Project description
The role of agriculture on the development of urban societies in Mesopotamia
During the 4th-3rd millennia BCE in Mesopotamia, communities previously living in small egalitarian villages progressively grew into large cities. The EU-funded GRAMADIF project will investigate the role of agriculture in the emergence of these urban centres. Taxonomic and morphometric analysis will be used to identify macrobotanical remains and reconstruct plant assemblages. The research fellow will also create a database, integrating botanical results and contextual information and apply stable isotope analysis to crops and functional weed ecology to determine the growing conditions of plants. Multivariate analyses will also be used for comparisons and a literature review conducted for supra-regional synthesis. GRAMADIF's findings will help define the northern and the southern Mesopotamian agriculture, reappraising their evolution along with the urbanisation of societies.
Objective
During the 4th-3rd millennia B.C in Mesopotamia, communities previously living in small egalitarian villages progressively grew into large cities, ruled by political, religious and economic institutions. Cultural expansions and climate change contributed to socio-economic transformations and adaptations including in crop production.
The development of an intensive irrigated farming system in southern Mesopotamia enabled the rise of early cities there; simultaneously, in rain-fed northern Mesopotamia, an extensive, low-input farming system supported early cities. But while agriculture appears to be one of the main drivers behind the emergence and development of the first Near Eastern cities, the evidence mostly consists of indirect sources such as 3rd and 2nd mill. BC cuneiform texts. The study of charred macrobotanical remains (seeds, fruits, chaff) recovered from nine newly excavated archaeological sites, located in northern and southern Mesopotamia, offers a unique opportunity to reconstruct the evolution and regional variability of plant production between the 7th and the 1st mill. BC. This project will study the role and the impact of the development of agriculture in the emergence of the urban centres. With this aim, the project will 1) identify macrobotanical remains through taxonomic and morphometric analysis to reconstruct plant assemblages; 2) create a database integrating botanical results and contextual information; 3) apply stable isotope analysis (carbon and nitrogen) to crops and functional weed ecology to document growing conditions of plants; 4) use multivariate analyses for comparisons and literature review for supra-regional synthesis.
The results will allow us to define the northern and the southern Mesopotamian agriculture and to redraw their evolution along with the urbanisation of societies. The ultimate goal is to clarify how different agricultural systems (intensive vs. extensive) have resulted and supported the raise of the first cities.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology civil engineering water engineering irrigation
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology ethnoarchaeology
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.