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Sep 20, 2022 · The dearth of records about nomadic history is compounded by the lack of presence and detail about women, which is perhaps unsurprising given that much of what we know about older nomad...
Dec 2, 2023 · What caused nomadic people to settle down? Explore the key factors of mobility that contributed to this pivotal shift in history.
- Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi
For thousands of years, nomads—from the Greek νομάς, “roaming about for pasture”—have defined the overall cultural and historical makeup of the Eurasian steppe, their lives characterized by seasonally determined patterns of movement.
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What was the relationship between pastoral nomadic tribes and sedentary peoples in the ancient Near East? After decades of research, scholars are more aware than ever of the challenges posed by this deceptively simple question. Textual biases, poor archaeological visibility of nomadic remains, and tenuous ethnographic parallels all pose obstacles t...
Introduction
What was the relationship between pastoral nomadic tribes and sedentary peoples in the ancient Near East? After decades of research, scholars are more aware than ever of the challenges posed by this deceptively simple question. Although the attitude of early Mesopotamian states was overwhelmingly negative toward tribal groups, their textual record often hints that mobile populations played an important role in the rise and fall of early states. In Late Antiquity and the Islamic period, despit...
Archaeological Approaches
It was not until the past two decades that archaeologists have challenged the view that pastoral nomadic remains were unrecoverable (Childe 1951; Finkelstein 1992). Ethnoarchaeological studies show that nomads do indeed leave behind distinct traces based on domestic patterns that are both unique to a nomadic lifestyle and relatively universal among nomads of different tribes (Cribb 1991). Pastoral nomadic sites have been identified and excavated in the Levant, especially in areas where vegeta...
Recent Trends and Challenges
Recently, scholars of both texts and archaeology have moved away from Rowton’s dimorphic chiefdom, and towards an acknowledgment of an even greater integration between urban and pastoral sectors (Fleming 2004; McClellan 2004; Porter 2002; 2004). Although this approach appears to capture more accurately the complexity of ancient tribe-state interactions, it also introduces questions about the very categories we use to describe pastoral nomadic tribes. The term “tribe,” itself, and many of the...
Abbas Alizadeh (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) Prehistoric Mobile Pastoralism in Southwestern Iran: “Enclosed” or Enclosing Nomadism
Archaeological reconstructions and interpretations of the origins and development of early state organizations and nomadic-sedentary relations during the 5th to the 3rd millennia B.C. in southwestern Iran have primarily been viewed and discussed from the perspective of sedentary farmers and urban centers. Implicit in such models are assumptions of asymmetric power relationships in which nomads are subservient, as exemplified in Lattimore’s and especially Rowton’s concept of “enclosed nomadism...
Hans Barnard (Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA) The Archaeology of the Pastoral Nomads between the Nile and the Red Sea
The archaeology of Egypt has long been overshadowed by the wealth of textual sources, both monumental and informal, further augmented by the early translation of hieroglyphic Egyptian, and the initial emphasis on finds of museum quality. Initially, Egyptian archaeology was perceived as a technique to find more texts and objects, while archaeological observations were readily explained from the textual data. Only recently has the archaeology of Egypt become a specialism in its own right, gener...
Daniel Fleming (Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, NYU) Kingship of City and Tribe Conjoined: Zimri-Lim at Mari
The cuneiform archives of early second-millennium Mari have provided a frequent point of reference for understanding mobile pastoralism in the entire ancient Near East. Any reconstruction must take account of Mari’s palace correspondence, in which shepherds, their activities, and their affiliates make regular appearances. Interpretation of the Mari evidence has evolved in part with changing understanding of nomadism, pastoralism, and tribal organization. At the same time, understanding of the...
Thomas Barfield (Department of Anthropology, Boston University)Frank Hole (Department of Anthropology, Yale UniversityNomads, Tribes, and The State In the Ancient Near East: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives—Conference Schedule
Abbas Alizadeh
Abbas Alizadeh received his PhD from the University of Chicago, and as director of the Oriental Institute’s Iranian Prehistoric Project he has led surveys and excavations in Khuzestan and the Marv Dasht plain. His recent publications include Excavations at the Prehistoric Mound of Chogha Bonut, Khuzestan, Iran, Seasons 1976/77, 1977/78, and 1996 (Oriental Institute 2003); The Origins of State Organizations in Prehistoric Highland Fars, Southern Iran: Excavations at Tall-e Bakun (Oriental Inst...
Thomas Barfield
Thomas Barfield is a social anthropologist who has done extensive research on contemporary and historical pastoral nomadism in Central and Inner Asia over the past thirty years. His works include an ethnography of a pastoral society in northern Afghanistan (The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan: Pastoral Nomadism in Transition [1981]), a historical analysis of state formation by nomads in Mongolia and Manchuria (The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, [1989]), a cross-cultural stud...
Hans Barnard
Hans Barnard has participated as ceramicist, photographer, physical anthropologist, and surveyor in archaeological projects in Armenia, Chile, Egypt, Iceland, Panama, and Yemen. He is the editor of Theory and Practice of Archaeological Residue Analysis (with Jelmer Eerkens) (Archaeopress 2007) and The Archaeology of Mobility: Old World and New World Nomadism (with Willeke Wendrich) (Cotsen Institute of Archaeology 2007), and the author of several articles on ceramic analysis and the relation...
Jeffrey Szuchman (Organizer) Post-Doctoral Scholar Oriental Institute, University of Chicago 1155 E. 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637 USA szuchman@uchicago.edu Tel. +1 (773) 702-7497
Abdi, Kaymar
1. 2003.The early development of pastoralism in the central Zagros Mountains. Journal of World Prehistory 17:395–448.
Abu-Lughod, Lila
1. 1989.Zones of theory in the anthropology of the Arab world. Annual Review of Anthropology 18.:267–306.
Adams, Robert McC.
1. 1974.The Mesopotamian social landscape: A view from the frontier. In Reconstructing Complex Societies, edited by C. B. Moore. Supplement to BASOR 20, 1–13.
Jul 19, 2023 · Nomadic animal-herders from the Eurasian steppe mingled with Copper Age farmers in southeastern Europe centuries earlier than previously thought. In a new study published in Nature, we used...
Sep 27, 2024 · nomadism, way of life of peoples who do not live continually in the same place but move cyclically or periodically. It is distinguished from migration, which is noncyclic and involves a total change of habitat.
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Jun 3, 2009 · Why should mounted archers have preserved archives? Paper, always heavy, would restrict mobility, range, and speed of horses. In short, travelling light gave military advantages to the nomads, but it also gave their history into the hands of their settled prey.
