Ancient State Research Articles

Andean Diaspora: The Tiwanaku Colonies and the Origins of South American Empire

This book takes a new and provocative approach to ancient state expansion, looking at the role and dynamics of colonization in pre-Columbian Andean states. Paul Goldstein argues that the influential Tiwanaku culture in the Bolivian highlands, which existed in the 7th through 11th centuries A.D., was at its core a civilization of peoples of distinctive ethnic and political affiliations who shared some common identities. He maintains that Tiwanaku expansion came about because of a complex web of economic and cultural exchanges that linked regions into a pluralistic confederation, a demographic process he calls ethnicity in motion. Goldstein takes issue with earlier notions of ancient state expansion that argue for a coercive centralized political body under charismatic warlords and powerful ruling elites. He asserts that globalist interpretations of expansive states, whether they focus on imperial conquest or hegemonic world systems, all share a similarly limited centrist perspective. In contrast, his reassessment of state structure emphasizes identity, process, and dynamics from the bottom up. Noting that the Tiwanaku civilization was far more pluralistic than is commonly believed, he contends that early states in the Andes, and perhaps throughout the ancient world, were segmentary in nature and that they remained so even as they grew into larger empires. After introducing the role of diasporas in early state growth, Goldstein synthesizes recent research on the Tiwanaku civilization of highland Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. He presents the results of his own extensive archaeological field research in Azapa, Chile, and Moquegua, Peru, showing how settlement, household, mortuary, and monumental archaeology bear on the colonization of lowland agricultural valleys.

Myths of the archaic state: evolution of the earliest cities, states, and civilizations

In this ground-breaking work, Norman Yoffee shatters the prevailing myths underpinning our understanding of the evolution of early civilisations. He counters the emphasis in traditional scholarship on the rule of 'godly' and despotic male leaders and challenges the conventional view that early states were uniformly constituted bureaucratic and regional entities. Instead, by illuminating the role of slaves and soldiers, priests and priestesses, peasants and prostitutes, merchants and craftsmen, Yoffee depicts an evolutionary process centred on the concerns of everyday life. Drawing on evidence from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica, the author explores the variety of trajectories followed by ancient states, from birth to collapse, and explores the social processes that shape any account of the human past. This book offers a bold new interpretation of social evolutionary theory, and as such it is essential reading for any student or scholar with an interest in the emergence of complex society.

How Do Archaeologists Compare Early States?

Bruce Trigger's and Adam Smith's comparative studies of state-level societies provide new theoretical approaches and are important components in a resurgence of explicit comparative analysis of early states by archaeologists. Trigger presents a massive systematic comparison of seven ancient states on an unusually large number of themes, whereas Smith carries out more intensive comparisons of a smaller sample on more limited themes. These well-written works make significant contributions to a number of areas, including empirical analysis, theory, and comparative methods. MICHAEL E. SMITH is Professor of Anthropology at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. He has directed several archaeological projects in the Mexican state of Morelos focusing on Aztec household and community organization, and he is interested in the cross-cultural analysis of ancient states. His books include The Aztecs (2nd ed., Blackwell, 2003) and The Postclassic Mesoamerican World (coedited with Frances F. Berdan, University of Utah Press, 2003).

