Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Archaeology and Behavioral Ecology of Human-Landscape Interaction at Gordion, an Ancient City on the Anatolian Steppe

在John K.帕帕佐普洛斯，约翰马斯顿将承担考古植物遗骸的分析，从2000多年的占领在古城戈尔迪翁在安纳托利亚中部，现代土耳其。在这段时间里，戈尔迪翁是当地弗里吉亚王国的首都，后来先后被波斯、希腊化的希腊、罗马、拜占庭和塞尔柱土耳其帝国统治。该遗址最终在中世纪被废弃。马斯顿的研究重点是文化和环境变化之间的关系，以及个人如何在这些不同的社会和自然环境中做出土地利用决策。通过研究古代植物遗迹，可以研究过去的环境和人类对文化和自然景观变化的反应。种子和木材可以通过不完全燃烧作为木炭保存，并成为该地区农业和自然植被的标志。自1988年以来，碳化植物遗骸已在Gordion被系统地恢复，该项目包括对200多个考古背景下的植物遗骸的研究。马斯顿将测试人类行为生态学模型的预期，这些模型预测农民和牧民的目标是最大限度地提高农业产量，同时最大限度地降低生存失败的风险。调查的变量包括考虑农业与畜牧业、灌溉与旱地农业以及饲养与放牧家畜的相对效益。某些类别的植物仍然来自农作物加工碎片，燃烧的动物粪便，烹饪事故区分考古学被选为代理标记的统计分析，以测试竞争的行为模型。与当代考古学证据的文化联系的比较将有助于确定文化传播过程是否影响饮食选择和生存策略的移民人口居住在Gordion.In除了贡献这项研究作出考古学和古代环境的区域研究，更广泛的影响，这项研究包括当前政策的土地使用和保护在安纳托利亚中部，为展示戈尔迪翁考古遗址提供了新的视角，并为美国和土耳其的考古学学生提供了培训。这项研究将有助于为Gordion制定一项新的遗址管理计划，其中包括努力保护众多受到威胁的墓葬和幸存的原生植被，并旨在向游客展示当地的生态和考古景观。这将改善成千上万的土耳其游客的教育，包括许多学童，以及每年访问该网站的数百名外国游客。作为该项目的一部分，除了自己的研究生培训外，马斯顿还将对大约20名美国本科生进行考古植物遗骸鉴定和解释方面的培训。该项目的成果将通过在权威期刊上发表和向学术界作会议介绍以及在洛杉矶和费城地区以及土耳其公开介绍的方式传播。

Under the supervision of John K. Papadopoulos, John Marston will undertake the analysis of archaeological plant remains from more than 2000 years of occupation at the ancient city of Gordion in central Anatolia, modern Turkey. Over this span of time, Gordion was the capital of the indigenous Phrygian kingdom, and later was governed successively by the Persian, Hellenistic Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Seljuk Turk empires. The site was finally abandoned in the Medieval period. Marston's research focuses on the relationship between cultural and environmental change, and how individuals made land use decisions within those varied social and natural environments.Research into past environments and human response to changes in the cultural and natural landscapes can be addressed through the study of ancient plant remains. Seeds and wood may be preserved as charcoal through incomplete burning and become indicators of the agricultural and natural vegetation in the area. Carbonized plant remains have been systematically recovered at Gordion since 1988, and this project includes the study of plant remains from more than 200 archaeological contexts. Marston will test the expectations of human behavioral ecology models that predict that farmers and herders aim to maximize agricultural yield while minimizing the risk of subsistence failure. Variables investigated include consideration of the relative benefits of farming versus herding, irrigation versus dryland farming, and foddering versus pasturing of domestic animals. Certain classes of botanical remains derived from crop processing debris, burned animal dung, and cooking accidents distinguished archaeologically are chosen as proxy markers for statistical analyses to test competing behavioral models. Comparison with contemporary archaeological evidence for cultural affiliation will help determine whether cultural transmission processes affect diet choice and subsistence strategies for immigrant populations residing at Gordion.In addition to the contribution this research makes to regional studies of archaeology and ancient environment, broader impacts of this research include implications for current policies of land use and conservation in central Anatolia, new perspectives for presentation of the archaeological site of Gordion, and training for archaeology students in the US and Turkey. This research will contribute to a new site management plan for Gordion that includes efforts to protect the numerous threatened burial tumuli and surviving patches of native vegetation, and aims to present the local ecological and archaeological landscapes to visitors. This will improve education of the thousands of Turkish visitors, including many school children, and hundreds of foreign tourists who visit the site every year. As part of the project, Marston will train approximately 20 US undergraduate students in the identification and interpretation of archaeological plant remains, in addition to his own graduate training. The results of this project will be disseminated through publication in refereed journals and conference presentations to the academic community, and through public presentations in the Los Angeles and Philadelphia areas, as well as in Turkey.