Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Mechanical Implications of Agricultural Specialization

该项目侧重于12,000至8,000年前新石器时代社会采用农业的经济和技术专业化。农业的起源和传播可以说是人类历史上最重要的经济转型。人们普遍认为，农业经济发展的一个后果是经济专业化和劳动分工的细化，这是现代经济的两个核心方面。这种专业化被认为反映在技术上，导致用于加工农产品（如谷物）的专用工具的激增。然而，在某些情况下，当农业被采用时，在狩猎和采集文化与随后的农业群体之间，人工制品的形式有很大的连续性：早期农民使用的工具与他们的狩猎-采集祖先使用的工具非常相似，这表明关于专业化的假设可能需要修改。考古学很好地为这一主题提供了见解，因为它可以追溯技术和功能的变化，揭示与重大经济转型相关的社会和经济组织的变化。这项研究为当地社区了解传统食物系统的历史提供了新的信息，并为当地历史和世界史前史的教学课程提供了新的信息。该项目调查经济和技术专业化是否与粮食生产的采用不可避免地联系在一起，或者它是否只是在少数地区发生的事情。研究人员正在研究一系列石器在农业转型前后的实际使用情况。数据来自一个记录这一转变的网站。这个地方特别适合这个项目，因为它是早期小米农业的中心，而且这个遗址包含了可以追溯到转型前后的文化成分，在同一个地方。使用两个独立的证据来源来调查伪影函数。一个是使用磨损，古代文物的微观损坏痕迹。这种物理变化提供了对人工制品使用中涉及的运动的洞察，以及有关接触材料的物理特性。另一个线索来源是附着在文物工作部件上的淀粉颗粒的微小残留物。淀粉可以为人们用石器切割、研磨和刮擦的植物种类提供直接证据。通过直接检查人工制品功能的证据，该项目可以确定随着时间的推移，人工制品是否以更专业化的方式被使用，即使形式保持不变，或者是否需要重新考虑关于专业化和农业经济起源的假设。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 project focuses on economic and technical specialization with the adoption of agriculture in a Neolithic society between 12,000 and 8,000 years ago. The origins and spread of agriculture is arguably the most important economic transition in human history. It is widely believed that one consequence of the development of agricultural economies is the elaboration of economic specialization and division of labor, two central aspects of modern economies. This specialization is thought to be reflected in technology, leading to a proliferation of special purpose tools used for the processing of agricultural products such as grains. However, in some cases when agriculture is adopted there is a great deal of continuity in artifact forms between hunting and gathering cultures and succeeding farming groups: the tools used by early farmers are very similar to the ones used by their hunter-gatherer forebears, suggesting that assumptions about specialization may need to be modified. Archaeology is well placed to provide insight of this topic because it can trace technological and functional changes through time to reveal changes in social and economic organization associated with major economic transitions. This research provides new information relevant to local community interests in understanding the history of traditional food systems, and for teaching courses on local history and world prehistory.This project investigates whether economic and technological specialization is inevitably associated with adoption of food production, or whether it was simply what happened in the few areas. The investigators are examining how a range of stone tools were actually used before and after the transition of agriculture. The data comes from a site which documents this transition. This locality is particularly suitable for the project because it was the center of early millet agriculture, and because the site contains cultural components dating to before and after the transition, in the same locality. Artifact functions are investigated using two independent sources of evidence. One is use-wear, microscopic traces of damage to ancient artifacts. Such physical alteration provides insight into the motions involved in artifact use, as well as about the physical properties of the materials contacted. The other source of clues is minute residues of starch grains adhering to working parts of artifacts. Starches can provide direct evidence of the kinds of plants that people were cutting, grinding and scraping with the stone artifacts. By examining evidence for artifact function directly, the project can determine whether in fact artifacts were used in more specialized ways over time, even while the forms stayed the same, or whether one needs to rethink assumptions about specialization and the origins of agricultural economies.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.