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

博士论文改进补助金：肯尼亚中央裂谷和阿西平原早期牧民的流动性和畜群管理策略，距今 3000-1200 年

• 批准号: 1240332
• 负责人: Diane Gifford-Gonzalez
• 金额: $ 2.44万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1240332&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Mobility

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.

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挖掘出的家畜牙齿来揭示东非最早的牧民。具体而言，她将应用稳定同位素和死亡率分析来探索古代的放牧做法，并评估这些做法是否与该地区最近和现在的牧民做法不同。非洲的畜牧业主要以家养的牛、绵羊和山羊为基础，在过于干旱而无法耕种的土地上，畜牧业大体上是可持续的。出现了C。7500年前，在当时还是绿色的撒哈拉沙漠，最近的分析表明，当时的乳品业。随着撒哈拉沙漠的干涸，游牧部落向南迁移到非洲西部和东部，进入肯尼亚北方。5000年前，肯尼亚南部高产的热带草原c。三千三百年前。在欧洲和南非进行的研究表明，对考古遗址牲畜牙齿中的稳定同位素进行分析，可以为古代牧民的流动性和畜牧业做法（断奶年龄、牛群的移动）提供信息。同位素证明了植物群落在动物一生中为它提供了什么（稳定的碳和氮同位素），这些环境是否在它的一生中发生了变化，以及它是否远离了它年轻的地方，最终在不同的地质基质上（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的图片来补充这一点，数据最好来自牙列。关于古代肯尼亚放牧实践的细节还知之甚少，现代案例表明，根据环境情况和牧民的生产目标（肉类与乳制品与组合），这种做法可能相当灵活。Janzen女士将调查：（1）在陡峭狭窄的裂谷，早期的牧民是否追求类似于现代牧民的流动性，他们季节性地将牲畜从谷底转移到高山草甸，或者，在人口较少和潮湿的过去，他们是否全年都留在低地。(2)牲畜在其一生中移动了多远，不仅仅是季节性的，而是更长的时间跨度和距离。这可以说明牧民社区之间的互动，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)新来的牧民和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采集地的驯化动物是本地生长的还是从别处引进的。这个项目的学术价值在于它对牧民历史的贡献，作为该地区综合农业的一部分，觅食和放牧经济，早在殖民时代之前就出现了，并通过东非的长期历史记录了土地使用。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迅速干旱地区的未来替代方案。它为Janzen女士提供专业培训，并为硕士级肯尼亚考古学学生提供动手介绍动物考古学的尖端方法。