Note to self 93,

Made it back to the library. "A Tale of two cities" was still there waiting for me, thankfully (the beauty of having niche interests!). I moved on to the chapters speaking directly about the two case studies and copied the most interesting passages.

These were the most noteworthy parts on Kamābarha:

1. Kamābarha – Establishment and growth

Though there is still a certain degree of debate, scholars speculate that Kamābarha is the earliest of Arhada cities. It would be expected, considering its proximity to a great number of Middle Pottery sites and its strategic location at the intersection of the Great lake and the southern basin, offering opportunities for a higher degree of cultural interaction – which inevitably leads to cultural maturity.

Indeed, the rise of Kamābarha has left tangible markings in the archaeological record: the construction of Kamābarha III, the layer that first gives us some indication of a level of state control over the region (in the form of contract tablets and other material remains, symbolism associated with governance and a mature elite power, as well as the sheer size of its palace and granary) has been unanimously placed in the 6th century BD. For the purposes of this text, we are interested in understanding what the city looked like before and immediately after that date, in order to understand its peculiar character, as well as the ingredients that brought its success.

[...]

Kamābarha's wealth was chiefly in its copper reserves. The stretch of land between the Great lake and the southern Tritonean lakes, traversed by what the Arhada referred to as Green River, contained plentiful mineral deposits, ranging from pure copper, silver, and zinc-contaminated copper, otherwise known as "natural brass". This naturally occurring alloy was perhaps Kamābarha greatest export, although the metallurgical culture of Formative Tritonea was rather scant, and most uses for these metals were either decorative or for the production of cold-worked arrowheads. These items are found as far west as early Hortens sites and as far south as the Aluwa. They were either transported as fully formed arrowheads or as plates which were then worked locally by the importers. Within the confines of Kamābarha and its environs, however, we can find a higher ratio of copper artisanal goods and artistic objects than weapons: an indication of a lack of pressure to militarise. Brass is found on the decorations of Kamābarha's palace, in the form of mirrors, bracelets, jewellery. The oldest example of a painted copper plate – a typical Arhadan decorative items consisting of a flat copper surface covered on both sides with oil paint, was found in Kamābarha III. Chemical analyses confirm that what appears today as a simple oxidised copper disk was in fact coloured with bright pecan oil based paints.

That is not to say that the production of military gear, or, indeed, warfare, was inexistent. The dispersal of arrowheads along the north shore of the Great Lake gives us a clear indication that Kamābarha's influence was not based only on agricultural wealth or cultural influence: some amount of force was indeed employed in the creation of its political network.

[...]

2. Kamābarha –Internal Politics

Kamābarha's political structure was the natural evolution of the typical characters of pre-formative Arhada centres, as discussed earlier. At the top of the hierarchy were the "famous", as the nobility was known, and below was everyone else. Tracing the rise to power of the "famous" clans is no easy feat, but its clear that, through generations of wealth accumulation, a set of dynamics which allowed the flourishing of a restricted group of landowners culminated in a clear class divide between this group of hereditary leaders and the manpower contributing to their wealth.

At the time of Kamābarha III it seems like four or five clans shared the spaces of the palatial district, with the number dropping to three, either through the merger of two clans or the extinguishing of the families, in the 7th century. This has been suggested by the symbolism prevalent on funerary urns found within the site, with each clan being associated with a specific symbol: in early Kamābarha III we find the tortoise, the heron, the parrot, and two variations of the burning house motif – one flanked by two pecan trees, the other standing on its own. It's unknown whether the last two represented a single clan or two separate ones. As the period progressed, however, we find that later urns are only marked with heron, parrot and burning house logograms. These three clans probably included a great deal of people, between the matriarchs, the leaders and a third class of non-inheriting clan members.

Power was seemingly based on seniority, passing from the son of the eldest matriarch, who would hold leadership within the village, to the next; his second in line – either a brother or the son of the second-senior matriarch – would act as a representative. Note how power passes from the matriarchs, and not from the men themselves: it's the eldest mother that produces the city's leader, but that does not mean that the leader is necessarily the senior nobleman.

