Alternative Evidence for Domestic Stock in Southern Africa

在国家科学基金会的支持下，查尔斯·布斯曼博士和他的合作者将在位于南非卡鲁地区的布莱德方丹岩石庇护所遗址进行考古实地工作。他们还将分析挖掘的发现。Blydefontein很有趣，因为它的沉积物跨越了过去几千年，正是在这一时期，家养牲畜首次出现在南部非洲。虽然该遗址没有这一时期驯化动物的骨骼遗骸，但其中一层主要由动物粪便组成，可能是绵羊沉积的。本项目的目标是通过各种技术收集和分析这些材料。研究结果将与来自现代绵羊和蹄兔的对照样本进行比较，蹄兔是一种类似豚鼠的小动物，也栖息在南部非洲的洞穴中。Bousman博士及其同事将在现场进行微观地层分析。他们还将研究花粉和植物植硅石，这些植硅石被纳入存款。将对硅藻和方解石球粒进行类似的分析。将对分解的沉积物样本进行检查，以确定毛发或其他有助于确定贡献者的物质。 这项研究意义重大，原因有几个。第一是方法论。由于考古材料的保存普遍较差，考古学家很难重建过去。动物骨骼很少能存活下来，需要非常特殊的化学和地质条件才能保存下来。Bousman博士和他的同事们希望完善的技术将广泛适用于许多情况。第二，这项研究很重要，因为它将为南部非洲的过去提供新的线索。动物不是在世界的这个地区驯化的，而是从外面引进的。绵羊和山羊以及后来的牛的采用对人们的生活方式产生了巨大的影响。目前还不清楚驯化动物何时、如何或通过何种方式到达这一地区，Bousman博士的研究将为这一问题提供新的线索。最后，家养动物对环境有重大影响，计划中的研究将增加我们对人类与环境相互作用的理解。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Charles Bousman and his collaborators will conduct archaeological field work at the site of Blydefontein Rockshelter which is located in the Karoo region of South Africa. They will also analyze the excavated finds. Blydefontein is interesting because its deposits span the last several thousand years and it was during this period that domestic livestock first appeared in Southern Africa. Although the site contains no skeletal remains of domesticates from this period, one layer is composed largely of animal dung which may have been deposited by sheep. The goal of this project is to collect and analyze this material by a variety of techniques. The results will be compared to controlled samples which derive from modern day sheep and from hyraxes - small guinea pig-like animals which also inhabit caves in Southern Africa. Dr Bousman and colleagues will conduct microstratigraphic analysis at the site. They will also study pollen and plant phytoliths which are incorporated into the deposit. Similar analyses will be undertaken with diatoms and calcite spherolites. Disaggregated sediment samples will be inspected in an attempt to identify hair or other materials which could help identify contributors. This research is significant for several reasons. The first is methodological. Given the generally poor preservation of archaeological materials it is extremely difficult for archaeologists to reconstruct the past. Animal bones survive only very rarely and need very specific chemical and geological conditions to be preserved. The techniques that Dr. Bousman and his colleagues hope to perfect will be widely applicable in a large number of situations. Secondly, this research is important because of the new light it will provide on Southern Africa's past. Animals were not domesticated in this region of the world but rather were introduced from the outside. The adoption of sheep and goat and later cattle had an enormous impact of the way people lived. It is unclear when, how or by what means domesticates arrived in this region and Dr. Bousman's research will shed new light on the subject. Finally domestic animals have had major effect on environment and the planned research will increase our understanding of human-environment interactions.