Magic Eggs and the Frontier of Stem Cell Science

Two myths about eggs figure prominently in the story of Korea's national origin. First there is the tale of Pak Hyeokkeose, the first ruler of Shilla, the ancient Buddhist state that evolved into what is now North and South Korea. According to legend, the six leaders of the city-states that would eventually become Shilla decided that they needed a king to rule over them. They gathered in the wilderness and prayed for guidance. Suddenly there was a flash of lightning, and on the ground appeared an enormous egg. Out of this egg emerged a young boy. The leaders quickly took the child and led him to a secluded temple in the south where he was raised to be king. Then there is the story of Seok T'alhae, the son of the king and queen of the Wanha region. He, too, emerged from a giant egg. But the king's advisors warned that this supernatural event was a bad omen. So the king put his son on a boat and sent him away. The boat eventually reached Shilla. There the boy grew up and became Shilla's fourth ruler. These myths provide a fitting metaphor for the recent stem cell scandal involving Dr. Woo Suk Hwang and colleagues at Seoul National University. Like the story of Korea's national origin, this modern tale began with the purported emergence of another kind of magical Korean egg--this time human eggs transformed through the wonder of somatic cell nuclear transfer. It was declared that from these special eggs sprang forth entities with enormous potential power--patient-specific pluripotent human stem cells that could teach scientists how to treat uncured diseases and injuries. South Korean leaders eagerly embraced these magic eggs and their precious contents. They created a safe haven to foster this research by building and financing the World Stem Cell Hub in Seoul. Many other world leaders determined that these magic eggs were a bad omen and refused to have anything to do with them. Korean scientists were left with the task of developing these unique eggs and nurturing their contents alone. Like the ancient narrative, this modern stem cell story was supposed to mark the naissance of South Korea, this time as a world leader in biotechnology and stem cell science. Scientists with research ambitions shunned by their own political leaders were to find a refuge for their controversial work in Seoul and thus help seal South Korea's new national identity. Unfortunately, the parallels do not end there. Like the story of the country's origin, the modern stem cell story also seems to have been built on an elaborate fiction. At the time of this writing, Korean investigators have found no evidence that Hwang and colleagues ever derived pluripotent stem cell lines from cloned human blastocysts, and the journal Science has editorially retracted Hwang's two landmark papers. (1) The Race Ahead As could have been predicted, the Korean stem cell candal has provided commentators around the world ample opportunity to remark on the various lessons to be drawn from this case. Among researchers, however, the scandal has produced a more surprising response. After the initial shock of this shameful news had passed, scientists began to realize that the playing field for embryonic stem cell research was far more level than they had believed. Emboldened by this realization, and perhaps encouraged by the Korean investigators' report that the Hwang team had successfully created cloned human blastocysts, many scientists are now reentering the global race to forge ahead in NT-hESC research--that is, to derive human pluripotent stem cells (hESCs) from embryos created via somatic cell nuclear transfer (NT). (2) Among the illustrious teams planning to pursue NT-hESC research this spring are researchers from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute; Advanced Cell Technology; the University of California, San Francisco; the University of California, Los Angeles; the Karolinska Institute in Sweden; Newcastle University; the Queen's Medical Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh; and the Institute of Psychiatry, London. …

A COLOURFUL WORLD FOR THE EMPEROR'S SOUL: THE POLYCHROMY OF THE TERRACOTTA SCULPTURES AT QIN SHIHUANG'S BURIAL COMPLEX

The terracotta army from the burial complex of the first Chinese Emperor Qin Shihuang (died 210 BC) is well known as a collection of grey sculptures which appear from the distance to be a uniform troop. All the sculptures, chariots and weapons were originally painted, but the few colours which survived the centuries were lost during excavation. One of the aims of the Chinese-German co-operative project is the difficult task of conserving this polychromy. Parallel to conservation efforts, analyses of the pigments and their application techniques, and reconstructions of the colour combinations and the elaborately painted patterns, have been undertaken. They have helped provide an understanding of the polychromy as it was originally intended. The polychrome schemes are of extraordinary quality and importance. They provide insight not only into ancient painting techniques, but also into the style of clothes and uniforms in the ancient state of Qin. Reconstructions of the polychromy on two replicas are an attempt to visualize the original appearance of the figures.

Urartian Metal Artifacts: an Archaeological Review

AbstractMetal artifacts constitute the main component of the cultural material known from the ancient state of Urartu. The great majority of these artifacts available to archaeologists for cultural analysis derives from plundered sites, which proveniences, whether from sites in modern Turkey, Armenia, or northwestern Iran, are unknown. In fact, only a minority was obtained from excavations at known sites and tombs. At the same time there is a large quantity of publications on Urartian metal artifacts, most of which are in museums and private collections in Europe, the United States, and Japan. Most of the publications, many by museum personnel, ignore the reality of the lack of provenience and present subjective conclusions regarding provenience and interpretation. This paper discusses the consequences of the non-archaeological methodology of these publications, the nature of which many archaeologists remain unaware, and how this behavior has interfered with achieving an accurate knowledge of Urartian culture.