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One aspect of this system that is currently under debate is whether the wealth of the four (later three) clans was pooled together or if they maintained some additional independent wealth: it would seem like that was the case. It is now believed that the Ibosso hadân (marriage vessel) was treated as a person's independent wealth: each clan would put the wealth of their Ibosso hadân together with the other members of their clan, but separate from the common wealth of the city; non-inheriting clan members would keep theirs separate shares. All other goods – the herds, the harvest from the paddies, and items produced by the clan for the treasury – were handled communally by the Council of the matriarchs and the two male leaders: the internal leader, or "First Leader", handling issues pertaining to the administration of the city at large, and an external one, a "Second Leader", whose duties involved diplomatic journeys to client villages and the collection of payments.

A diagram of power relations in Kamābarha, for reference. I was impressed by how mobile social classes were, even within such a hierarchical society. There's an entire chapter dedicated to this:

2.b Kamābarha –Lower Classes and social mobility

Overall, two other social classes were recognised aside from the members of the famous clans; the commoners and the clanless. The commoners formed the bulk of the population: there could have been anything between one and two hundred minor clans inhabiting Kamābarha, most of which were farmers and horticulturalists, but many of whom were moving towards specific arts and crafts as the quality of life increased due to the higher level food security provided by the state. The men of this social class would be called for military duty by the leadership in times of war – when the time came to exact payment by force from a client city, for example – but all evidence points to this being a rather rare occasion. Clans mostly contributed to the palace economy, in the form of corvée labour (wherein each clan had to provide a fixed number of workers for the paddy) or the production of specialised goods. Because of this, having a clan could prove to be expensive, and when those payments could not be met, clanhood would be revoked: this gave rise to the Clanless, a more generalistic group comprised of those without the means to provide work to the palace as an organised force as well as all prisoners of war, foreigners or recent immigrants that have not yet entered the social fabric of the city. These people worked the paddies in exchange for wages, paid in the form of zizania or tobacco, and would be the first group to which the most labour intensive jobs were assigned.

That is not to say that people statically belonged to one class or other; People of a famous clan could intermarry with commoners – this was somewhat rare, as the preference was to marry within one of the other famous families or with the upper class of the other cities, both client and independent. But in times of need, when there weren't suitable partners of the same generation, the Matriarchs who regulated upper class unions, could allow a commoner to enter their group. Another means of social betterment for commoners was being chosen as a favourite at the palace: when an artist or artisan – commonly a woman, but sometimes a man as well – was considered to be highly skilled by a member of the four inner clans, they could chose to sponsor them, sacrificing personal wealth to allow them to live at the palace, where they would continue their craft for the benefit of the palace's treasury. Within the palace, Favourites were then allowed to marry and reside until their death: their children, growing with the children of the famous clans, often grew up to be considered suitable marriage partners. The Clanless had ways to climb the social ladder as well: becoming a Kabaima, a helper, for the inhabitants palace was considered to be an honourable post, the highest honour for someone without a Clan. They were similarly allowed to live and marry within the palace, and where often given some payment for their descendants at the end of their service, when they reached old age or died.

In an intermediary position the commoners and the famous where the non-inheriting children of the latter. The sons and daughters of the men of the clan were not included in the matrilineal passage of power and had to find themselves a position in society: the men were often encouraged to join the "high guard", responsible for the private property of the clan within the city, and both men and women could become "Shrine keepers", organising religious functions and overseeing the community who took care of the shrine's upkeep. These positions were open to commoners too, but Famous commoners, due to their closeness to the clan (and thus, to leadership), were preferred for this kind of position.

