Ungulate domestication and early animal husbandry in the Upper Euphrates basin

在肥沃新月的大部分地区，更新世末期草原的扩张对人类的生存产生了深远的影响，包括封建主义的出现。虽然在这个阶段，捕猎放牧或混合放牧-食草的野生食草动物提供了大部分动物蛋白，但在全新世早期见证了Ov？、Capra、Sus和Bos的驯化，从而出现了畜牧业。我们的项目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菲亚到PPN时代的北部肥沃新月的经济和环境(前)条件，特别是对幼发拉底河上游盆地有蹄类驯化和畜牧业的早期阶段进行研究。目的：(1)建立研究区域人-反刍动物关系变化的更准确的年代表，(2)重建陶器新石器时代以前幼发拉底河流域的环境条件，(3)从考古背景追踪PPN人、猎物物种和早期驯养动物的半径和地理起源；以及(4)研究早期畜牧业在幼发拉底河上游流域以外的扩散。为了回答这些问题，我们将对安纳托利亚东南部和叙利亚北部的早期更新世和早期全新世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的有蹄类开发模式、草食动物体重、稳定的同位素特征和mtDNA多样性的历时和区域变化。在该项目的头两年，考古学研究将包括对叙利亚安纳托利亚东南部的Göbekli Tepe、GürcüTepe(第二和第三遗址)和Mezraa-Teleilat出土的组合进行分析。在实地以及慕尼黑和图宾根实验室产生的动物群数据将被输入兼容的数据库。在这方面，实地记录方法的兼容性也被认为是一项重要的愿望，正在计划举办一次讲习班，以便将从事纳图菲安工作的主要小组聚集到近东的PPN动物群遗骸中。最后，将与法国、西班牙和其他在该研究地区工作的团队密切合作，创建一个从纳图菲亚到安纳托利亚和叙利亚新石器时代背景下的有蹄类动物的通用计量数据库。生物分子研究将包括稳定同位素分析和线粒体DNA研究。将应用稳定同位素分析(C、O、N)来确定所有主要脊椎动物分类群(包括人类)的食性，并重建畜牧业纳入人类生存之前、期间和之后当地普遍存在的环境和气候条件。锶同位素分析将提供有关动物和人类流动性的信息。在头两年中，将对安纳托利亚东南部和叙利亚北部关键地点的300个骨骼样本进行胶原C/N/0和结构碳酸盐C/O的分析，并对70个样本进行锶特征分析，以确定选定类群的起源。在后者中，对同一个体的牙釉质和牙本质(或致密骨)进行分析，以评估动物是否在死亡前不久或(更早)到达现场。检验现存品种、新石器时代早期家畜和野牛之间密切关系的假说。居住在幼发拉底河流域上游的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.