Pastoralist Landscapes and Social Interaction in Bronze Age Eurasia

Offering a fresh archaeological interpretation, this work reconceptualizes the Bronze Age prehistory of the vast Eurasian steppe during one of the most formative and innovative periods of human history. Michael D. Frachetti combines an analysis of newly documented archaeological sites in the Koksu River valley of eastern Kazakhstan with detailed paleoecological and ethnohistorical data to illustrate patterns in land use, settlement, burial, and rock art. His investigation illuminates the practical effect of nomadic strategies on the broader geography of social interaction and suggests a new model of local and regional interconnection in the third and second millennia B.C.E. Frachetti further argues that these early nomadic communities played a pivotal role in shaping enduring networks of exchange across Eurasia. Contents Acknowledgments Prologue Introduction 1. Conceptualizing Pastoralist Landscapes 2. An Archaeology of Bronze Age Eurasia 3. Continuity, Variation, and Change of the Eurasian Steppe Environment 4. Between Ethnography and History: Pastoralism and Society in Semirech’ye and the Dzhungar Mountains 5. A Pastoralist Landscape in Semirech’ye: Archaeology of the Koksu River Valley 6. Bronze Age Pastoralism, Landscape, and Social Interaction Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index