New Approaches to the Study and Interpretation of Ancient Pastoralists and Their Landscapes

Pastoralist Landscapes and Social Interaction in Bronze Age Eurasia, the new book by Michael Frachetti, is a perfect example of what is emerging as a completely new generation of international collaborative research in the steppe region, one that emphasizes the application of new theoretical concepts and methodological field approaches to identifying and explaining social, economic, and political change among early steppe populations. Such collaborative developments have been steadily increasing since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the Eurasian steppe region is emerging as one of the most promising new arenas for archaeological research. Frachetti’s book focuses specifically on Bronze Age (3000– 1000 BCE) developments in Central Asia and includes invaluable information from his own recent field research in the Dzhungar Mountains and the Semirech’ye region of Kazakhstan. The broader concepts and theories discussed within the book have been developed by the author over a 10-year period while conducting ethnographic and archaeological research on mobile pastoralism in a variety of locations, including Finland, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, and northeastern China. This varied experience lends an important comparative framework to the author’s knowledge and situates his discussion of Bronze Age Central Asia within a wider, more effective anthropological treatment of mobile pastoralism. This is initiated in the introductory chapter, where Frachetti identifies several key questions and conceptual problems linked to the Central Asian Bronze Age, such as the emergence of mobile pastoralism and “nomadism,” the spread of IndoEuropean and Indo-Aryan languages, the use of horse-drawn chariots and horse-riding technology, widespread distributions of metal production, and what are understood to have been unprecedented levels of interaction and trade interregionally. Detailed discussions of these issues also have appeared in other recent publications on the Eurasian Bronze Age. Frachetti’s book importantly adds to a growing literature on this time period and region within world prehistory (see also Anthony 2007; Kohl 2007; Koryakova and Epimakhov 2007). Chapter 1 tackles persistent problems tied to conventional understandings of pastoralism and archaeological “cultures” within Eurasian prehistory. The author highlights the significance of landscape and social geographies and how both physical and social environments structure the nature of interaction between pastoralist groups. This view emphasizes the importance of not only seasonal movements but also relationships to landscapes through the burial of the dead, the creation of rock art, and complex social and economic interactions—many of which are shaped through local scales of mobility and connectivity rather than larger macroscale processes. Chapter 2 focuses on the main archaeological characteristics of the Central Asian Bronze Age that have emerged from Soviet and post-Soviet field research. As discussed by Frachetti, one of the main problems connected to this evidence is the use of the Andronovo culture terminology to define a widespread pattern of archaeological features (pp. 32–33). The Andronovo culture is traditionally broken down into several subregional variants (e.g., Alakul’, Fedorovo, etc.); however, simply lumping these into a broader encompassing terminology is not a substitute for developing better models of understanding for the spread of material culture regionally and how this relates to processes of social interaction and exchange. Unfortunately, scholars have often argued for migration as a key factor. In contrast, Frachetti offers a new explanatory framework by emphasizing the role of pastoralist economies and the intensification of herding strategies that brought about greater intraregional mobility and interaction. This model is supported through a detailed discussion of archaeological evidence such as burial monuments, social organization, metallurgy, and ceramics within the Central Asian region and how such patterning reflects a montage of pastoralist groups that interacted, shared, and contributed to the emergence and development of Bronze Age life in the steppe. Chapter 3 offers detailed ecological and environmental data connected with the Central Asian steppe zone. As Frachetti suggests (pp. 74–76), the collection of such data is imperative for developing stronger models for interpreting mobile pastoralist and agropastoralist developments and adaptation strategies to changing climate conditions over time. The stronger human-environment perspective in this chapter also highlights the steppe region as a mosaic of different zones. These are examined through several case studies that portray the variability of steppe soils and flora for pastoralist and agropastoralist exploitation strategies. Chapter 4 extends on the broader discussion in chapter 3 to focus more specifically on the regional environment in southeastern Kazakhstan and explores the utility of using regional ethnographic information in order to model ancient landscapes. One of the important themes noted is the nature of political and economic integration that structured contexts of interaction between pastoralist populations and between mobile pastoralists and agropastoralist groups. The role of mobile pastoralists especially is shown to have factored historically in how goods were moved through the region and how trade, gifting, and tribute practices contributed to the formation of complex socioeconomic and political networks.