Gojko Barjamovic (Yale University), “Swords, Germs, and Tin” (The Franke Program in Science and the Humanities)

Combined advances in archaeological science and the field of history allows a retelling of the cross-continental exchange system that connected Mongolia to the Mediterranean four thousand years ago. The talk integrates isotopic analysis, archaeozoology, prosopographical studies, historical geography, material culture, and human pathology to paint a picture of the system seen from the viewpoint of a single individual – a trader named Zizizi (born c. 1895 BCE) who had her life turned upside down by the very connectedness upon which her society was predicated.

 

Gojko Barjamovic joined Yale last year after eleven years at Harvard. His research interests include institutional and civic order, wealth and inequality, literacy and knowledge production, trade and mobility, ethnicity and identity. His scholarly production is driven by integrative questions and characterized by cross-disciplinary collaborations, from economists and biologists to metallurgists and astronomers.