Timing the Economic, Cultural and Environmental patterns of Agropastoralism development in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands

Introduction

The emergence of an agropastoral way of life in South West Asia from the late 10th millennium BCE revolutionised the social organisation of prehistoric communities. The spread of this new economic and cultural model followed several trajectories.

Research Area

A key region comprised between the Zagros mountains of the Iranian Plateau to the Indus Valley in the plains of Pakistan, known as Indo-Iranian borderlands (IIBL), is yet poorly explored. Current knowledge of agropastoralism dynamics and dispersal in this area remains fragmentary due to the lack of a robust chronological frame drawing temporal links between the settlements.

Project Focus

The AgroChrono project particularly explores the development of agropastoralism among agropastoral societies of the 7th to 4th millennium BCE in the IIBL around four research themes:

1. Chronology: To resolve the time frame of early agropastoral occupations in this region.
2. Economy: To document human subsistence practices with the exploitation of domestic resources.
3. Palaeoenvironment: To investigate the setting and variations that may have influenced the settlement patterns and availability of natural resources necessary for their subsistence.
4. Cultural Links: To explore the cultural and economic links between the various settlements by gathering all the archaeological datasets available.

Methodology

All these aspects are investigated using a combination of classical archaeological, bioarchaeological, and palaeoenvironmental methods, together with the latest developments in biomolecular, isotopic, and chronometric techniques.

Advanced Techniques

It particularly includes the next stage of development for compound-specific radiocarbon analyses of archaeological and environmental matrices, a state-of-the-art method essential for resolving the local problematics regarding the chronology.

Data Modeling

All the generated data will be modelled to test various scenarios on the emergence of agropastoralism in the IIBL and to determine if this resulted from a single cultural diffusion or local independent trajectories.