Iron Age human subsistence, environment, and climate in the Inner Congo Basin (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

内刚果盆地不仅在中非，而且在整个撒哈拉以南非洲都是研究最不足的地区之一。对于最近的人类定居和今天的环境、社会文化、种族和语言分布模式和动态的发展至关重要的2500年来说尤其如此。尽管在20世纪70年代和80年代，dfg资助的一个项目获得了从公元前400年到现在的详细的区域陶器序列，但这个时代的环境和经济历史几乎完全不清楚。虽然陶瓷技术在内刚果盆地的考古中得到了充分的证明，是铁器时代早期的一项重大创新，但到目前为止，人们只能怀疑它从一开始就伴随着食品生产和铁冶金。这些文化成就都不是在研究区域内独立产生的，而是从外部引进的。来自中非西部的数据显示，这些技术的最初传播与公元前1千年下半叶的严重气候危机有关。这导致了雨林的部分破坏，取而代之的是早期的地层，在短暂的间歇期间，喀麦隆南部的稀树草原作物珍珠粟得以种植。最近在刚果盆地内发现的早期铁器时代珍珠粟可能表明那里也有类似的发展。该项目的目标是提供以下问题的答案：1。铁器时代早期的雨林危机是否也影响了刚果盆地？2. 这段环境插曲是否为最初以珍珠粟为基础的刚果盆地雨林自给经济创造了自然前提条件？3. 在过去的2500年里，植被在气候波动和人类影响下是如何发展的？4. 在刚果盆地，畜牧业是什么时候、用什么物种开始的？5. 在公元前400年至欧洲殖民前夕，该地区的人类食用了哪些主要蔬菜？6. 铁冶金术在内刚果盆地的开始并不晚于邻近地区，即大约在公元前一千年中期，这个假设是正确的吗？我们建议在三年的时间里，在民主刚果赤道省总共花费40个工作周的时间，进行考古发掘，以便系统地检索和分析代表既定文化序列所有主要时期的考古植物学和考古样本。我们还打算检索花粉剖面，应该覆盖同样的时间深度约2500日历年。对植物大遗骸和花粉的研究以及伴随的植物岩和区系分析有望对气候和植被变化以及人类土地利用和营养产生深入的了解。新的放射性碳测年将支持迄今为止取样不足的现有区域文化序列片段。

The Inner Congo Basin counts among the most severely underresearched areas not only within Central Africa, but also in sub-Saharan Africa at large. This is especially true with regard to the last two and a half millennia which have been crucial for recent human settlement and the development of present-day environmental, sociocultural, ethnic, and linguistic distribution patterns and dynamics. Although in the 1970s and 80s, a DFG-funded project yielded a detailed regional pottery sequence from c. 400 cal BC up to the present, the environmental and economic history of this era have remained almost completely obscure. While ceramic technology is archaeologically well attested in the Inner Congo Basin as a major Early Iron Age innovation, it can so far only be suspected to have been accompanied from the start by food production and iron metallurgy. None of these cultural achievements arose independently in the study area, but all were introduced from outside. Data from western Central Africa revealed the initial spread of these technologies to have been related to a severe climatic crisis during the second half of the 1st millennium cal BC. This lead to a partial breakdown of the rainforest and its replacement by pioneer formations, enabling cultivation of the savanna crop pearl millet in southern Cameroon during a brief interlude. Recent finds of Early Iron Age pearl millet in the Inner Congo Basin possibly indicate similar developments there. The project objective is to provide answers to the following questions: 1. Did the Early Iron Age rainforest crisis also affect the Inner Congo Basin? 2. Did this environmental interlude create natural preconditions for an initial Congo Basin rainforest subsistence economy based on pearl millet? 3. How did the vegetation develop during the past 2500 years related to climatic fluctuations and human impact? 4. When and with which species did animal husbandry begin in the Congo Basin? 5. Which vegetable staples did regional human populations consume between c. 400 cal BC and the eve of European colonisation? 6. Is the hypothesis true that iron metallurgy began no later in the Inner Congo Basin than in neighbouring regions, i.e. around the middle of the first millennium cal BC? We propose to spend a total of 40 workweeks over a three-year period in the Equator Province of Democratic Congo to carry out archaeological excavations geared to systematic retrieval and analysis of archaeobotanical and archaeozoological samples representing all major periods of the established cultural sequence. We also intend to retrieve pollen profiles that should cover the same time depth of c. 2500 calendar years. Studies of botanical macroremains and pollen with accompanying phytolith and faunal analysis are expected to produce insights into climate and vegetation change, as well as human land use and nutrition. New radiocarbon dates will back up so far poorly sampled segments of the existing regional culture sequence.