Summary
During the 4th-3rd millennia B.C in Mesopotamia, communities previously living in small egalitarian villages progressively grew into large cities, ruled by political, religious and economic institutions. Cultural expansions and climate change contributed to socio-economic transformations and adaptations including in crop production.
The development of an intensive irrigated farming system in southern Mesopotamia enabled the rise of early cities there; simultaneously, in rain-fed northern Mesopotamia, an extensive, low-input farming system supported early cities. But while agriculture appears to be one of the main drivers behind the emergence and development of the first Near Eastern cities, the evidence mostly consists of indirect sources such as 3rd and 2nd mill. BC cuneiform texts. The study of charred macrobotanical remains (seeds, fruits, chaff) recovered from nine newly excavated archaeological sites, located in northern and southern Mesopotamia, offers a unique opportunity to reconstruct the evolution and regional variability of plant production between the 7th and the 1st mill. BC. This project will study the role and the impact of the development of agriculture in the emergence of the urban centres. With this aim, the project will 1) identify macrobotanical remains through taxonomic and morphometric analysis to reconstruct plant assemblages; 2) create a database integrating botanical results and contextual information; 3) apply stable isotope analysis (carbon and nitrogen) to crops and functional weed ecology to document growing conditions of plants; 4) use multivariate analyses for comparisons and literature review for supra-regional synthesis.
The results will allow us to define the northern and the southern Mesopotamian agriculture and to redraw their evolution along with the urbanisation of societies. The ultimate goal is to clarify how different agricultural systems (intensive vs. extensive) have resulted and supported the raise of the first cities.
The development of an intensive irrigated farming system in southern Mesopotamia enabled the rise of early cities there; simultaneously, in rain-fed northern Mesopotamia, an extensive, low-input farming system supported early cities. But while agriculture appears to be one of the main drivers behind the emergence and development of the first Near Eastern cities, the evidence mostly consists of indirect sources such as 3rd and 2nd mill. BC cuneiform texts. The study of charred macrobotanical remains (seeds, fruits, chaff) recovered from nine newly excavated archaeological sites, located in northern and southern Mesopotamia, offers a unique opportunity to reconstruct the evolution and regional variability of plant production between the 7th and the 1st mill. BC. This project will study the role and the impact of the development of agriculture in the emergence of the urban centres. With this aim, the project will 1) identify macrobotanical remains through taxonomic and morphometric analysis to reconstruct plant assemblages; 2) create a database integrating botanical results and contextual information; 3) apply stable isotope analysis (carbon and nitrogen) to crops and functional weed ecology to document growing conditions of plants; 4) use multivariate analyses for comparisons and literature review for supra-regional synthesis.
The results will allow us to define the northern and the southern Mesopotamian agriculture and to redraw their evolution along with the urbanisation of societies. The ultimate goal is to clarify how different agricultural systems (intensive vs. extensive) have resulted and supported the raise of the first cities.
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More information & hyperlinks
| Web resources: | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101018916 |
| Start date: | 10-01-2022 |
| End date: | 09-01-2024 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | 212 933,76 Euro - 212 933,00 Euro |
Cordis data
Original description
During the 4th-3rd millennia B.C in Mesopotamia, communities previously living in small egalitarian villages progressively grew into large cities, ruled by political, religious and economic institutions. Cultural expansions and climate change contributed to socio-economic transformations and adaptations including in crop production.The development of an intensive irrigated farming system in southern Mesopotamia enabled the rise of early cities there; simultaneously, in rain-fed northern Mesopotamia, an extensive, low-input farming system supported early cities. But while agriculture appears to be one of the main drivers behind the emergence and development of the first Near Eastern cities, the evidence mostly consists of indirect sources such as 3rd and 2nd mill. BC cuneiform texts. The study of charred macrobotanical remains (seeds, fruits, chaff) recovered from nine newly excavated archaeological sites, located in northern and southern Mesopotamia, offers a unique opportunity to reconstruct the evolution and regional variability of plant production between the 7th and the 1st mill. BC. This project will study the role and the impact of the development of agriculture in the emergence of the urban centres. With this aim, the project will 1) identify macrobotanical remains through taxonomic and morphometric analysis to reconstruct plant assemblages; 2) create a database integrating botanical results and contextual information; 3) apply stable isotope analysis (carbon and nitrogen) to crops and functional weed ecology to document growing conditions of plants; 4) use multivariate analyses for comparisons and literature review for supra-regional synthesis.
The results will allow us to define the northern and the southern Mesopotamian agriculture and to redraw their evolution along with the urbanisation of societies. The ultimate goal is to clarify how different agricultural systems (intensive vs. extensive) have resulted and supported the raise of the first cities.
Status
CLOSEDCall topic
MSCA-IF-2020Update Date
28-04-2024
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