Venue: Caspian Business Center, 2nd floor, 40 J. Jabbarli Str, Baku
Date: August 31, 2019
Time: 12:00 p.m.
Overview: Borders and border regions are important geographic regions for understanding population health in current day public health. Have cultural borders always had an impact on human-well being? This talk explores this question through bioarchaeological data and examines the biological influences of empire on the health and well-being of rural, highland communities in the Talysh Mountains of southeastern Azerbaijan during the Late Iron Age (600-200 BCE). During the Late Iron Age, the South Caucasus was positioned at the peripheral northern edges of the Achaemenid/Seleucid and later Parthian/Roman empire. While these empires had far political reach and radiating cultural influence, little is known about their physical impacts, whether beneficial or detrimental, on the lives and health of the people who occupied their furthest extents. Excavations of the Late Iron Age Piboz Təpə necropolis have produced one of the largest archaeological human skeletal remains collections in Azerbaijan, which will provide substantial and significant insight on empire from the perspective and daily lives of its people.
Lecturer’s bio: Selin E. Nugent is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion, University of Oxford, and a Research Associate at St. Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford. Dr. Nugent applies bioarchaeological approaches to the study of collective mobility, subsistence, and ritual practices in the South Caucasus to address key questions on the evolution of group cohesion and social complexity.
* This event is free and open to the public. ARISC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, physical or mental disability, medical condition, ancestry, marital status, age, sexual orientation, or status as a covered veteran.
** Funding for this fellowship is provided by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs through a grant to the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).
For additional information, please contact us at Azerbaijan@arisc.org