Networks, Territories, and the Cartography of Ancient States

With broad lines and dark shading, the cartographic depictions of ancient states and empires convey the impression of comprehensive political entities having firm boundaries and uniform territorial control. These depictions oversimplify the complexities of early state growth, as well as overstating the capacity of central governments to control large territories. Archaeological and textual evidence suggests that ancient states are better understood through network models rather than bounded-territory models. Network approaches enable us to depict competition within and among polities as they grow, the efficient use of nodal points as a focus for political leaders, and the realities of nonoverlapping ritual, social, and economic activities that have an impact on political cohesion. Network maps and bounded-territory representations are compared for the Inka, Mauryan, and Sassanian polities.

A Seasoned Ancient State

Science NewsVolume 168, Issue 9 p. 132-133 This Week A seasoned ancient state: Chinese site adds salt to civilization's rise Bruce Bower, Bruce BowerSearch for more papers by this author Bruce Bower, Bruce BowerSearch for more papers by this author First published: 25 September 2009 https://doi.org/10.2307/4016718AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume168, Issue927 August 2005Pages 132-133 RelatedInformation

MATSUBARA Hironobu, "The Ancient State and Governance of Transportation in the Setonaikai"

MATSUBARA Hironobu, "The Ancient State and Governance of Transportation in the Setonaikai"

Ancient Italian States: An Authority List Project

SUMMARY The project to create an authority list of the Italian states arises from the lack of such a list in Italy. The standardization of headings for the ancient states has taken into account all of the problems and difficulties arising from the nineteenth-century concept of ‘state,’ as we mean it today. That concept is quite difficult to apply to Italian states established before that time. This paper describes making this list.

The Archaeology of Ancient State Economies

▪ Abstract This review addresses methods and theories for the archaeological study of ancient state economies, from the earliest states through the Classical period and beyond. Research on this topic within anthropological archaeology has been held back by reliance on simple concepts and an impoverished notion of the extent of variation in ancient state economies. First I review a long-standing debate between scholars who see similarities with modern capitalist economies (modernists and formalists) and those who see ancient economies as radically different from their modern counterparts (primitivists and substantivists). I suggest that the concept of the level of commercialization provides an avenue for transcending this debate and moving research in more productive directions. Next I review work on the traditional archaeological topics of production and exchange. A discussion of the scale of the economy (households, temple and palace institutions, state finance, cities and regional systems, and international economies) reveals considerable variation between and within ancient states. I review key topics in current archaeological political economy, including commercial exchange, money, property, labor, and the nature of economic change, and close with suggestions for future research.

Culture and Formulations of Homicide: Two Case Studies

The killing of another human being is an execrable act and universally condemned. Simpler societies have informal ways of seeking retribution (Bohannan 1960; Hoebel 1954). Ancient states and civilizations evolved formal procedures and complex institutions for evaluating culpability, apportioning blame, and authorizing appropriate sanctions (Ng 1990; Robinson 1996). The evolution of the insanity defense in Anglo-American society has culminated in assigning to psychiatry and psychology the important task of determining whether the mental state of a person who perpetuates homicide meets criteria for legal sanction. Differences involving the traditional model of reasoning about human action that is standard in psychiatry compared to law have been discussed. A common basis of understanding and procedure for assessing responsibility has evolved (Moore 1984). However, usually neglected is the influence that culture has in shaping behavior of homicide and its forensic psychiatric assessment. Two cases are presented to examine why and how culture is influential in matters of homicide.

The rise and fall of the ancient Israelite states

The rise and fall of the ancient Israelite states

Mexican highland cultures: archaeological researches at Teotihuacan, Calpulalpan, and Chalchicomula in 1934-35

