Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Subsistence in Developing Cities

本博士论文项目将研究动物在大型前现代城市的城市经济中的作用，以进一步了解城市食品经济与社会组织和财富不平等的关系。粮食生产和分配系统与一个社会的经济组织和社会结构密切相关，可能会加剧社会不平等，特别是在许多家庭不直接生产粮食的城市中。考古学处在一个理想的位置，可以调查粮食系统对世界上最早的城市发展的多种促进方式，提供一个独特的视角，可以了解当今不断增长的城市人口的潜在影响。该项目将提供一个重要的前现代城市食品系统的一个方面的比较数据，促进国际和跨学科合作，并在研究领域内进行公共宣传。本研究考察了动物在前现代城市经济中的作用，这是理解粮食生产、城市经济和社会不平等发展之间关系的重要案例研究。特奥蒂瓦坎（Teotihuacan，公元100-550/650年）位于墨西哥中部高地，是一个大型的、多样化的城市，在古代世界是独一无二的，因为它没有大型驯养动物，而且能够以一种支持日常城市居民的方式提供驯养。该研究将评估特奥蒂瓦坎城市和农村居民如何获得动物，以及狩猎和饲养动物对城市经济的作用。为了评估多种随时间变化的轨迹，本研究提出了一种创新的方法，将动物考古学分析与碳稳定同位素分析相结合，以确定居民消耗的动物类型，并将自然环境中的动物与生活在人为环境中的动物（如农田或动物围栏）区分出来。此外，为了克服动物骨骼形态鉴定的局限性，本研究采用了基于胶原肽指纹图谱的动物遗骸鉴定新技术——动物考古学质谱法（ZooMS）。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation project will examine the role of animals in the urban economy of a large, pre-modern city in order to further understanding of how urban food economies relate to social organization and wealth inequalities. Systems of food production and distribution are closely tied to the economic organization and social structure of a society, and can serve to reinforce social inequalities, particularly in cities in which many households do not directly produce their own food. Archaeology is ideally situated to investigate the many ways in which food systems contributed to urban developments in the world's earliest cities, providing a unique perspective that can inform on the potential impacts of today's growing urban populations. This project will provide a comparative data on one aspect of the food system from an important pre-modern city, foster international and interdisciplinary collaboration, and engage in public outreach within the research area.This research examines the role of animals in the urban economy of a pre-modern city that is a vital case study in understanding the relationships between food production, urban economies and the development of social inequalities. Teotihuacan (100-550/650 CE), located in central highland Mexico, was a large, diverse city and is unique in the ancient world as a city that was provisioned in the absence of large domesticates, and one that was able to do so in a way that supported its everyday urban residents. The research will evaluate how urban and rural residents of Teotihuacan acquired animals, and the role of hunting and raising animals to the urban economy. To evaluate multiple trajectories of change over time, this study presents an innovative integration of zooarchaeological analysis, to identify the types of animals consumed by residents, and carbon stable isotope analysis to distinguish animals from natural environments, and those which lived in anthropogenic environments, such as agricultural fields or animal pens. In addition, this research employs zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS), a new technique for the identification of faunal remains based on collagen peptide fingerprints, to overcome limitations in the morphological identification of animal bones.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.