Ungulate domestication and early animal husbandry in the Upper Euphrates basin

在新月沃土的大部分地区，更新世末期草原的扩张对人类的生存产生了深远的影响，包括定居主义的出现。虽然在这一阶段，狩猎放牧或混合放牧的野生食草动物提供了大部分动物蛋白质，但全新世早期见证了Ov， Capra， Sus和Bos的驯化，并因此出现了畜牧业。最近被认为是新石器时代革命的关键地区之一，我们的项目旨在更好地了解从纳图夫到PPN时代在肥沃新月北部普遍存在的经济和环境（前提）条件，特别关注幼发拉底河上游盆地有蹄类驯化和畜牧业的早期阶段。目的：(1)为研究区人类反刍动物关系的变化建立更精确的年代学；(2)重建新石器时代前陶器时期幼发拉底河上游盆地的环境条件；(3)从考古背景中追溯PPN人类、野禽物种和早期驯养动物的半径和地理起源；(4)考察早期畜牧业在幼发拉底河上游流域以外的扩展情况。为了回答这些问题，我们将对东南安纳托利亚和叙利亚北部的正式更新世和全新世早期的人类和动物遗骸进行宏观、微观和生物分子分析，以追踪早期牲畜及其野生近亲在有蹄类动物开发模式、草食动物体重、稳定同位素特征和mtDNA多样性方面的历时和区域变化。骨骼标本将提交* c测年，以提供一个更精确的时间框架，以确定人类活动对食用动物生命周期的显著影响。在项目的头两年，考古动物学研究将包括yäiz/ia/对在Göbekli Tepe、g<s:1> rc<e:1> Tepe（遗址II和III）和南安那托利亚的Mezraa-Teleilat以及叙利亚的Baaz和Kaus Kozah出土的组合进行分析。在实地以及在慕尼黑和<s:1>宾根实验室产生的动物数据将输入兼容的数据库。在这方面，实地记录方法的兼容性也被认为是一项重要的要求，目前正在计划举办一个讲习班，以便集合研究近东纳图夫人和巴布亚新几内亚人动物遗骸的主要小组。最后，将与法国、西班牙和其他在研究地区工作的团队密切合作，建立一个从纳图夫时代到安纳托利亚和叙利亚新石器时代有蹄类动物的共同测量数据库。生物分子研究将包括稳定同位素分析和mtDNA研究。稳定同位素分析（C， O， N）将用于确定所有主要脊椎动物分类群（包括人类）的摄食习性，并重建畜牧业纳入人类生存之前，期间和之后的当地环境和气候条件。锶同位素分析将提供有关动物和人类活动的信息。在最初的两年里，将对来自东南安纳托利亚和北叙利亚关键地点的300个骨骼样本进行胶原蛋白中的C/N/0和结构碳酸盐中的C/O分析，并根据Sr特征对70个样本进行分析，以确定选定分类群的起源地点。在后一种情况下，研究人员将对同一个体的牙釉质和牙本质（或致密的骨头）进行分析，以评估动物是在死亡前不久还是（更早）到达该地点。为了验证现存品种、新石器时代早期家畜和野生野牛之间存在密切关系的假设。居住在幼发拉底河上游的Ovis、Capra和Sus，将从Bos开始进行mtDNA研究。

In large parts of the Fertile Crescent, the expansion of grasslands at the end of the Pleistocene had a profound impact on human subsistence, including the emergence of sedentism. While at this stage, hunting of grazing or mixed grazing-browsing wild herbivores provided the bulk of animal proteins, the early Holocene witnessed the domestication of Ov«, Capra, Sus, and Bos, and hence the emergence of livestock husbandry. Recognised recently as one of the key regions with respect to the Neolithic Revolution , our project aimed at a better understanding of the economic and environmental (pre)conditions prevailing in the northem Fertile Crescent from Natufian until PPN times, with a particular research focus on the early stages of ungulate domestication and livestock husbandry in the Upper Euphrates basin.Objectives: To (1) establish a more precise chronology for changes in the human-ruminant relationship in the study area, (2) reconstmct the environmental conditions characterising the Upper Euphrates basin during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, (3) trace the radius and geographic origin of PPN humans, game species and early domesticates from archaeological contexts; and (4) investigate the spreading of early animal husbandry beyond the Upper Euphrates basin. To answer these issues, macroscopic, microscopic, and biomolecular analyses would be applied to fmal Pleistocene and early Holocene human and animal remains from sites in SE-Anatolia and N-Syria in order to trace diachronic and regional changes in ungulate exploitation pattems, herbivore body mass, stable isotope signatures, and mtDNA diversity in early livestock and their wild relatives. Bone specimens would be submitted for *C-dating to provide a more precise timeframe for marked anthropogenic influences on the life cycles of food animals.In the first two years ofthe project, archaeozoological research would comprise yäiz/ia/ analysis ofthe assemblages excavated at Göbekli Tepe, Gürcütepe (sites II and III) and Mezraa-Teleilat in SE-Anatolia and Baaz and Kaus Kozah in Syria. Faunal data generated in the field and in the Munich and Tübingen labs would be entered into compatible databases. In this respect, compatibility of field recording methods was considered an important desideratum as well, a workshop being planned in order to assemble the major teams working on Natufian till PPN faunal remains in the Near East. Finally, a common metrical database for ungulates from Natufian till Neolithic contexts in Anatolia and Syria would be created, in close collaboration with the French, Spanish and other teams working in the study area.Biomolecular research would include stable isotope analysis and mtDNA research. Stable isotope analysis (C, O, N) would be applied to specify the feeding habits of all major vertebrate taxa (including humans) and to reconstmct the local environmental and climatic conditions prevailing prior, during and after the incorporation of animal husbandry into human subsistence. Strontium isotope analysis would supply information on mobility in animals and humans. In the first two years, 300 bone samples fi^om key sites in SE-Anatolia and North-Syria would be analysed for C/N/0 in collagen and for C/O in the stmctural carbonate, and 70 samples m terms of Sr signatures to define the place of origin of selected taxa. In the latter, both tooth enamel and dentine (or compact bone) from the same individual would be analysed to assess whether animals had arrived at the site shortly before their death, or (much) earlier. To test the hypothesis of a close relationship between extant breeds, early Neolithic domestic animals, and wild Bos. Ovis, Capra, and Sus inhabiting the upper Euphrates Basin, mtDNA research would be carried out, starting with Bos.