Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Pastoral Neolithic of East Afica Revisited through a New Chronology for the Emergence of Pastoralism from Tsavo National Park, Kenya

在Chapurukha M. Kusimba博士的监督下，David Wright将在肯尼亚察沃的Mtembea kwa Barafu遗址进行考古发掘和分析。Mtembea kwa Barafu位于东察沃国家公园的Galana河畔，是一个大型的史前村庄，至少可以追溯到公元前2000年。有证据表明，在数千年的时间里，这个村庄曾多次有人居住，这是基于在该遗址发现的不同层次的陶器、动物骨骼和石器，这些陶器、动物骨骼和石器是从不同的河流梯田上侵蚀下来的。该遗址最早被占领的时间是在东非人改变他们的生存模式的时候，从单纯的狩猎和采集到以家养食物为中心的生活模式。赖特的挖掘具有很大的潜力，可以增强对环境和社会因素的普遍理解，这些因素在从觅食到驯化的过渡中发挥了作用。长期以来，考古学家一直对确定人们如何、何时以及为何决定收养驯化动物感兴趣。数百万年来，原始人成功地狩猎和采集食物，但直到最近一万年，才开始驯化植物和动物。驯化被认为是一个重要的社会转型，它允许人口密集的城市中心的发展，剩余的经济和政治权力归属于小群体的个人，而不是分散在整个社区。了解驯化动植物起源时存在的环境条件，可以回答极端气候刺激是否在鼓励人们采用驯化动物方面发挥了作用。为了回答有关早期驯化过程的重要问题，高精度测年方法，如加速器质谱（AMS）放射性碳分析和光激发发光（OSL）将提供人们何时定居在Mtembea kwa Barafu的准确年表。这些方法还将有助于解释过去几千年来河流的淤积和减少，这是该地区一般环境条件的重要指标。再加上第四纪科学的进步，提供了对过去环境的详细区域和全球理解，这些数据对于在特定环境背景下确定Mtembea kwa Barafu的职业将是重要的。作为这项工作的结果，考古学家将从一个遗址的角度有一个更清晰的画面，可以阐明改变人类生存模式背后的一般动机，这种模式已经持续了数百万年。这些数据还将有助于为现代非洲牧民发展一个可持续的未来，他们受到放牧和灌溉牲畜的土地分配限制的挑战。通过回顾过去成功的土地利用战略，规范放牧地分布和限制资源使用的法律可以更有效地有针对性地满足当今牧民的需求，并为子孙后代保护生态系统。察沃的研究议程是长期的，最终将征求当地社区领导人的协助，向设计土地管理政策的国际捐助者和政府官员提供过去和现在牧民生活方式的数据。然而，目前项目的资金将用于建立史前牧民适应的数据集，并将在赖特即将发表的博士论文、同行评审期刊和会议上发表。今年项目的研究将进一步扩大向美国和国际公众展示的范围。

Under the supervision of Dr. Chapurukha M. Kusimba, David Wright will undertake archaeological excavations and analysis at the site of Mtembea kwa Barafu in Tsavo, Kenya. Mtembea kwa Barafu is located on the banks of the Galana River within Tsavo East National Park and was a large, prehistoric village that dates to at least 2,000 BC. There is evidence that the village was inhabited many times over thousands of years based on the discovery of distinct layers of pottery, animal bones and stone tools eroding from separate river terraces at the site. The earliest dated occupation of the site occurs at during the time when people in East Africa were changing their subsistence patterns from one that was based solely on hunting and gathering to one that revolved around domesticated food products. Wright's excavations have great potential to enhance general understandings of the environmental and social factors that played a role in the transition from foraging to domestication. Archaeologists have long been interested in determining how, when and why people decided to adopt domesticates. For millions of years, hominids successfully hunted and gathered their food, but only in the last 10,000 years has domestication of plants and animals occurred. Domestication is recognized as an important social transition-one that allowed for the development of densely populated urban centers, surplus economies and political power vested in small groups of individuals rather than spread throughout a community. Understanding the environmental conditions present during the origins of domesticated plants and animals can answer whether or not extreme climatic stimuli may have played a part in encouraging people to adopt domesticates. In order to answer important questions regarding incipient domestication processes high precision dating methods such as Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon analysis and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) will provide an accurate chronology of when people settled at Mtembea kwa Barafu. These methods will also assist in interpreting river aggrading and downcutting for the last several thousand years, which is an important indicator of general environmental conditions in the area. Coupled with advances in the Quaternary sciences that are providing detailed regional and global understandings of past environments, these data will be important for framing occupations of Mtembea kwa Barafu in a specific environmental context.As a result of this work, archaeologists will have a clearer picture from the perspective of one site that can elucidate general motivations behind altering human subsistence patterns that functioned uninterrupted for millions of years. These data will also assist in developing a sustainable future for modern African pastoralists, who are challenged by restricted land allocations for grazing and watering their animals. By looking at successful land-use strategies of the past, the laws that regulate the distribution of grazing land and restrict the use of resources can be more effectively targeted to meet the needs of herding people today as well as preserve the ecosystem for future generations. The Tsavo research agenda is long term and will eventually solicit the assistance of local community leaders in presenting data of past and current pastoral lifeways to the international donors and government officials who design land management policies. However, funds for the current project will be used to build the dataset of prehistoric pastoral adaptations and will be presented in Wright's upcoming doctoral dissertation, peer-reviewed journals and conferences. Future efforts to broaden the scope of presentation to the American and international public will be augmented by the research undertaken in this year's project.