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学方法，在约旦河谷（以色列）的Nahal Ein Gev II的更新世末期遗址重建采集者-生产者过渡的经济，社会和仪式基础。来自康涅狄格大学的Natalie Munro博士将与哈佛大学的Ofer Bar-Yosef教授和耶路撒冷希伯来大学的Leore Grosman博士和安娜Belfer-Cohen教授共同负责以色列Nahal Ein Gev II的挖掘工作。纳哈尔·艾因格夫二世（Nahal Ein Gev II）是一个大型的晚纳图夫村庄遗址，约占100%。12，500 - 11，000 cal. BP，距离加利利海约2公里。该网站的不寻常的时间位置在更新世末期，其地理位置在生产约旦河谷，农业社区首次出现在该地区，和大规模和永久性的村庄提供了一个理想的设置，以调查人类经济的相互作用，社区组织和仪式活动的早期阶段前所未有的觅食生产者过渡。农业起源的社会理论方法越来越偏离经济解释。然而，越来越多的研究表明，社会，仪式和经济的变化是密切结合在这个漫长的过渡。这项研究不是寻找哪一个先来的，经济或社会变化，而是试图重建，然后利用动物考古学记录整合生态，社会和仪式条件。该研究侧重于六个相互关联的主题：环境重建，人类觅食策略，肉食，社区内组织和空间利用，垃圾处理实践和仪式实践。对瞪羚牙釉质碳酸盐的碳和氧同位素分析将提供该遗址的环境背景，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、畜群流动性和遗址季节性的数据。对更新世末期社会经济学的详细重建，为理解随后农业社区的兴起提供了必不可少的基础。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师生的研究交流，促进国际合作。交流旨在加深门罗和以色列项目主任之间的长期研究合作，并将其扩展到下一代美国和以色列学者。这项研究将为以色列和美国学生提供动物考古学培训，他们将从事全面的动物考古学分析。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。人类生活的各个方面都感受到了这一变化的影响。这项研究旨在记录约旦河谷一个位置优越的定居点的基本条件和社会变革，包括这种不可逆转的变化。

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.