Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Identification of Pastoral Neolithic Sites in East Africa: A Geoarchaeological Approach

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Under the direction of Dr. Fiona Marshall, MS Ruth Shahack-Gross will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. The goal of her research is to detect soil patterns which indicate the past presence of domestic animals and to develop techniques which will facilitate this. The "Neolithic Revolution", the change in subsistence from hunting and gathering to the domestication and subsequent dependence on plants and animals, resulted in a fundamental change in human lifestyle and provided the base for the rise of village, city and state levels of organization. Therefore archaeologists wish to understand the processes which led to domestication and trace its development over time. While animal bone is well preserved in some archaeological situations it rapidly disintegrates and disappears in others and therefore it would be extremely useful to have other indicators of livestock presence. This would be particularly valuable in earlier stages of the domestication process when settlements moved frequently and their visible archaeological imprint on the landscape is slight.MS Shahack-Gross will conduct fieldwork among Maasi speaking peoples in East Africa. Many Maasi still follow a traditional pastoral lifestyle and herd cattle, sheep and goats. In the first part of her study MS Shahack-Gross will examine Maasi herding practices and village spatial organization. She will collect soil samples from both within and outside penning areas and examine both occupied and abandoned campsites. These materials will be analyzed in laboratories in both Israel and the United States. It is hypothesized that soils from livestock enclosures will have distinctive mineralogy consisting of forms of opaline phytoliths, calcium-containing spherulites, calcium oxalates and phosphatic minerals. It is also hypothesized that micromorphological thin section analysis will detect lamination of soil voids and grains and that textural alterations will also indicate penning during wet vs. dry seasons. This research is important because the methods developed will be applicable in many parts of the world and for many time periods. If successful the techniques will be widely employed to address a range of questions. This project will also assist in training a promising young scientist.