Synchronizing highland and lowland rhythms of material exchange

Summary

From an archaeological point of view, interconnectivity between highlands and lowlands of the ancient Near East is undeniable. The differential distribution of natural resources (particularly metals and precious stones which are sourced predominantly in highland regions), and the evidence for circulation of these resources from at least the Neolithic, is the most obvious sign of this interdependence. Too often, however, our models of this interdependence have tended to create abstract zones – consuming ‘centres’ and producing ‘peripheries’ – with highland regions normally characterized as ‘periphery’, perhaps unsurprising given the urban perspective of academic enquiry. These models are also a result, in part, of our techniques of visualization: the trusty black-and-white line map has its place, but it also constricts our understanding of landscape (including topography, climate and seasonality) and the human movements which took place across them. Using case-studies from the highland area(s) north of Mesopotamia in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, this paper sets out to examine how rethinking the visuality of maps can start to break down the ‘zonal model’ into a more rhizomic picture of highland-lowland interdependence as well as incorporating important factors such as cultural rhythms and seasonality into our models of ancient trade.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Connecting highlands and lowlands – Towards a holistic approach to upland and lowland symbiosis in the past, present and for the future

Keywords

Spatial Coverage