. This is the first English-language monograph that describes seasonal and permanent LBA settlements in the Russian steppes. We analyze economic resources (wild and domesticated plants and animals, copper mining and metallurgy) and their seasonal exploitation, supplemented by human biological data from Eneolithic-through-Bronze Age pathologies related to diet, health, and activities, as well as dietary stable isotopes, cranio-facial measurements, and ancient DNA. Three important discoveries were that agriculture played no role in the LBA diet across the region, a surprise given the settled residential pattern; second that a winter ritual involving dog and wolf sacrifices, possibly related to male initiation ceremonies, occurred uniquely at Krasnosamarskoe; and third that overlapping spheres of obligation, cooperation, and affiliation operated at different scales to integrate groups defined by politics, economics, and ritual behaviors."

Series Statement

Monumenta archaeologica ; volume 37

Uniform Title

Monumenta archaeologica (Los Angeles, Calif.) ; v. 37.

Subject

• Samara Valley Project
• Bronze age > Samara Region
• Srubna culture > Samara Region
• Andronovo culture > Samara Region
• Steppe archaeology > Samara Region
• Pastoral systems > Samara Region > History > To 1500
• Landscape archaeology > Samara Region
• Excavations (Archaeology) > Samara Region
• SOCIAL SCIENCE > Archaeology
• Samara Region (Russia) > Antiquities
• Volga River Region (Russia) > Antiquities

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• The Samara Valley Project and the evolution of pastoral economies in the Western Eurasian Steppes / David W. Anthony -- Archaeological field operations in the Lower Samara Valley, 1995-2001, with observations on Srubnaya pastoralism / David W. Anthony, Dorcas R. Brown, and Pavel F. Kuznetsov -- Historic records of the economy and ethnic history of the Samara Region / Oleg D. Mochalov, Dmitriy V. Romanov, and David W. Anthony -- The Samara Valley in the Bronze Age: a review of archaeological discoveries / Pavel F. Kuznetsov and Oleg D. Mochalov -- Paleoecological evidence for vegetation, climate, and land-use change in the Lower Samara River Valley / Laura M. Popova -- Demographic and cranial characteristics of the Volga-Ural population in the Eneolithic and Bronze Age / Aleksandr A. Khokhlov -- Stable isotope analysis of Neolithic to Late Bronze Age populations in the Samara Valley / Rick J. Schulting and Michael P. Richards --
• A bioarcheological study of prehistoric populations from the Volga Region / Eileen M. Murphy and Aleksandr A. Khokhlov -- The geoarchaeology of the Krasnosamarskoe sites / Arlene Miller Rosen -- Excavations at the LBA settlement at Krasnosamarskoe / David W. Anthony, Dorcas R. Brown, Pavel F. Kuznetsov, and Oleg D. Mochalov -- Bronze Age metallurgy in the Middle Volga / David L. Peterson, Peter Morthover, Chris Salter, Blanca Maldonado, and David W. Anthony -- Floral data analysis: report on the pollen and macrobotanical remains from the Krasnosamarskoe settlement / Laura M. Popova -- Phytoliths from the Krasnosamarskoe settlement and its environment / Alison Weisskopf and Arlene Miller Rosen -- Dog days of winter: seasonal activities in a Srubnaya landscape / Anne Pike-Tay and David W. Anthony -- Archaeozoological report on the animal bones from the Krasnosamarskoe settlement / Pavel A. Kosintsev --
• Human-Animal relations at Krasnosamarskoe / Nerissa Russell, Audrey Brown, and Emmett Brown -- The Bronze Age Kurgan Cemetery at Krasnosamarskoe IV / Pavel F. Kuznetsov, Oleg D. Mochalov, and David W. Anthony -- Bronze Age herding camps: survey and excavations in Peschanyi Dol / David W. Anthony, Dorcas R. Brown, Pavel F. Kuznetsov, and Oleg D. Mochalov.

ISBN

• 9781938770050
• 1938770056

LCCN

^^2015030266

OCLC

957020934

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library