Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Cultivation Strategies in Pastoral Landscapes

本论文的研究目的是探讨适合于移动的畜牧业的山区种植业劳动力投入问题。考古学的历时性为人类生存策略的发展、维持和影响提供了越来越重要的透镜。更好地了解社区一级的粮食安全是一个重要的研究途径，特别是考虑到世界目前面临的全球变暖，日益频繁的天气事件和粮食/水不安全的挑战。研究区域的社区保持着相互作用的网络。这一地区促成了一场全球化活动，将各国人民联系在一起，传播思想、技术和驯养的动植物。近年来，在这些史前的、多资源的农牧社区中，发现动物管理的势头相当大。然而，植物栽培在这些系统中的作用研究较少。这个项目将研究不同流动性的牧民如何协商他们的劳动力和时间来种植作物，促进这些植物驯化的传播。此外，该项目将有助于在美国学者和其他多个国家之间建立有益的伙伴关系，并为学生提供学习机会，以获得考古植物学和考古技能，这项研究的重点是历史上较少研究的移动的牧民群体进行的农业实践。在最早引入驯化植物的过程中，社区是否采取了劳动密集型的种植策略，或者他们是否修改了现有的策略（驯化植物的来源），以适应山区移动的畜牧业的更广泛的农牧生活方式？为了回答这个问题，该项目利用了一个系统的分析杂草类群从9个地点加上稳定的碳和氮同位素测量烧焦的谷物（小麦和大麦）。杂草分类群和作物稳定同位素是理解植物栽培中的劳动力投资的补充证据，可以作为浇水、施肥和除草的代理。该研究将不仅解决当地的具体问题，关于生存的选择，但也对全球主题的变化农牧选择在具有挑战性的环境中。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The goal of this dissertation project is to research labor investment in plant cultivation in mountainous regions which were optimal for mobile pastoralism. The diachronic nature of archaeology provides an increasingly important lens into the development, maintenance, and repercussions of human populations’ survival strategies. A better understanding of food security at the community level is a crucial research avenue, particularly in light of the world’s current challenges facing global warming, increasingly frequent weather events, and food/water insecurity. Communities in the study region maintained networks of interactions. This region enabled a globalization event connecting peoples and spreading ideas, technologies, and domesticated animals and plants. There has been considerable momentum in recent years to uncover the management of animals within these prehistoric, multi-resource, agropastoral communities. However, the role of plant cultivation within these systems is less studied. This project will examine how pastoralists of varying mobility negotiated their labor and time to grow crops that facilitated the spread of these plant domesticates. Additionally, this project will aid in engendering beneficial partnerships between United States scholars and multiple other nations and provide learning opportunities for students to acquire archaeobotanical and archaeological skills.This research focuses on the historically less-studied agricultural practices conducted by mobile pastoral groups. During the earliest introduction of domesticated plants did communities adopt a labor-intensive cultivation strategy or did they modify prexisting strategies (the source of the domesticated plants) to fit a more extensive agropastoral lifestyle characteristic of mountainous mobile pastoralism? To answer this question, the project utilizes a systematic analysis of weed taxa from nine sites coupled with stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements of charred cereal grains (wheat and barley). Weed taxa and crop stable isotopes are complimentary lines of evidence to understand labor investment in plant cultivation by acting as proxies for watering, manuring, and weeding. The research will address not only locally specific questions regarding subsistence choice, but also global themes about the variability of agropastoral choices within challenging environments.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.