Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Mobility and Herd Management Strategies of Early Pastoralists in the Central Rift Valley and Athi Plains, Kenya, 3000-1200BP

在Diane Gifford-Gonzalez博士的指导下，Anneke Janzen将使用从肯尼亚早期牧民遗址出土的家畜牙齿来揭示东非最早的牧民。具体来说，她将应用稳定同位素和死亡率分析来探索古代的放牧方式，并评估这些方式是否与该地区最近和现在的牧民的做法不同。非洲畜牧业主要以家畜牛、绵羊和山羊为基础，在干旱的土地上基本上是可持续的。大约7500年前，它出现在当时绿色的撒哈拉沙漠，最近的分析表明，当时就有乳制品。随着撒哈拉沙漠的干涸，牧民群体向南迁移到非洲西部和东部，大约5000年前进入肯尼亚北部，大约3300年前进入肯尼亚南部高产的稀树草原。在欧洲和南非进行的研究表明，对考古遗址中牲畜牙齿中的稳定同位素进行分析，可以了解古代牧民的流动性和畜牧业实践（断奶年龄、畜群的流动）。同位素证明了在动物的一生中，植物群落喂养了什么（稳定的碳和氮同位素），这些环境在动物的一生中是否发生了变化，以及它是否从年轻时的地方移动到足够远的地方，最终到达了不同的地质基质上（锶同位素）。死亡率概况分析通过构建不同家养物种被屠宰的模态年龄图来补充这一点，数据最好来自于牙列。关于肯尼亚古代放牧的细节尚不清楚，现代案例表明，根据环境条件和牧民的生产目标（肉类、乳制品或组合），这种做法可能相当灵活。Janzen女士将调查：(1)在陡峭狭窄的大裂谷，早期的牧民是否像最近的牧民一样追求流动性，季节性地将他们的牛群从谷底转移到高山上的草甸，或者，在过去人口较少且潮湿的时代，他们是否全年都留在低地。(2)牲畜在其一生中移动的距离，不仅是季节性的，而且是更长的时间跨度和距离。这可以阐明牧民社区之间的相互作用，对他们来说，牲畜交换、礼物和盗窃可以发挥重要的经济和社会作用。(3)外来牧民与在该地区生活了数千年的狩猎采集者之间的经济关系。从历史上看，与牧民共生的狩猎采集者最终开始从纯粹的觅食转变为觅食和一些牲畜（通常是山羊和绵羊）的混合。同位素分析可以显示觅食地点的驯化动物是本地种植的还是从其他地方引进的。该项目的学术价值在于，它对作为该地区综合农业、觅食和放牧经济的一部分的牧民历史做出了贡献，这种经济早在殖民时代之前就出现了，并记录了东非长期以来的土地利用历史。其更广泛的影响包括记录畜牧业的长期变化，这可能有助于规划者评估当今快速干燥地区未来的替代方案。它不仅为简森女士提供专业培训，还为肯尼亚考古学硕士级别的学生提供了一个动手介绍动物考古学前沿方法的机会。

Under the guidance of Dr. Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, Anneke Janzen will use domestic animal teeth excavated from early pastoralist sites in Kenya to shed light on the earliest pastoralists in East Africa. Specifically, she will apply stable isotope and mortality profile analysis to explore ancient herding practices and assess whether these differ from recent and present-day herders' practices in the region. Based mainly on domestic cattle, sheep, and goats, African pastoralism is broadly sustainable in lands too dry to farm. It emerged c. 7500 years ago in the then-green Sahara, and recent analyses have demonstrated dairying then. As the Sahara dried, herding groups moved south into western and eastern Africa, entering far northern Kenya c. 5000 years ago and the highly productive savannas of southern Kenya c. 3300 years ago. Studies in Europe and South Africa demonstrated that analysis of stable isotopes in livestock teeth from archaeological sites could inform on ancient pastoralists' mobility and animal husbandry practices (age of weaning, movement of herds). Isotopes testify to what plant communities fed an animal over its lifetime (stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes), whether these circumstances changed over its lifespan, and whether it moved far enough from the locale of its youth to end up on a different geological substrate (strontium isotopes). Mortality profile analysis complements this by constructing a picture of the modal ages at which different domestic species were slaughtered, data best derived from dentitions.Little detail is yet known of ancient Kenyan herding practices, which modern cases suggest could be quite flexible, according to environmental circumstances and herders' production goals (meat vs. dairy vs. combinations). Ms. Janzen will investigate: (1) whether early herders in the steep-sided and narrow Rift Valley pursued mobility similar to recent pastoralists, who seasonally shifted their herds from the valley floor to high alpine meadows, or whether, in those less populous and moister past times, they remained in the lowlands year round. (2) How far livestock moved during their lifetimes, not just seasonally, but over longer time spans and distances. This can elucidate interactions among herder communities, for whom livestock exchange, gifts, and theft can play a major economic and social role. (3) Economic relations between the incoming herders and the hunter-gatherers who had lived in the region for millennia. Historically, hunter-gatherers symbiotic with pastoralists ultimately start to convert from pure foraging to a mix of foraging and some livestock, usually goats and sheep. Isotopic analysis can show whether domesticates in forager sites were locally grown or brought in from elsewhere.The intellectual merit of this project lies in its contribution to pastoralist's history as part of the region's integrated farming, foraging, and herding economies, emergent well before the colonial era, and documentation of land use through East Africa's long-term history. Its broader impacts include documenting long-term variations in pastoralism, which may help planners assessing future alternatives in today's rapidly desiccating region. It gives professional training to Ms. Janzen, plus affording Masters-level Kenyan archaeology students a hands-on introduction to cutting-edge methods to zooarchaeology.