Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Stable Isotopes: Diet and Climate in Mediterreanean Prehistory. The Case of Sardinia ca. 4000-1900 BC

该项目调查了新石器时代晚期和青铜时代早期（约公元前4000-1900年）之间的史前撒丁岛（意大利）饮食、气候和社会文化变化之间的关系。为了测试解释考古证据变化的不同方法，卢卡·赖在R.H.蒂科特博士的指导下，将在一个大范围的综合背景下使用骨头。利用同位素数据，他将生成关于饮食和气候的定量数据，并将这些数据与更标准的考古信息结合起来，以探测经济变化并阐明潜在的动态。史前撒丁岛因其精致的石雕坟墓、巨石和圣殿等杰出建筑吸引了考古学家的兴趣。从社会的角度来看，这些变化被解释为从部落到更复杂的组织结构的变化。然而，人们对这些现象背后的饮食和经济以及它们与气候和文化的相互作用知之甚少。解释物质文化变化的模型相当多样：一些强调创新，如犁和乳制品，因为财富的积累和不平等的起源。其他人则强调资源池的连续性，并尽量减少社会差异。所有这些都忽视了气候变化。赖先生将通过对人类骨组织的稳定同位素分析来解决这些问题：这是饮食重建的关键组成部分，以前从未应用于撒丁岛，它将使不同食物类别——鱼类、植物性食物、动物产品——的相对贡献得以确定。这个数据集将允许解决许多问题。随着时间和空间的推移，是否有从农耕到放牧的转变？这种差异（或缺乏这种差异）与已知的文化和组织差异，或与地中海西部记录的干湿气候变化最相关吗？过去和今天一样，气候驱动的经济转变和景观利用的意外后果可能导致社会中断和/或调整。该项目记录了可能导致文化变化的各种因素，可以为人类对全球脆弱环境中气候变化的反应提供重要见解，并有助于理解过去和现在的可持续性。

This project investigates the relationships among diet, climate and social and cultural change, in prehistoric Sardinia (Italy) between the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (ca. 4000-1900 BC). In order to test different ways of explaining the change in the archaeological evidence, Luca Lai, under Dr. R.H. Tykot's supervision, will use bone within a broad scale integrative context. Using isotopic data he will generate quantitative data regarding diet and climate and combine these with more standard archaeological information to detect economic change and elucidate the underlying dynamics.Prehistoric Sardinia has attracted the interest of archaeologists for its outstanding architecture in the form of elaborate rock-carved tombs, megaliths and sanctuaries. These have been interpreted in social terms, as change from tribal to more complex organizational structures. However, the diet and economy underlying these phenomena, and their interaction with climate and culture, are poorly understood. Models to explain change in the material culture are quite diverse: some emphasize innovations, such as the plow and dairying, for the accumulation of wealth and the origin of inequality. Others stress the continuity in the resource pool, and minimize social differences. All overlook climate change. Mr. Lai will address these questions through stable isotope analyses of human bone tissue: this key component in dietary reconstruction, never applied before to Sardinia, will allow the relative contribution of different food categories - fish, plant foods, animal products - to be determined. This dataset will allow a number of questions to be addressed. Was there a shift from farming to herding over time and space? Does this variation (or lack thereof) correlate best with known cultural and organizational differences, or with wet/dry climatic shifts recorded in the western Mediterranean?Climate-driven economic shifts and unintended consequences of landscape utilization may have led in the past as today, to social disruptions and/or adjustments. This project, in documenting the diverse factors potentially responsible for cultural change, can yield important insights into human responses to climate variation in fragile environments worldwide, and contribute to understanding both past and present sustainability.