Presents the broad picture and analysis of excavations at three cultural centers in central Mexico. This classic work published in 1942, ten years after archaeological excavations were begun in the Valley of Mexico by Linne's team, presents additional data that had not been fully detailed in the previously published Archaeological Researches at It provides comparative information on the high-status ruins situated on the fringes of the Valley of Mexico and excavation results from a compound within the city of Teotihuacan. This information is of critical use to archaeologists still excavating at Teotihuacan in projecting compound extent, types of artifacts expected to be discovered, and patterns of artifacts to be found in particular types of rooms. characteristics of burials is also explored. This book, along with its predecessor, is an important primary resource for Americanists. Staffan Brunius's foreword offers a broad background of Linne's life and work. introduction by George Cowgill focuses more specifically on the conduct and impact of the archaeological exavations. G. C. Vaillant has stated, The greatest achievement of Dr. Linne from the viewpoint of the general student is the presentation of a technical field excavation in such terms that anyone can follow his text and see the relationship between the details of position of specimens and the larger problems of history and anthropology. Sigvald Linne was Professor of Ethnography at the University of Stockholm and Director of the Swedish National Museum of Ethnography until 1969. He published several other books, including The Technique of South American Ceramics. Staffan Bruniusis Curator of the Americas at the National Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm. George L. Cowgill is Professor of Anthropology at Arizona State University and coeditor of The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations. Additional reviews: This book . . . makes Linne's work widely available again to those interested and may prompt a new generation of specialists to examine the original material either in Stockholm's National Museum of Ethnography, Mexico's Museo Nacional de Antropologia or the Teotihuacan site itself. Testament to the lasting value of Linne's work is given in a succinct and helpful new introduction by anthropologist George L. Cowgill. A more recent curator of the Americas at Stockholm's ethnographical museum, Steffan Brunius, also chips in with a brief contextualization of Linne's work against the background of the early Swedish-American tradition.The Historian

Piety and Politics: The Dynamics of Royal Authority in Homeric Greece, Biblical Israel, and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia

Piety and Politics: The Dynamics of Royal Authority in Homeric Greece, Biblical Israel, and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia, by Dale Launderville. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. Pp. xvii + 407. $75.00 (hardcover). ISBN 0802839940. Launderville's thesis is that the religious warrants for royal authority in early Greece and the ancient Near East, Israel included, were fundamentally similar. Kings were believed to rule at the behest of the gods and were regarded as accountable to the gods for sustaining justice, peace, and prosperity within their kingdoms. Launderville demonstrates this for legitimating royalty by focusing on the Greek Archaic age (articulated in the Iliad and the Odyssey), the united monarchy of Israel (expressed chiefly in Samuel, Kings, and the Psalms), and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia (as voiced in the Code of Hammurabi and royal inscriptions). He recognizes that beyond a shared pattern of religious validation for monarchy, credited variously to Zeus, Yahweh, or Enlil, each of the three cultures had its own distinctive version of the traditional pattern. Launderville characterizes the religious legitimation of monarchy as a that is articulated in metaphor, symbol, and narrative rather than in logical discourse. Nonetheless, the rhetoric for legitimating kingship is a rudimentary form of theory, even as it assumes the shape of political theology. For instance, a controlling metaphor that Launderville finds in all three cultures is that of the king as of his people, with its associations of feeding, guiding, and protecting those in his charge. Since all three of these ancient states were based far more on agriculture than on herding, one wonders about the preference for the sheep metaphor over an agricultural metaphor such as gardener or vintner. Actually, in the Hebrew Bible Yahweh is pictured metaphorically as a vineyard planter and caretaker, but it is unclear if such a figure of speech is applied to the relation of king and people. Since Launderville does not catalogue the full range and incidence of metaphors in the texts he examines, we are obliged to take his word that the shepherd metaphor stands at the top of the list. Launderville undertakes exegeses of the narratives in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the histories of Saul and David, the Gilgamesh Epic, and the autobiographical assertions of Hammurabi in the prologue and epilogue to his code of laws. Assuming that Launderville's critical understanding of the Greek and Mesopotamian texts is as sound as his perspective on the biblical narratives, he makes good on his claim that we can see something of how these ancients thought about politics by attending closely to their narratives as well as to their more symbolic texts such as the biblical Psalms and the Mesopotamian royal inscriptions. Much as I enjoyed this guided journey through the royal rhetoric of three ancient cultures, I had difficulties with the book on a number of points. Launderville defends his choice of the three cultures for his cross-cultural study not only because they have ample literary evidence, but also because each displays a circumscribed form of monarchy that is not assertively imperialistic. This may be the case with the Israelite example, but the Greek example appears to be a relatively weak instance of monarchy, and the Old Babylonian example typified by Hammurabi was, according to most historians of the period, a serious attempt at imperial control of Sumeria and the upper TigrisEuphrates region, following in the path of Sargon of the Akkadian Empire. To be more specific, if the Greek kings of the Archaic period could not raise taxes and did not have full authority to coerce their subjects, to what extent are they monarchs comparable to David and Hammurabi? And if Hammurabi was able to undertake imperial campaigns and projects, even though they fell short of the developed imperial administration of the Neo-Assyrians and Persians, should he be compared to Archaic Greek kings or even to David, whose wars on neighboring states were either defensive or aimed at booty and tribute rather than the establishment of a full-fledged empire? …

