Herder-Forager Interactions in an Unstable Environment

在国家科学基金会的支持下，加思·桑普森博士和 他的同事将进行考古和古环境研究， 在南非Zeekoe山谷地区进行研究。的目标 这项工作是为了研究环境之间的关系， 变化和人类的反应谁住在一个简单的 技术水平。在先前的考古过程中收集到的陶片 该地区的考古研究将由两个 粘附有机物的热释光和放射性碳定年 材料.变化中的古环境将被重建 通过对蹄兔粪便的分析后者是一个 这项技术是桑普森博士首创的蹄兔的领地很小 世代返回喜欢的栖息地的动物。 由此产生的粪坑可以跨越几个世纪， 放射性碳因为里面的物质包括花粉 颗粒，这些后者可以分析，以提供洞察 不断变化的气候条件。有了这些数据桑普森博士 能够将环境原因和人类反应联系起来。 多年来，桑普森博士和他的合作者一直致力于 Zeekoe山谷地区。数以千计的地点已被定位 以及事件发生的大致时间和顺序 已经建立。在大约公元600 - 1800年间 这个地区很可能居住着两个群体，一个是 一个靠狩猎和采集为生，另一个靠放牧为生 还有山羊两者之间的相互作用似乎很复杂 并随着时间的推移而改变。当欧洲移民进入该地区时， 在19世纪，他们在那里只遇到猎人和采集者。 虽然这种模式已经确立，但其原因尚不清楚， 这是桑普森博士目前工作的重点。Zeekoe是一个 经历了重大气候变化的半干旱地区 在历史时期和史前时期也可能发生波动。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。将加大 我们对人类如何适应气候变化的理解， 处于简单技术发展水平的群体， 在不同的环境背景下。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Garth Sampson and his colleagues will conduct archaeological and paleoenvironmental research in the Zeekoe valley region in South Africa. The goal of the work is to examine the relationship between environmental change and the response of humans who live at a simple technological level. Potsherds collected in the course of prior archaeological research in the region will be dated by both thermolumenescence and radiocarbon dating of adhering organic materials. Changing paleoenvironment will be reconstructed through the analysis of hyrax dung middens. This latter is a technique pioneered by Dr. Sampson. Hyrax are small territorial animals who return over generations to favored habitation sites. Resultant dung middens can span centuries and can be dated by radiocarbon. Because the contained material includes pollen grains, these latter can be analyzed to provide insight into changing climatic conditions. With these data Dr. Sampson will be able to correlate environmental cause and human response. For many years Dr. Sampson and his collaborators have worked in the Zeekoe valley region. Thousands of sites have been located and studied and the general chronology and sequence of events have been established. Over the period from about 600 - 1800 AD this region was most likely inhabited by two groups, one which subsisted by hunting and gathering and the other by herding sheep and goats. The interactions between the two appear to be complex and changing over time. When European settlers entered the region in the 1800s they encountered only hunters and gatherers there. While the pattern has been established, its cause is unknown and this is the focus of Dr. Sampsons' present work. The Zeekoe is a semiarid region which has undergone significant climatic fluxuation in historic times and likely in prehistory as well. This research is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of how humans adapt to changing climate and how groups at a simple level of technological development relate to each other in a varying environmental context.