نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 گروه باستانشناسی، دانشکدۀ حفاظت و مرمت، دانشگاه هنر اصفهان، اصفهان، ایران (نویسندۀ مسئول).
2 گروه باستانشناسی، دانشکدۀ حفاظت و مرمت، دانشگاه هنر اصفهان، اصفهان، ایران
3 گروه باستانشناسی، دانشکدۀ هنر و معماری، دانشگاه بوعلی سینا، همدان، ایران.
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
Abstract
Dalma tradition denotes a 5th millennium BC archaeological phenomenon and a widespread trans-regional tradition in Southwest Asia. Pottery serves as a key expression of this tradition’s material culture. Although six decades have passed since Dalma pottery was first identified, very little is known about the general archaeological context of the area. In addition to the uncertainties and fundamental challenges surrounding its chronology, geographic scope, and distribution, as one of the most essential components of Dalma culture, the question of how it was organized socio-economically still remains unsolved. The archaeological record of Dalma cultural material suggests that the phenomenon’s broader architectural context is not yet fully understood; uncertainty persists regarding the nature of residential sites and the settlement hierarchy. Nevertheless, the socioeconomic aspects of Dalma should not be overlooked due to the scarcity of data. Therefore, it is crucial to select an approach that makes the best use of the scant data that is now available. Such an approach should focus on the socioeconomic implications of Dalma pottery, the sole available abundant and diverse dataset. This study presents a political-economic analysis of Dalma pottery as a commodity, with a specific focus on its common characteristics. Based on this research, it can be concluded that Dalma pottery was produced by a specialist potter outside of the immediate household context. According to qualitative analyses, Dalma pottery shows improvement over earlier periods, but from a political economy standpoint, it may still not have been a costly item. Consistent with the expansion of Dalma pottery and its geographic scope, the number of settlements reflects a widespread substantial abundance of Dalma pottery usage. However, pottery has generally always been used in a nonhierarchical fashion. This finding, combined with the paucity of data on management practices, underscores the challenges in understanding Dalma’s socioeconomic and economic characteristics more than it simply clarifies its nonhierarchical socioeconomic aspects.
Keywords: Dalma Archaeology, Political Economy, Pottery, Commodity, Hierarchy.
Introduction
With the rise of processual archaeology in the mid-20th century, attention to the economic and social dimensions of archaeological research was formally acknowledged, and it became a central component of archaeological methodology. However, decades before the processual approach emerged, archaeologists influenced by political economy had already recognized the significance of the economic and social dimensions of ancient societies and had sought to describe them. This is not always possible because of archaeology’s inherently fragmentary nature. Reconstructing the socioeconomic characteristics of the studied communities depends significantly on two factors: the type of data used and the quality of the archaeological studies. This becomes especially complicated in the case of the Dalma tradition. With few exceptions, Dalma studies have not primarily concentrated on economic and social aspects. Furthermore, because no comprehensive research on analytical methodologies has been conducted to date, sporadic studies of social structure undertaken in conjunction with the spread of this pottery tradition, including the role of nomads, do not currently help clarify the economy and society of Dalma. This is due to the fact that incomplete data prevents such analysis. The goal of this study is to examine the socioeconomic structure of the human populations that are considered to be part of Dalma tradition. This study makes an effort to give a socioeconomic analysis of archaeological data without using any preset evolutionary models. The main research question is how archaeological evidence reveals the nature of Dalma culture’s socioeconomic organization. In response to this question, it is suggested that current archaeological evidence from Dalma’s material culture appears to reflect demographic groups with a relatively low level of socioeconomic complexity. The secondary question is whether any socioeconomic study of demographic groups using Dalma pottery is possible or not. In response to this, it is proposed that using the political economy method to examine Dalma pottery suggests the feasibility of conducting economic and social sub-analyses.
This study adopts a constructive-interpretive paradigm. Inductive reasoning serves as the theoretical basis for quantitative approach. The variables extracted from the instances are examined through the case studies. The data are collected through documentary research. The study’s focus is on prehistoric archaeology, as well as the identification and understanding of socioeconomic nature. The study concentrates on the 5th millennium BC in the northwest and west, as well as parts of the western regions of the Central Iranian Plateau, in terms of temporal and spatial aspects. A case study is employed to identify a specific circumstance that aligns with the study’s methodology.
Discussion
In political economy, the relative amount of labor required to produce a good is reflected in its consumption value. Determining the production procedure is crucial for evaluating the worth of Dalma pottery as a good. Rice’s criterion provides the basis for the qualitative assessment method used in this study. According to this conventional criterion, which distinguishes household production from professional craftsmanship, pottery made in a domestic context is undoubtedly nonstandard. The technology of forming and decoration can be used to identify the standard, which in this context is synonymous with homogeneity. Based on petrographic studies, Tonoike argues that certain technological traits can be used to distinguish Dalma pottery from different regions and sites. Therefore, it may be said that Dalma pottery exhibits technological homogeneity. In terms of decoration, there is virtually universal agreement on the homogeneity of Dalma pottery (painted, impressed, and red-slipped wares). Thus, Dalma pottery was probably not produced in a domestic context; rather, it was made by expert potters in most cases (whether full-time or part-time is not discussed here). It is, therefore, the product of craftsmanship. In addition, Dalma pottery is a product whose manufacture demanded significantly more labor than the earlier Hajji Firuz/Hassuna tradition, irrespective of its type (painted, impressed, and red-slipped ware) and spatio-temporal distribution. Instead of concentrating on forming the pottery body, a considerable amount of labor was invested in innovative decorative ideas. However, in qualitative contrast to pottery traditions from regions of pronounced socioeconomic complexity, such as the Middle Susiana tradition, Susiana pottery, with its relatively lower level of technology and ornamentation, probably required less effort for decoration. As a result, it held a lower consumption value.
Conclusion
The emphasis on vertical stratigraphy in Dalma material culture deposits, together with the archaeology of Dalma cultural material and a critical assessment of the current research landscape, reveals significant limitations that are largely a consequence of the region’s marginal position in field investigations from 1950 to the present day. This study therefore focuses on Dalma pottery within this constrained research framework. By drawing on a political economy approach that views the consumption value of a good as a reflection of the labor invested in its manufacture and its broad geographical reach, it becomes possible to trace its social and economic significance. Consequently, it is likely that specialist potters manufactured Dalma pottery throughout their production sequence (whether full-time or part-time specialization remains an open question). However, no evidence supports the existence of a workshop-based craft economy directed by local elites, as observed in the Susiana plain (Middle Susiana). The currently available data indicate that the use of Dalma pottery reflects nonhierarchical consumption, a pattern that aligns with its extensive geographical dispersal and prolonged, widespread adoption by communities over relatively long intervals of the 5th millennium BC. Given these constraints, archaeological investigation can thus at the present stage only reconstruct the prehistoric Dalma socioeconomic organization to this very limited degree.
کلیدواژهها [English]
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