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严重不足的地区。这一点在过去两千五百年中尤其如此，这一时期对人类近代定居和当今环境、社会文化、种族和语言分布模式和动态的发展至关重要。虽然在20世纪70年代和80年代，DFG资助的一个项目产生了一个详细的区域陶器序列，从c。从公元前400卡尔到现在，这个时代的环境和经济历史几乎完全不为人知。虽然陶瓷技术在考古学上被证明是内刚果盆地早期铁器时代的主要创新，但到目前为止，它只能被怀疑从一开始就伴随着食品生产和铁冶金。这些文化成果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一千年后半期的严重气候危机有关。这导致了雨林的部分破坏，取而代之的是先锋队，使在喀麦隆南部的热带稀树草原作物珍珠粟的种植成为可能。最近在内刚果盆地发现的早铁器时代珍珠粟可能表明那里有类似的发展。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内刚果盆地？2.这一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先决条件？3.在过去的2500年里，植被是如何发展的，与气候波动和人类影响有关？4.刚果盆地的畜牧业开始于何时？5.哪些蔬菜斯台普斯区域人口消费之间c。公元前400卡和欧洲殖民化前夕？6.内刚果盆地的铁冶金开始时间不比邻近地区晚，即大约在公元前一千年中期，这一假设是否正确？我们建议在三年期间在刚果民主共和国的赤道省进行总共40个工作周的考古发掘，以便系统地检索和分析代表已确立文化序列所有主要时期的考古植物学和考古动物学样本。我们还打算检索花粉配置文件，应涵盖相同的时间深度的c。2500日历年。对植物大残体和花粉的研究，以及伴随的植硅体和动物区系分析，预计将有助于深入了解气候和植被变化以及人类土地利用和营养。新的放射性碳年代测定将支持迄今为止对现有区域文化序列采样不足的片段。

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.