Predator-Prey Dynamics, Site Formation Processes & the Roots of the Forager-Herder Socioeconomic Transition at Asikli Hoyuk, Turkey

这个项目调查了土耳其安纳托利亚中部的Asikli Houk遗址从采食者到生产者的社会经济转型的根源。这个丘陵遗址位于“肥沃新月”的北部弧线上，这是东半球地区最早的农耕和牧民文化的发源地。土丘的基本文化层超过了公元前8200卡，它们提供了一个难得的机会来研究狩猎-采集传统中产生村庄经济的生态和社会基础。这项研究由亚利桑那大学的玛丽·斯泰纳教授领导，将持续3年，并与土耳其伊斯坦布尔大学的M·奥兹巴萨兰教授监督的更大规模的国际挖掘和保护工作相结合。该研究计划整合了动物考古学、地质考古学(包括微形态)和放射性碳测年方法，以解决一组常见的问题。最令人感兴趣的是早期绵羊和山羊驯化的生态和行为背景，作为加强肉类安全和应对社会竞争的假设战略。这项研究的动物考古学部分考虑了野生动物种群(绵羊、山羊、鹿和野牛)收割压力的可能证据，饮食广度的变化，强化身体加工(如油脂提取)，以及现场圈养动物的可能证据。经济证据将被用作衡量反常(不那么明确实用)的动物使用模式的标准，例如那些可能与社交展示或炫耀性消费有关的模式。这项研究的另一个目标是了解上述部分或全部消费者行为如何在更新世末期和全新世初对营养水平和从环境中获取的能量的变化做出贡献。除了测定2米的文化沉淀物的年代外，还将对生物矿化的塞尔提斯内果皮进行分析，以获得占领期间当地降水的背景资料。研究计划的地质考古部分对于确定遗址上泥砖结构的功能以及在准备好的地面和自然地面上进行的活动种类至关重要。动物圈养的证据被假设为野生绵羊和山羊，预计将包括围栏内微小的粪便残留物。初步测试表明，在遗址的年轻层中存在粪便的痕迹，最早的层的含量尚不清楚。还将在周围地区进行试点地质采样研究，以期未来对有蹄类牙齿进行锶同位素工作。后一项努力对于确定动物被猎杀的地理区域，而不是那些可能在现场被圈养的区域来说，是重要的。拟议的研究是跨学科的，其组成部分通过密切的概念和技术联系在一起。已经解决了收藏品获取、样本适宜性和可用的基础设施等问题，大大增加了成功完成研究的机会。这项研究建立在现有方法的基础上，但也不同于它强调对肉类资源的社会和经济评估的综合模式。除了在科学上的贡献外，该研究计划还为土耳其和美国研究人员之间就挖掘和将在亚利桑那大学举办的两个研讨会之间的协同专业交流做出了实质性贡献。这项研究将产生关于人类进化史上最引人注目的时期之一的独特数据。从饲料者到生产者的转变标志着人类社会经济、人口潜力以及与自然关系的深刻重组。A&amp；#351；&amp；#305；KL&amp；305；Höyük地层系列足够详细和连续，足以研究国内有蹄类动物和所有权进化的条件。由于这项研究所针对的沉积层和动物群将中安纳托利亚的演化年代学推回到了一个鲜为人知的时期，因此这一结果将提高该地区现有数据集的价值。这项研究并不是所有的好处都与过去有关：在理解采食者-生产者转变的潜在过程方面的任何成功，也可以揭示自然系统中人类现在和未来的保护和管理方面的重要教训。

This project investigates the roots of the forager-producer socioeconomic transition at the site of Asikli Houk in Central Anatolia (Turkey). This mound site is located in the northern arc of the "Fertile Crescent", the Old World region that gave rise to the first farming and herding cultures. The basal cultural layers of the mound exceed 8200 cal BC, and they present a rare opportunity to examine the ecological and social substrates from which village economies arose out of a hunter-gatherer heritage. Led by Prof. Mary Stiner from the University of Arizona, the study will last 3 years and is nested within a larger international excavation and conservation effort overseen by Prof. M. Ozbasaran of Istanbul University, Turkey. The research program integrates zooarchaeological, geoarchaeological (including micromorphological), and radiocarbon dating methods to address a common set of questions. Of great interest is the ecological and behavioral background of incipient sheep and goat domestication as hypothesized strategies for enhancing meat security and responses to social competition. The zooarchaeological part of the study considers possible evidence for harvesting pressure on wild animal populations (sheep, goats, deer & wild cattle), changes in dietary breadth, intensified carcass processing such as grease extraction, and possible evidence for corraling of animals on site. The econimic evidence will be used as the standard against which anomalous (less explicitly practical) patterns of animal use can be guaged, such as those that may relate to social display or conspicuous consumption. Another goal of the study is to understand how some or all of the consumer behaviors listed above may have contributed to shifts in trophic level and energy capture from the environment at the end of the Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene. In addition to dating the 2 m of cultural deposits, an analyses of biomineralized Celtis endocarps will be conducted to obtain background information on local precipitation during the periods of occupation. The geoarchaeological component of the research program is crucial for determining the functions of mudbrick structures on the site and the kinds of activities conducted on prepared floor and natural ground surfaces. Evidence for animal captivity, hypothesized for wild sheep and goat, is expected to include microscopic dung remnants inside enclosures. Preliminary tests indicate that traces of dung are present in the younger layers of the site, and the contents of the earliest layers are unknown. A pilot geological sampling study will also be conducted in the surrounding region in anticipation of future strontium isotope work on ungulate teeth. The latter effort is important to establishing the geographic areas where animals were hunted as opposed to those which may have been held captive on site. The proposed research is interdisciplinary, and its components are bound together by close conceptual and technical links. The issues of collections access, sample suitability, and available infrastructure have been worked-out, greatly increasing the chances for successful completion of the study. The research builds on existing approaches but is also distinct in its emphasis on an integrated model of social and economic valuations of meat resources. In addition to its scientific contributions, the research program contributes substantively to the development of synergistic professional exchanges between Turkish and American researchers, on the excavation and through two workshops to be held at the University of Arizona. The research will generate unique data on one of the most remarkable periods in human evolution. The forager-producer transition marks a profound restructuring of human socioeconomics, demographic potential, and relationships with nature. The Aşıklı Höyük stratigraphic series is sufficiently detailed and continuous to examine the conditions from which domestic ungulates and ownership evolved. Because the sedimentary layers and faunas targeted by this study push the evolutionary chronology of Central Anatolia back into a poorly known period, the results will enhance the value of existing data sets in the region. Not all benefits to come from this study concern the past: any success in understanding the underlying processes of the forager-producer transition can also expose important lessons in conservation and management for the present and future of humans in natural systems.