Measuring the isotopic landscape: bone chemistry, the environment, and ancient agriculture in the Thames Valley

测量同位素景观：泰晤士河谷的骨化学、环境和古代农业

• 批准号: AH/E002412/1
• 负责人: Robert Hedges
• 金额: $ 22.49万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FE002412%2F1
• 关键词: Measuring; isotopic; landscape; bone; chemistry

SummaryThis proposal is to develop deeper, more detailed, ways to learn about farming in Southern England and how it changed from Neolithic to Roman times. We have chosen a well researched region with detailed archaeological knowledge and, for many sites, a good record of the environmental context. We propose to analyse chemically the bones from a statistically robust number of domesticated animals from 32 well studied sites. We will measure 'stable isotopes', that is atoms of the actual animals' food, which remain in their bones. We know that slight variations in stable isotopes are due to changes in diet, which can come about from changes in management, or changes in food-plant isotopes. Plant isotopes cannot be measured directly, but do depend on subtle changes in their environment. Actually, although we have an understanding of several types of environmental influence, we do not know clearly and exactly how the environment is reflected in animal bone isotope values; but we do know that animal bone isotopes from various sites show intriguing patterns of variation and correlation, in a site over time, or between species, or between sites in different settings. This research is to characterise what sorts of pattern occur in settings where we can relate the results to known environments, and then to use it to extend our knowledge of these sites. This combination of chemical isotopy and environmental information has not been made before, perhaps because it requires to be at a large scale to be successful, and relies on a lot of experience of both isotopic and environmental methodologies.The kind of information we hope to learn includes the following:- when and why did pig husbandry change, and were they then fed more household scraps, milk whey, or just rooted about nearer human refuse pits ? Is there any sign that soils became progressively depleted in nitrogen, and can a manuring signal be detected ? Do cattle (particularly) show evidence that their management moved from a more wooded to a more open environment ? Where increased flooding occurs in the valley floodplains, does this have a recognisable effect on plant and bone isotopes (as suspected) ? Is a change in the nitrogen isotope we have seen on one site we studied really due to the cultivation of hay and therefore an increase in leguminous species (which have lower nitrogen isotope ratio values) in the sward ?Furthermore, we hope that by getting much more focussed results than anyone has so far, we will see new patterns in the isotopic compositions that will lead to new thoughts about what can be learnt from isotopes. This also important for understanding how the bones of humans, who eat the animals, acquire their isotopic composition, and therefore for understanding how to reconstruct ancient human diet.

摘要这项建议旨在开发更深入、更详细的方法来了解英格兰南部的农业，以及它是如何从新石器时代到罗马时代的变化。我们选择了一个研究充分的地区，具有详细的考古知识，并对许多遗址的环境背景进行了良好的记录。我们建议对来自32个经过充分研究的地点的大量驯化动物的骨骼进行化学分析。我们将测量“稳定同位素”，即保留在动物骨骼中的实际动物食物的原子。我们知道，稳定同位素的微小变化是由于饮食的变化，这可能是由于管理的变化，或者是粮食作物同位素的变化。植物的同位素不能直接测量，但取决于环境的细微变化。事实上，虽然我们已经了解了几种类型的环境影响，但我们并不清楚和准确地知道环境是如何在动物骨骼同位素值中反映出来的；但我们确实知道，来自不同地点的动物骨骼同位素在一个地点随着时间的推移，或在物种之间，或在不同环境中的地点之间，显示出有趣的变异和相关性模式。这项研究是为了描述在我们可以将结果与已知环境相关联的环境中发生了什么类型的模式，然后利用它来扩展我们对这些网站的知识。这种化学同位素和环境信息的结合以前从未出现过，也许是因为它需要大规模才能成功，并依赖于同位素和环境方法论的大量经验。我们希望了解的信息包括以下几点：-养猪业何时以及为什么发生变化，然后它们是不是喂了更多的家庭废弃物、牛奶乳清，或者只是植根于更近的人类垃圾坑？是否有任何迹象表明土壤中的氮素逐渐枯竭，是否可以检测到施肥信号？牛(尤其是牛)是否有证据表明他们的管理从更茂密的森林转向更开放的环境？在河谷洪泛区洪水增加的地方，这对植物和骨骼同位素(如怀疑的那样)是否有明显的影响？我们在一个研究地点看到的氮同位素的变化是否真的是由于干草的种植，从而导致草地上豆科植物种类(氮同位素比值较低)的增加？此外，我们希望通过获得比任何人到目前为止都更集中的结果，我们将看到同位素组成的新模式，这将导致对从同位素中学到什么的新思考。这对于理解吃动物的人类的骨骼如何获得其同位素组成也很重要，因此对于理解如何重建古代人类的饮食也很重要。