I was fascinated about the "Shrine Keeper" figure, but I could find very little about it. I found this on shrines, though:

5. Kamābarha – Early Tritonean shrines, the rise of an architectural typology:

Within the context of northern Arhada cities, we can see the emergence of a new building type: specialised shrines, independent of the palace district. These prove to be an evolution of the domestic type: the courtyard framing a centred, central-plan building was a clear re-elaboration of palaces; the difference however is in the proportions between the single parts. The courtyard building surrounding the shrine proper, now a mere framing device, grew narrower and shorter, while the central building acquired prominence, both in size and in height. The central structure contained one large square room where votive statuettes, offerings and precious materials were gifted from people honouring the spirits to whom the shrine was dedicated. Because early shrines were made of wood, we have little direct information regarding their appearance, for which we need to employ pictorial and sculptural sources (clay models of shrines are a common pottery item, used for votive purposes). It has been proposed that early shrines were often rebuilt as the object of devotion changed according to the needs of the city – it's believed that this rebuilding of the shrine often corresponded with the promotion of a new Shrine Keeper. Eventually, shrines would be built in more durable materials, making rebuilding less practical, but in this early stage the reconstruction of the shrine was probably a ritual occurrence.

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It must be noted that shrines had their way of accumulating wealth, through the management of the offerings given by the devout: some shrines in Kamābarha had enough to surpass a number of the wealthiest non-famous Clans. Because the appointment to shrines was handled by the council of Matriarchs, however, the Famous Clans always had a way to indirectly handle those resources, through the appointment of a family member.

I copied some more drawings: one is a fascinating scheme of how temple typologies became more and more complex through the ages (though the last example is some 1000 years outside the timeline of the essay) and the other is an axonometric view of temple "E".

I will be briefer on Amadahai, skipping all the things that are shared between the two cities. There are a couple of divergences that I think shed some light on how differently the political environment of the two cities evolved.

1. Amadahai – Establishment and Growth

One key difference between Amadahai and Kamābarha was in their location: while Kamābarha was built along the coast of the Great Lake, Amadahai was founded in a strategic location at the head of the land bridge that closes off most of the small lake Thidorovôdjo from the larger Odjohivôdjo. This thin strip of land was reinforced with rows of paddies on both sides, creating a lush environment for the agricultural production of the urban centre. The warmer climate of Amadahai also provided the locals with a longer growing season, ensuring a higher production of high quality fruits and fruit products – wines, preserves, oil – that would be traded all over Tritonea and beyond. It seems that Amadahai's initial wealth was derived especially from this production and a booming trade of cosmetics in the form of spiced and perfumed oils, the large scale production of pigments such as indigo dye, ochre, and oil paint. It is worth dedicating a few words to this last product: while oil paints, as mixtures of pecan oil and pigments, had been used throughout Arhadan territory for some time (especially within the Southern Pottery School), Amadahai is the first site where the chemical analyses of archeological findings detected the use of hempseed oil – which acts as a better drying oil. Indeed, the high quality of the paintwork in pottery is one of the key feature of the Southern Pottery school, and some examples of painted pots, pipes and oil vessels are still visible today, with several exemplars being held at Newtown's Royal Museum of Horean Archaology. Tobacco was another notable export of the city and its wider political network: its climate was well suited for the cultivation of the leaf which was then carried throughout the lake system.

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Amadahai also served as a centre of agricultural development, with the innovation of at least two very important crops being connected to the site of Amadahai II (contemporary with Kamābarha III). The first is Taraxacum ceratophorum, the wild Tritonean Dandelion, which the Arhada domesticated around the 5th Century, and began to select over the course of the next Centuries to obtain a series of crops we commonly eat to this day. Taraxacum was used for a number of different functions: the roots could be used to create brews, the leaves could be eaten raw, the petals could be crushed into dyes or used as aromatics.