Inca Imperialism, Ritual Change, and Cosmological Continuity in the Cotahuasi Valley of Peru

As in other ancient states, Inca religious reform was largely successful because it drew upon preexisting cosmological principles of the south-central Andes. In this case study involving the Cotahuasi Valley of southern Peru, I argue that during the Inca occupation of the valley, an offering tradition ended, an important ritual center was abandoned, and another ritual center was completely remodeled. At the same time, other local ritual practices continued largely unmolested. I suggest that the Inca chose to encourage these changes in Cotahuasi because the ritual landscape that the Inca encountered in the valley caused political and ideological problems that could not be overcome without changing some aspects of the valley's religion. These reforms were successful because they fit within a concept of circulating life forces that was shared by both conquerors and conquered. I suggest that this belief was a resilient long-term structure of meaning that was, and remains, part of the region's practical consciousness.

Adaptive strategies of territory formation

How do territorial animals gain ownership of an area? Early modelling has considered the evolution of fighting when the winner can claim the right to the resource. Recently, alternative hypotheses have been offered where repeated interactions lead to division of space through 'nagging' instead of one decisive fight. However, these models assume that animals avoid areas in which they have taken part in aggressive interactions, but do not consider whether avoidance itself is adaptive. We aim to bridge this gap between mechanistic and adaptive explanations, by presenting a game-theory model where individuals choose whether to return to an area after a fight with a specific outcome (win, loss, draw). We show that avoidance of areas where fights have occurred can be adaptive, but only if benefits of access to the area are low compared to costs of fighting. Otherwise, one individual (typically the winner) responds by returning to the area, and the other (loser) avoids it. In such cases, space is gained by winning fights. We also consider the role of conventions. If responses to fights were purely conventional, paradoxical strategies where losers of fights gain ownership would be equally logical as common-sense ones where winners claim ownership. Paradoxical solutions can be stable but only when there is little difference in fighting ability between the competitors, when individuals adhere very strictly to a behavioural rule without much random variation, and when the population in its ancient state used a paradoxical strategy.

Order, Legitimacy and Wealth in Ancient States. By Janet Richards and Mary Van Buren.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsOrder, Legitimacy and Wealth in Ancient States. By Janet Richards and Mary Van Buren.A. Bernard KnappA. Bernard Knapp Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 107, Number 2April 2003 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 5Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/AJS40026090 Views: 5Total views on this site Copyright © 2003 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Rural History of Ancient Greek City States: The Oropos Survey Project. By Michael B. Cosmopoulos, James Newhard, Nike Sakka, and Lawrence Stene.

<i>The Rural History of Ancient Greek City States: The Oropos Survey Project</i>. By Michael B. Cosmopoulos, James Newhard, Nike Sakka, and Lawrence Stene.

A preliminary study of oasis evolution in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China

The causes of oasis evolution in the Tarim Basin of north-west China are discussed. Climate change and human activities play different roles in oasis evolution on different temporal scales. The impacts of climate change on oasis evolution are macroscopic and continuous, while the influences of human activities are local and disconnected. The climate of the Tarim Basin, since the late Pleistocene, has tended towards hyper aridity. The existence of oases has depended entirely on the runoff from thawed glaciers and snow, as well as orographic rainfall. Climate change on a geological scale led to variation of runoff flowing into oases. The alteration of water resources caused by climate change, therefore, was the fatal factor for oasis evolution in the Tarim Basin. Climate change was still the principal factor influencing the oasis evolution during historic times although human activities increasingly impacted oasis evolution in the Tarim Basin with the development of the settled human populations. In historic times, the socio-economic prosperity of oases and their expansion occurred largely during warm periods, while desertification and the deterioration of natural resources in oases mainly occurred during cool periods. Continuous trends of aridity brought about the damage of some ancient states in the oases of the Tarim Basin. Changes in oasis environments in modern times are mainly influenced by human activities in the Tarim Basin. Population growth and improvement of socio-economic conditions lead to the rapid expansion of cultivated land with reclamation and evident shrinkage of native vegetation. Irrational reclamation of land and utilization of natural resources in oases by humans have had increasingly destructive effects on oasis environments in modern times.