The Arrival and Expansion of Pastoralist Economies on the Laikipia Plateau

在国家科学基金会的支持下，凯瑟琳·瑞安博士和一个国际团队将在肯尼亚莱基皮亚的姆帕拉牧场进行三个野外季节的考古测绘和测试挖掘。该团队汇集了美国、肯尼亚、英国和以色列的考古学、地质考古学和生物地球化学专家，对早期牧场和狩猎采集地点进行了系统研究。目标是确定迁入的放牛群体在大约4000年前将放牛放牧引入莱基皮亚期间采取的战略，进而评估对土著狩猎采集者生活方式的影响。拟议的研究将补充和加强该小组2002年至2005年在莱克皮亚西部莱基皮亚自然保护区已经完成的区域调查和试掘工作，以及2005年在莱基皮亚中部姆帕拉进行的勘探工作。由于它们的大小，加在一起，姆帕拉(约20,000公顷)和莱基皮亚自然保护区(约35,000公顷)提供在大范围内识别和采样大量地点的机会。该项目成功的关键将是(I)区分牧场和狩猎采集地的能力，以及(Ii)检验这样一种假设，即最早到来的牧民带着严重依赖乳制品的充分发展的牧场套餐来到这里。这将需要将尖端的地质考古和生物地球化学分析与更传统的调查和挖掘方法相结合，以确定存放区和牧区的其他特征，以及陶器中乳脂残留物的化学特征。研究包括考古调查、发掘和对文化和沉积物的分析。该项目将有助于我们了解牛牧业在整个非洲的出现和传播。这在现代非洲具有重要意义，在那里，畜牧业仍然是现代生存基础的重要组成部分。获取史前牧民给非洲牛挤奶的直接证据以及日期和社会背景--这是这项研究的关键部分--可以有助于最近关于东非人口乳糖耐受性遗传基础的讨论。在一个人类学知识一般由外国研究人员创造的地区，肯尼亚国家博物馆和内罗毕美国国际大学(USIU)的研究人员与布里斯托尔大学、以色列魏兹曼研究所和宾夕法尼亚大学博物馆的研究人员之间的合作将有助于纠正这种不平衡。它还将通过向美国和肯尼亚学生提供实践经验来建设研究能力。所有五个机构都参与了通过研究创造知识的活动。USIU将通过课堂教学进一步帮助传播这些知识。

ABSTRACTWith National Science Foundation support, Dr. Kathleen Ryan and an international team of colleagues will conduct three field seasons of archaeological mapping and test excavation at Mpala Ranch, Laikipia, Kenya. The team brings together U.S., Kenyan, British, and Israeli specialists in archaeology, geoarchaeology and biogeochemistry to carry out a systematic study of early pastoral and hunter-gatherer sites. The goal is to identify the strategies employed by in-migrating cattle herding groups during the introduction of cattle pastoralism into Laikipia, around 4000 years ago, and by extension, to assess the impact on the lifestyle of the indigenous hunter-gatherers. The proposed research will complement and build on the regional survey and test excavations already completed by the team between 2002 and 2005 at the Laikipia Nature Conservancy in western Laikpia and ongoing exploration in 2005 at Mpala in central Laikipia. Because of their size, together Mpala (ca. 20,000 ha.) and Laikipia Nature Conservancy (ca. 35,000 ha.) offer the opportunity to identify and sample a large number of sites over an extensive area. Crucial to the success of this project will be the ability to (i) distinguish pastoral and hunter-gatherer sites and (ii) test the hypothesis that the earliest incoming cattle herders arrived with a fully developed pastoral package heavily reliant on dairy products. This will require integration of cutting-edge geoarchaeological and biogeochemical analyses with more conventional methods of survey and excavation, to identify stockholding areas and other features of pastoral settlements, as well as the chemical signatures of dairy fat residues in pottery vessels. Research includes archaeological survey, excavation and the analysis of cultural and sediments recovered.The project will contribute to our understanding of the advent and spread of cattle pastoralism throughout Africa. This is of significance in the context of modern Africa where cattle pastoralism still forms an important part of the modern subsistence base. Obtaining direct evidence, as well as dates and social context, for milking of African cattle by prehistoric herders-a pivotal part of the study-can contribute to recent discussions of the genetic basis of lactose tolerance in East African populations. In a region where anthropological knowledge has generally been generated by foreign researchers, the collaboration between researchers at the National Museums of Kenya and the United States International University (USIU), in Nairobi, with the Univeristy of Bristol, the Weizmann Institute of Israel, and the University of Pennsylania Museum will help redress this imbalance. It will also build research capacity by offering hands-on experience to US and Kenyan students. All five institutions are involved in the creation of knowledge through research. USIU will further aid the dissemination of such knowledge through teaching in the classroom.