Even more economically important was the creation of the Cattail variant Typha domestica var. lanifera, also called "Southern Cattail" or "Wooly Cattail". The fluff of wild cattails was hard to spin because of the shortness of the strands. As such, hemp-cattail blends started off as a common alternative to either of the pure fibre, softening the roughness of hemp and supplementing the scarcity of workable Typha fibre. Over the years, as cattail-flower fibre goods became more prised for their soft texture, the plant was selected for longer and sturdier fibres, larger heads and shorter stalks. The gathering of the fibre was light enough work to allow for the material to spread even thogh the cattail itself, domesticated from Typha Domingensis, required warmer climates, impeding its spread to the northern half of the Arhada territories in lake Sibozjivôro. This ensured that its cultivation would remain a southern specialty for some time, further ensuring Amadahai's commercial success.

A picture of the Wooly Cattail from the book! I had no idea it was first domesticated there, though thinking about it, it makes sense. I suppose I have to thank the people of Amadahai for the sweater I'm wearing right now. Some notes on politics, then I'll have to leave the library – the old man at the desk is giving me looks.

2. Amadahai – Internal Politics

The key differences in the political structure of early Amadahai can be easily appreciated when ne observes the power structures within its leadership class. Where Kamābarha had four or three leading clans, Amadahai maintains a stable number of six clans.

Amadahai's political diagram for reference.

Because the members of the leading families represent a greater percentage of the city's demography, the leadership of early Amadahai is thought to be less top-heavy: all mothers of the six ruling clans participated in the council and, rather than having a single elder matriarch as the head of the council – as was the case in Kamābarha –, the duties of the council were split between three members, elected by the matriarchs amongst the matriarchs.

The "Speaker" had a similar functions to the senior matriarch of Kamābarha but her role was mostly that of a representative and prima inter pares, rather than a final authority. She was flanked by two peers, equally chosen by the entire council: a "Treasure mother", who acted as a steward for the shared wealth of the clans, and a "Lore mother". The responsibilities of this final figure were perhaps the widest: amongst them was a cereful knowledge of genealogy and the history of Amadahai and all its client cities, the recording of contracts of obeisance and clientele, the approval and arrangement of marriages between members of the Famous clans, as well as the mentorship of younger women who might succeed her. While the Speaker of the council evidently held the most outwardly active role, the Lore Mother, in lieu of her deep knowledge, wisdom and powerful responsibilities, was treated with the most respect amongst the three.

If we look at the political role of men, we can see that even their division of power was more egalitarian than in Kamābarha: while we can still notice a clear division between First Leader and Second Leader, in a similar fashion to what we see in the northern city, we find that the second leader does not act independently in matters of war, being assisted instead by a war council formed of all the adult men of the clan. This speaks to Amadahai's deeper martial culture, born of a more conflictual relationship with its southern neighbours. The war council culminated in the creation of a sort of military elite – hunting and engaging in sporting culture during times of peace and commanding forces of commoners and clansless people in times of war. This is visible in the developement of specialised weapons (in Amadahai II we see the first depictions of recurve self bows in pictographs, pottery and sculpture) as well as an increase in arrowhead production dated from this period. There is current debate over whether the "Famous commoner" class could join this group, but the consensus seems to be that while they could become commanders, they did not have the rights to speak or vote in the war council proper.

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While both an elite military role and priesthood were acceptable paths for famous commoners, it seems that these options were barred to all other commoners (another difference from Kamābarha). Again, this is possibly explained by the higher numbers of nobles in the city. A "lower guard", overseeing the protection of everything within the city but outside the palace was manned by commoners, whereas the "higher guard", acting as personal protectors of the Famous men and right hand men in times of war, were chosen exclusively amongst the non-inheriting relatives of the clan. The same goes for the priesthood: men and women of the clan's blood but outside the line of inheritance were invited to oversee the running of a temple: to be appointed, a "famous commoner" would require the backing of a member of one of the clans – usually via their father – and unanimous consent from all the members of the high leadership: the three matriarchs and the two leaders. These postings were diplomatically and economically sensitive: they allowed one of the clans to give an affiliated party a role within the leadership of a shrine, tapping into additional resources for the benefit of their family.

Alright, I guess that's enough research for my thesis – I'm super tired. I might still borrow this book when I can. End of note.