Spatial Variation and the Origins of Agriculture

康涅狄格大学的Natalie Munro博士将对向农业的过渡进行当地规模的调查，同时解决长期生存进化，定居生活的出现以及植物和动物驯化过程的争议。农业的起源对人类社会文化生活的各个方面都产生了深远的影响。虽然研究一度强调农产品的单一来源，但积累的数据越来越多地支持多区域模型，这些模型强调农业出现和采用的地方规模过程。该项目将采取一个重要的下一步：创建一个高分辨率的，地方规模的重建过渡到农业和植物和动物驯化的过程。对当地规模的采集者-农民过渡的详细重建很少，但对于研究思想、植物和动物如何在更大的时间尺度和地理区域内创新和转移是必要的。虽然采集者-农民的转变通常被认为是采用与原位情景的二分法，但Munro博士及其同事将通过互动网络考虑西南亚地区之间的信息交换和植物和动物的运动。该项目将提供学生培训和教育，促进国际合作，并参与公共宣传。将通过博物馆展览、面向公众的文章和一系列讲座向公众传播成果。这项研究将有助于农业起源的研究，为以色列上约旦河谷（UJV）提供高分辨率的数据集。UJV提供了一个特别有趣的测试案例，因为其独特的生态条件，由一个大型淡水系统，其海拔低，并通过更大的裂谷贸易路线的可达性。这些条件也允许调查更具体的社会经济问题，如水产资源开发和新仙女木等气候事件的影响。调查将集中在UJV的三个Epipaleolithic和Pre-Pottery新石器时代遗址。其中包括约旦河Dureijat和Nahal Ein Gev II，它们将共同为UJV提供第一个完整的Epipaleolithic序列，以及Munhatta的前陶器新石器时代遗址。更具体的活动将包括：（1）在Munhatta进行试掘和取样。在这一关键地点进行的微形态、沉积物、同位素和动物考古学取样将调查动物饲养、动物流动、动物交换和禾谷类作物的重要性;（2）从上约旦河谷和更广泛的西南亚地区已发表的Epipaleolithic和Pre-Pottery新石器时代遗址中收集一个全面的动物考古数据库，以进行比较Meta，分析区域动植物驯化途径，并记录用于检测邻近地区动植物驯化过程的一系列方法和措施;以及（3）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。

Dr. Natalie Munro of the University of Connecticut will provide a local scale investigation of the transition to agriculture, while addressing contentious debates over long-term subsistence evolution, the emergence of settled life, and the process of plant and animal domestication. The origins to agriculture had a profound impact on all aspects of human sociocultural life. Although research once emphasized single origins of agricultural products, accumulating data increasingly support multiregional models that emphasize local scale processes in the emergence and adoption of agriculture. This project will take an essential next step: the creation of a high-resolution, local-scale reconstruction of the transition to agriculture and the process of plant and animal domestication. Detailed reconstructions of local-scale forager-farmer transition are few, but are necessary to map study how ideas, plants and animals were innovated and transferred across much larger time scales and geographic areas. Although the forager-farmer transition is most often viewed dichotomously as an adoption versus an in situ scenario, Dr. Munro and colleagues will consider information exchange and the movement of plants and animals among localities in Southwest Asia via interaction networks. The project will provide student training and education, foster international collaboration and engage in public outreach. Results will be disseminated to public audiences through a museum exhibit, articles for public audiences, and a series of lectures. This study will contribute to the study of agricultural origins by providing, a high-resolution dataset for the Upper Jordan Valley (UJV) of Israel. The UJV provides an especially interesting test case because of its unique ecological conditions created by a large fresh-water system, its low elevation and the accessibility of trade routes through the larger Rift Valley. These conditions also allow investigation of more specific socioeconomic questions about topics such as aquatic resource exploitation and the impact of climatic events like the Younger Dryas. Investigation will center on three Epipaleolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in the UJV. These include Jordan River Dureijat and Nahal Ein Gev II which together will provide the first complete Epipaleolithic sequence for the UJV, and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Munhatta. More specifically activities will include: (1) test excavations and sampling at Munhatta. Micromorphological, sediment, isotope and zooarchaeological sampling at this critical site will investigate animal keeping, animal mobility, animal exchange and the importance of cereal grasses; (2) the collection of a comprehensive zooarchaeological database from published Epipaleolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites from the Upper Jordan Valley and more broadly across Southwest Asia to enable a comparative meta-analysis of regional plant and animal domestication pathways, and document the range of methods and measures used to detect the process of animal and plant domestication in adjacent regions; and (3) the collection of zooarchaeological data from Jordan River Dureijat and Nahal Ein Gev II.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.