Portrait of a Community on the Threshold of Agriculture: The Late Natufian Zooarchaeological Assemblage from Nahal Ein Gev II, Israel

该项目采用高分辨率的动物考古方法，重建约旦河谷(以色列)更新世末期遗址Nahal Ein GeV II的采食者-生产者过渡的经济、社会和仪式基础。康涅狄格大学的Natalie Munro博士将进行与以色列Nahal Ein Gev II挖掘有关的动物考古研究，该研究由哈佛大学的Ofer Bar-Yosef教授和耶路撒冷希伯来大学的Leore Grosman博士和Anna Belfer-Cohen教授共同主持。Nahal Ein Gev II是一个大型的纳图菲亚晚期村落遗址，占地约12,500-11,000卡。英国石油公司，距离加利利海约2公里。该遗址位于更新世末期不同寻常的时间位置，其地理位置位于生产力丰富的约旦河谷，该地区最早出现了农业社区，该村庄的巨大规模和持久性为研究人类经济、社区组织和仪式活动在史无前例的采食者-生产者转变的早期阶段的互动提供了理想的环境。关于农业起源的社会理论方法与经济解释的分歧越来越大。然而，越来越多的研究表明，在这一漫长的过渡过程中，社会、仪式和经济变化紧密结合在一起。这项研究不是寻找经济或社会变化首先发生的，而是试图利用动物考古学记录重建并整合生态、社会和仪式条件。这项研究集中在六个相互关联的主题上：环境重建、人类觅食策略、肉类饮食、社区内组织和空间利用、垃圾处理实践和仪式实践。对瞪羚牙齿釉质碳酸盐的碳和氧同位素分析将为该地点提供环境背景，而从同一牙齿中提取的锶同位素将完善关于人类狩猎策略、羊群流动性和地点季节性的数据。对更新世晚期社会经济学的详细重建为理解随后农业社区的崛起提供了重要的基础。该项目旨在通过以色列耶路撒冷希伯来大学和美国康涅狄格大学的教职员工和学生之间的研究交流来促进国际合作。交流旨在深化门罗和以色列项目负责人之间的长期研究合作，并将这些合作扩展到下一代美国和以色列学者。这项研究将为从事全面动物考古分析的以色列和美国学生提供实践动物考古培训。从觅食到农业社区的转变标志着人类历史上最重要的转变之一。这一变化的影响在人类生活的各个层面都能感受到。这项研究试图记录约旦河谷一个位置良好的定居点的基本条件和社会变革，这些变化构成了这一不可逆转的变化。

This project applies a high-resolution zooarchaeological approach to reconstruct the economic, social and ritual foundations of the forager-producer transition at the Terminal Pleistocene site of Nahal Ein Gev II in the Jordan Valley (Israel). Dr. Natalie Munro from the University of Connecticut will undertake zooarchaeological research in connection with the excavation of Nahal Ein Gev II, Israel by co-directors Prof. Ofer Bar-Yosef of Harvard University and Dr. Leore Grosman and Prof. Anna Belfer-Cohen of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Nahal Ein Gev II is a large Late Natufian village site occupied ca. 12,500-11,000 cal. BP and located about 2 km from the Sea of Galilee. The site's unusual temporal position at the very end of the Pleistocene, its geographic location in the productive Jordan Valley where farming communities first emerge in the region, and the large size and permanence of the village provide an ideal setting to investigate the interaction of human economy, community organization and ritual activity in the early stages of the unprecedented forager-producer transition. Social theoretical approaches to agricultural origins increasingly diverge from economic explanations. Nevertheless, research increasingly shows that social, ritual and economic change are closely integrated across this long transition. Instead of searching for which came first, economic or social change, this research seeks to reconstruct and then integrate ecological, social and ritual conditions using the zooarchaeological record. The research focuses on six interrelated themes: environmental reconstruction, human foraging strategies, the meat diet, intra-community organization and the use of space, trash disposal practices, and ritual practice. Carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of gazelle tooth enamel carbonates will provide the environmental background to the site, while strontium isotopes taken from the same teeth will refine data on human hunting strategies, herd mobility and site seasonality. A detailed reconstruction of Terminal Pleistocene socioeconomics provides an essential foundation for understanding the rise of agricultural communities that followed.This project aims to foster international collaboration through research exchanges involving faculty and students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel and the University of Connecticut in the United States. Exchanges are designed to deepen long-standing research collaborations between Munro and the Israeli project directors and extend these to the next generation of American and Israeli scholars. The research will provide hands on zooarchaeological training for both Israeli and American students who will engage in comprehensive zooarchaeological analysis. The transition from foraging to agricultural communities marks one of, if not the foremost transformation in human history. The impact of this change was felt in all dimensions of human life. This research seeks to document the basal conditions and the societal transformations that comprise this irreversible change at one well-positioned settlement in the Jordan Valley.