Doctoral Dissertation Research: Agricultural and Environmental Change in Syria During the Bronze and Iron Ages: The Relevance of Archaeology to Current Agricultural Development

博士论文研究：青铜和铁器时代叙利亚的农业和环境变化：考古学与当前农业发展的相关性

• 批准号: 0210651
• 负责人: Julie Hansen
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-07-01 至 2004-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0210651&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Agricultural; Environmental

With National Science Foundation support Alexia Smith and Dr. Julie Hansen will investigate the impact of climate change on agricultural practices in the Near East during the Bronze and Iron Ages (3050-535 B.C.). A region-wide drying event is thought to have occurred at the end of the third millennium B.C., and this study examines its impact on food production strategies. Palaeoethnobotany, the study of human uses of plants in antiquity, is a prime tool for investigating ancient agriculture. Carbonized plant remains can be preserved on archaeological sites for thousands of years and may be systematically recovered by placing a soil sample in a large tank of water, whereby the botanical remains float to the surface for collection. The presence of crop plants, together with their associated weed assemblages, allow for the reconstruction of ancient agricultural practices. Palaeoethnobotanical remains collected from Tell Qarqur, a multi-period site on the Orontes River in NW Syria, will be analyzed to determine how crop production changed over time. Tell Qarqur lies just north of the Ghab Valley, where a number of pollen cores have been examined, making Qarqur a prime location for considering the effect of local environment upon food production. The questions asked include: 1) What crops were grown and do cropping patterns change over time? 2) What types of ecosystems were exploited for wild plants? 3) If the habitats exploited change over time, does this reflect a changing environment? Examination of the flora currently surrounding the site and collection of modern botanical samples will greatly assist in identifying the ancient remains.This data will then be placed into a regional context and evidence for agricultural and environmental change from sites in Syria, Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan will be examined based on published palaeoethnobotanical, zooarchaeological, and palaeoenvironmental reports. Together these countries provide a promising opportunity to examine the ways people modify agriculture in relation to their environment, since steep precipitation gradients exist and food productions strategies are likely to change over relatively short distances. The questions asked include: 1) Within a given time period, do the major crops vary with increasing distance from the coast, or along a north-south axis? 2) If so, is this reflected in the faunal remains? 3) Can distinct "food production" zones be identified from the data, and if so, do the boundaries of these zones change with time? This research is important for several reasons. First, it provides information on Bronze and Iron Age agriculture in Syria, of which little is known. Second, this study synthesizes a large body of published data from the Near East, thereby providing a firm basis for examining environmental change and shifting agricultural patterns. Finally, recent climatic data suggest that many semi-arid regions will become drier over the next few decades due to global warming. This study will yield a deeper understanding of how people have adapted their farming practices in response to past climatic shifts, knowledge that would greatly aid modern-day developers to enhance production within current low-technology or subsistence agriculture.

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，亚历克西亚·史密斯和朱莉·汉森博士将调查青铜和铁器时代（公元前3050-535年）气候变化对近东农业实践的影响。一个区域性的干旱事件被认为发生在公元前三千年末，本研究考察了其对粮食生产战略的影响。古民族植物学是研究古代人类利用植物的学科，是研究古代农业的主要工具。碳化的植物残骸可以在考古遗址上保存数千年，可以通过将土壤样本放入一个大水箱中系统地恢复，植物残骸漂浮到水面以供收集。农作物的存在，以及与之相关的杂草组合，使古代农业实践得以重建。从叙利亚西北部奥朗特斯河上的多时期遗址泰尔夸尔收集的古民族植物学遗骸将被分析，以确定作物产量如何随时间变化。Qarqur位于Ghab山谷的北部，在那里研究了许多花粉核，使Qarqur成为考虑当地环境对粮食生产影响的最佳地点。被问到的问题包括：1)种植了什么作物，种植模式是否随时间而改变？2)野生植物利用了哪些类型的生态系统？3)如果被开发的栖息地随时间而变化，这是否反映了环境的变化？对遗址周围的植物群进行检查，并收集现代植物样本，将极大地有助于识别古代遗迹。然后将这些数据放入区域背景中，并根据已发表的古民族植物学、动物考古学和古环境报告，对叙利亚、以色列、黎巴嫩和约旦遗址的农业和环境变化证据进行检查。这些国家一起提供了一个很有希望的机会来研究人们根据环境调整农业的方式，因为存在陡峭的降水梯度，粮食生产战略可能在相对较短的距离内发生变化。所问的问题包括：1)在给定的时间段内，主要作物是随着离海岸距离的增加而变化，还是沿着南北轴线变化？2)如果是这样，这是否反映在动物遗骸上？3)能否从数据中识别出不同的“食品生产”区域，如果可以，这些区域的边界是否随时间而变化？这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。首先，它提供了关于青铜和铁器时代叙利亚农业的信息，这些信息鲜为人知。第二，本研究综合了近东大量已发表的数据，从而为研究环境变化和农业模式的转变提供了坚实的基础。最后，最近的气候数据表明，由于全球变暖，许多半干旱地区在未来几十年将变得更加干燥。这项研究将使人们更深入地了解人们如何适应过去的气候变化，这些知识将极大地帮助现代开发商在当前低技术或自给农业中提高产量。