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挖掘的家畜牙齿来揭示东非最早的牧民。具体地说，她将应用稳定同位素和死亡率分布分析来探索古代牧民的做法，并评估这些做法是否与该地区现代和现代牧民的做法不同。非洲牧业主要以家养牛、绵羊和山羊为基础，在太干燥而不能耕种的土地上基本上是可持续的。大约7500年前，它出现在当时还是绿色的撒哈拉沙漠，最近的分析表明，当时是乳品业。随着撒哈拉沙漠的干涸，牧群向南进入非洲西部和东部，公元5000年前进入遥远的肯尼亚北部，公元3300年前进入肯尼亚南部高产的热带草原。欧洲和南非的研究表明，对考古遗址牲畜牙齿中稳定同位素的分析可以了解古代牧民的流动性和畜牧业做法(断奶年龄、牛群移动)。同位素证明了动物一生中的植物群落是什么(稳定的碳和氮同位素)，这些环境是否在动物的一生中发生了变化，以及它是否离开幼年所在的地方足够远，最终形成了不同的地质底物(锶同位素)。死亡率谱分析补充了这一点，构建了不同家养物种被屠宰的模式年龄的图片，数据最好来自牙齿。关于古代肯尼亚放牧做法的细节尚不为人所知，现代案例表明，根据环境条件和牧民的生产目标(肉类、奶制品和组合)，这种放牧做法可能非常灵活。詹森将调查：(1)陡峭狭窄裂谷的早期牧民是否像现代牧民那样追求流动性，后者会季节性地将牛群从谷底转移到高山草甸，或者在人口较少、更潮湿的过去，他们是否全年留在低地。(2)牲畜一生中的迁徙距离，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)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混合觅食和一些牲畜，通常是山羊和绵羊。同位素分析可以显示在觅食地点驯养的家畜是当地种植的还是从其他地方引进的。这个项目的智力价值在于它对牧民历史的贡献，作为该地区综合农业、牧业和牧民经济的一部分，远在殖民时代之前就出现了，并记录了东非长期历史中的土地使用情况。其更广泛的影响包括记录牧业的长期变化，这可能有助于规划者评估当今快速干旱地区未来的替代方案。它为詹森提供专业培训，并为肯尼亚考古学硕士水平的学生提供动物考古学尖端方法的实践介绍。

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.