Michael Frachetti

Professor of Archaeology
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
research interests:
  • Eurasian Prehistory
  • Bronze Age Steppe Pastoralism
  • Landscape Archaeology
  • Paleo-Environment and Geographic Information Systems
  • Ethnographic Nomadism
  • Central Asia
    View All People

    contact info:

    office hours:

    • Tuesday 3:00 - 5:00 pm​
    Get Directions

    mailing address:

    • Washington University
    • CB 1114
    • One Brookings Drive
    • St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
    image of book cover

    ​The main focus of Professor Frachetti’s research is on the dynamic strategies of pastoral nomadic societies living in the steppe region, mountains and deserts of Central and Eastern Eurasia during the Bronze Age.

    His work centers primarily on pastoralism in the Bronze Age (~ 3500-1000BC), which is intricately tied to questions of social and economic interaction between regional populations across Central Asia at that time. His theoretical interests center on how social groups utilize economic and political strategies to communicate inter-regionally, and how variability in their economic and social strategies introduces opportunities for reshaping the boundaries of their social landscapes and human interactions. He is also interested in the relationships between pastoral strategies and the environment, and how the choices and ways of life of mobile groups contributed to the formation of wide reaching networks as early as 2000BC (the Mid-Bronze Age). Frachetti currently conduct field research in Eastern Kazakhstan, where he is exploring the ways by which pastoral societies employed flexible temporal and spatial patterns of mobility to negotiate ecological constraints as well as alter the political and social conditions of their landscape.

    Methodologically, he specializes in spatial analysis and archaeological landscape modeling using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. He has a strong interest in the reconstruction of paleo-ecological, geo-morphological, and land-cover changes in extreme environments (e.g. high mountains, deserts). His current work centers on modeling prehistoric rangelands of mountain and steppe regions of western and eastern Eurasia by analyzing contemporary satellite data combined with paleo-climatic regressions. Within GIS, these reconstructions are paired with data recovered from his regional archaeological survey and excavations, bringing together environmental and social components of the prehistoric context. He is also interested in questions of ecology and adaptive strategies (social and economic) of mobile societies more generally.

    Although his fieldwork is primarily archaeological, he also has conducted ethnographic studies of Kazakh pastoralists, and (to a lesser extent) nomadic societies of North Africa and reindeer herders of Finland. He also has carried out research on prehistoric rock-art in the Italian Alps, Roman and Islamic landscapes in North Africa, and Neolithic hunter-gatherers in Finland.

     

    recent courses

    Nomadic Strategies and Extreme Ecologies

    This course will explore the archaeology and anthropology of nomadic pastoral societies in light of their ecological, political, and cultural strategies and adaptation to extreme environments (deserts, mountains, the arctic). The aim of the course is to understand both the early development of pastoral ways of life, and how nomads have had an essential role in the formation and transfer of culture, language, and power from prehistoric time to the current era.

      Ancient Eurasia and the New Silk Roads

      This course will explore the rise of civilization in the broad region of Eurasia, spanning from the eastern edges of Europe to the western edges of China. The focus of the course is the unique trajectory of civilization that is made evident in the region of Central Eurasia from roughly 6000 BC to the historical era (ca. AD 250). In addition to this ancient focus, the course aims to relate many of the most historically durable characteristics of the region to contemporary developments of the past two or three centuries. Fundamentally, this course asks us to reconceptualize the notion of "civilization" from the perspective of societies whose dominant forms of organization defied typical classifications such as "states" or "empires" and, instead, shaped a wholly different social order over the past 5000 years or more. This class provides a well-rounded experience of the geography, social organization, and social interconnections of one of the most essential and pivotal regions in world history and contemporary political discourse.

        Selected Publications

        2008  Frachetti, Michael D.  Pastoralist Landscapes and Social Interaction in Bronze Age Eurasia. Berkeley: University of California Press.

        2012  Frachetti, Michael and Lynne Rouse. Central Asia, the steppe and the Near East, 2500-1500 BC. In Companion to the Archaeology of the Near East, ed. D. Potts, pp. 687-705.  London: Blackwell Publishers.

        2012 Frachetti, Michael D. The Multi-Regional Emergence of Mobile Pastoralism and the Growth of Non-Uniform Institutional Complexity Across Eurasia.  Current Anthropology. 53(1): 2-38.

        2011 Frachetti, Michael D.  The Migration Concept in Central Eurasian Archaeology.  Annual Review of Anthropology 40:195–21.

        2010 Frachetti, Michael D., Spengler, R.S., Fritz, G. J., and A.N. Mar’yashev.  Earliest Evidence of Broomcorn Millet and Wheat in the Central Eurasian Steppe Region. Antiquity 84 (326): 993-1010.

        2010 Frachetti, M., Benecke, N, Mar’yashev, A. N., and P. Doumani. Eurasian Pastoralists and Their Shifting Regional Interactions at the Steppe Margin:  Settlement History at Mukri, Kazakhstan. World Archaeology 42(4): 622-646.

        2009 Frachetti, M.D. and N. Benecke.  From Sheep to (Some) Horses: 4500 Years of Herd Structure at the Pastoralist Settlement of Begash (Southeastern Kazakhstan). Antiquity 83 (322): 1023-1037.

        2009 Frachetti, Michael D.  Differentiated Landscapes and Non-Uniform Complexity among Bronze Age Societies of the Eurasian Steppe. In Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, Metals and Mobility, eds. Bryan Hanks And Kathryn Linduff, 19-46.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

        2008  Frachetti, Michael D. Variability and Dynamic Landscapes of Mobile Pastoralism in Ethnography and Prehistory.  In The Archaeology of Mobility: Nomads in the Old and in the New World, eds. H. Barnard and W. Wendrich, 366-96. Cotsen Advanced Seminar Series 4. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA.

        2007  Frachetti, Michael D. and Alexei N. Mar’yashev.  Long-term Occupation and Seasonal Settlement of Eastern Eurasian Pastoralists at Begash, Kazakhstan.  Journal of Field Archaeology 32(3): 221-42

        Pastoralist Landscapes and Social Interaction in Bronze Age Eurasia

        Pastoralist Landscapes and Social Interaction in Bronze Age Eurasia

        Offering a fresh archaeological interpretation, this work reconceptualizes the Bronze Age prehistory of the vast Eurasian steppe during one of the most formative and innovative periods of human history. Michael D. Frachetti combines an analysis of newly documented archaeological sites in the Koksu River valley of eastern Kazakhstan with detailed paleoecological and ethnohistorical data to illustrate patterns in land use, settlement, burial, and rock art. His investigation illuminates the practical effect of nomadic strategies on the broader geography of social interaction and suggests a new model of local and regional interconnection in the third and second millennia B.C.E. Frachetti further argues that these early nomadic communities played a pivotal role in shaping enduring networks of exchange across Eurasia.