Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Specialized Pastoralism and Social Stratification: Analysis of the Fauna from Chalcolithic Tel Tsaf, Israel

在纳塔莉·D·门罗博士的指导下，奥斯汀·C·希尔将研究黎凡特南部查尔科尔石器时代社会复杂性的出现。这一地区的石器时代是新石器时代以农村为基础的平等主义农业社会制度和青铜时代早期等级社会分层的城市社会制度之间的关键过渡时期。然而，到目前为止，很少有研究考察可能引发社会组织这种根本性转变的生存战略的变化。将利用一系列动物考古学证据来确定莱万丁胆石遗址的社会变化，这些证据表明以色列泰尔察夫的中部胆石遗址的食物生产和消费。这项研究将通过研究食品生产和管理系统的变化来解决黎凡特社会等级和分化发展的时机问题。尽管许多人主张在黎凡特地区存在或不存在新兴的酋长级别的政治制度，但相对较少有人尝试记录特定地点内的社会分化程度。同样，到目前为止，还没有任何研究对次级动物产品(如乳制品、羊毛和劳动力)在胆石经济中发挥多大作用的问题给出确凿的答案。最后，尽管盛宴在创造和维持社会类别方面的作用得到了广泛的认同，但在过去，很少有研究充分地确定盛宴在特定地点的存在和功能。社会复杂性的问题将使用三条独立的动物考古学证据进行调查。首先，将确定羊群生产策略，以调查生产的集中化程度和次级产品专业化的存在。其次，动物的空间模式将被记录在建筑特征和公共空间中，以表征社会分层的程度。最后，从个体环境中对动物进行分析，以确定现场的仪式和宴请行为。在复杂的社会中，宴席是一种关键的社会机制，经常被用来创造和维护个人威望和群体政治边界。这项研究的影响包括通过纳入跨学科技术对人类学考古学领域的贡献，促进对复杂社会发展的理解，以及促进国际合作。研究的空间分析部分利用了地理信息系统的数据收集和分析技术，这些技术主要是在地理领域开发的，直到十年前还很少用于考古学。这项研究是考古学中一种缓慢增长的高分辨率遗址水平空间分析趋势的一部分。来自泰勒察夫的动物群分析已经并将继续为学生培训动物骨骼鉴定提供宝贵的机会。有足够经验的本科生志愿者将有机会在康涅狄格大学的动物考古学实验室帮助鉴定标本，从而获得经验。

Under the supervision of Dr. Natalie D. Munro, Austin C. Hill will study the emergence of social complexity during the Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant. The Chalcolithic period in this area is a key transitional period between the egalitarian, village-based agricultural social systems of the Neolithic and the hierarchical, socially-stratified urban social systems of the Early Bronze Age. To date, however, few studies have examined the changes in subsistence strategies that may have triggered this fundamental shift in social organization. Social change in the Levantine Chalcolithic will be identified using a number of lines of zooarchaeological evidence for food production and consumption at the Middle Chalcolithic site of Tel Tsaf, Israel. This research will address the timing of the development of social ranking and differentiation in the Levant by examining changes in food production and management systems. Although many have argued for the presence or absence of emergent chiefdom level political systems in the Levantine Chalcolithic, there have been relatively few attempts to document the degree of social differentiation within specific sites. Similarly, no research to date has yielded conclusive answers to the question of the degree to which secondary animal products, such as dairy, wool, and labour, played a role in Chalcolithic economies. Finally, although the role that feasting can play in creating and maintaining social categories is widely agreed upon, few studies have adequately identified the presence and function of feasts at specific sites in the past. Issues of social complexity will be investigated using three independent lines of zooarchaeological evidence. First, herd production strategies will be identified to investigate the degree of centralization of production and the presence of secondary products specialization. Second, the spatial patterning of fauna will be documented across architectural features and public spaces to characterize the degree of social stratification. Finally, analysis of the fauna from individual contexts will be used to identify ritual and feasting behavior at the site. Feasting is a key social mechanism in complex societies that is often used to create and maintain individual prestige and group political boundaries. Impacts of the research include contributions to the field of anthropological archaeology by incorporating cross-disciplinary techniques, advancing understanding of the development of complex societies, and generating international collaboration. The spatial analysis portion of the study utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data collection and analysis techniques that were developed primarily in the field of geography and until a decade ago were rarely utilized in archaeology. This research is part of a slowly growing trend toward high-resolution site level spatial analyses in archaeology. The analysis of the fauna from Tel Tsaf has already and will continue to provide valuable opportunities for student training in animal bone identification. Undergraduate volunteers with sufficient experience will have the opportunity to gain experience by helping with specimen identification in the zooarchaeology laboratory at the University of Connecticut.