Project description
Animals responsible for ancient trade routes
Carrying heavy loads over a considerable distance is a practice which can be traced to the Bronze Age of Mesopotamia. What remains unknown is the role this economic development had played in relation to the formation of states in the area. Supported by the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions programme, the STRADA project aims to address this issue by focusing on donkeys and their crucial role. The project will study cuneiform documents dating to the 19th century BCE from Old Assyria to find out how the domestication of donkeys influenced mobility and trading opportunities. STRADA will seek to establish an ancient caravan route from Aššur to Kaneš in order to determine the role that the bond between humans and donkeys has played in early trade.
Objective
The Bronze Age in Mesopotamia offers the earliest evidence of regular and swift transport of bulky goods over long distances. However, it remains unclear how commerce intensified to such a degree during this period and came to play a fundamental role in the formation of early states. STRADA challenges the traditional human-centered narrative by demonstrating how the human−donkey relationship contributed to the expansion of trade, thereby supporting early state formation. The goal of STRADA is to show how the domestication and use of the donkey transformed human mobility, dramatically increasing the extent, volume, and speed of long-distance trade. To achieve this, STRADA draws on the unparalleled and best-documented case of ancient long-distance trade (1100km) in Mesopotamia: the Old Assyrian cuneiform texts from Kaneš (modern-day Kayseri, Türkiye), dating to the early 19th century BCE. STRADA aims to (1) Establish the modus operandi of caravan trade by identifying the conditions of travel as described by merchants; (2) Reconstruct a realistic trade route from Aššur (North Iraq) to Kaneš using remote sensing and archaeological data; (3) Re-evaluate the role of the donkey in early state formation. The host institution is Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, with supervision by Prof. Cécile Michel, Director of Research and leading expert in Old Assyrian texts and the historical interpretation of cuneiform archives. Prof. Luca Peyronel, a recognized authority in the archaeology of Mesopotamian trade, will supervise the secondment in Milan, focusing on remote sensing and the integration of archaeological and textual evidence. STRADA will (i) Push scientific boundaries by decentering traditional narratives of early state emergence; (ii) Engage society by highlighting the protohistory of the Anthropocene and the role of biodiversity in human development; (iii) Promote responsible tourism; and (iv) Encourage active mobility, aligning with key priorities of the EU and the UN.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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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.
- humanities history and archaeology history ancient history
- social sciences other social sciences development studies social developments
- engineering and technology environmental engineering remote sensing
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology
- social sciences economics and business business and management commerce
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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.
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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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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75231 Paris
France
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