Herder-Forager Interactions in an Unstable Environment

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，加思·桑普森博士和他的同事将在南非的泽科河谷地区进行考古和古环境研究。这项工作的目标是研究环境变化与生活在简单技术水平上的人类的反应之间的关系。在该地区先前的考古研究过程中收集的陶片将通过热释光和放射性碳定年法对粘附的有机物质进行定年。通过对水螅粪冢的分析，重建其变化的古环境。后者是由桑普森博士首创的技术。土狸是一种小型的领地性动物，它们会在几代之后返回自己喜欢的居住地。由此产生的粪冢可以跨越几个世纪，并且可以通过放射性碳测定年代。因为所含的物质包括花粉粒，这些花粉粒可以被分析，以提供对气候条件变化的见解。有了这些数据，桑普森博士就能把环境原因和人类反应联系起来。多年来，桑普森博士和他的合作者一直在泽科山谷地区工作。已经确定和研究了数千个地点，并确定了事件的一般年表和顺序。在大约公元600年至1800年的时期，这个地区最有可能由两个群体居住，一个以狩猎和采集为生，另一个以放牧绵羊和山羊为生。两者之间的相互作用似乎是复杂的，并随着时间的推移而变化。当欧洲移民在19世纪进入该地区时，他们在那里只遇到了猎人和采集者。虽然这种模式已经确立，但其原因尚不清楚，这也是桑普森博士目前工作的重点。Zeekoe是一个半干旱地区，在历史时期和史前时期都经历了重大的气候变化。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将增加我们对人类如何适应不断变化的气候的理解，以及在变化的环境背景下，处于简单技术发展水平的群体如何相互联系。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Garth Sampson and his colleagues will conduct archaeological and paleoenvironmental research in the Zeekoe valley region in South Africa. The goal of the work is to examine the relationship between environmental change and the response of humans who live at a simple technological level. Potsherds collected in the course of prior archaeological research in the region will be dated by both thermolumenescence and radiocarbon dating of adhering organic materials. Changing paleoenvironment will be reconstructed through the analysis of hyrax dung middens. This latter is a technique pioneered by Dr. Sampson. Hyrax are small territorial animals who return over generations to favored habitation sites. Resultant dung middens can span centuries and can be dated by radiocarbon. Because the contained material includes pollen grains, these latter can be analyzed to provide insight into changing climatic conditions. With these data Dr. Sampson will be able to correlate environmental cause and human response. For many years Dr. Sampson and his collaborators have worked in the Zeekoe valley region. Thousands of sites have been located and studied and the general chronology and sequence of events have been established. Over the period from about 600 - 1800 AD this region was most likely inhabited by two groups, one which subsisted by hunting and gathering and the other by herding sheep and goats. The interactions between the two appear to be complex and changing over time. When European settlers entered the region in the 1800s they encountered only hunters and gatherers there. While the pattern has been established, its cause is unknown and this is the focus of Dr. Sampsons' present work. The Zeekoe is a semiarid region which has undergone significant climatic fluxuation in historic times and likely in prehistory as well. This research is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of how humans adapt to changing climate and how groups at a simple level of technological development relate to each other in a varying environmental context.