Alternative Evidence for Domestic Stock in Southern Africa

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Charles Bousman博士和他的合作者将在位于南非卡鲁地区的Blydefontein Rockshelter遗址进行考古实地工作。他们还将分析出土的文物。布莱德方丹很有趣，因为它的沉积物跨越了几千年，正是在这一时期，家畜首次出现在非洲南部。虽然该遗址没有发现这一时期驯养动物的骨骼遗骸，但其中一层主要由可能由绵羊沉积的动物粪便组成。该项目的目标是通过各种技术收集和分析这些材料。研究结果将与对照样本进行比较，对照样本来自现代绵羊和土狸——一种类似豚鼠的小型动物，也栖息在非洲南部的洞穴中。布斯曼博士及其同事将在现场进行微地层分析。他们还将研究沉积物中的花粉和植物岩。将对硅藻和方解石球石进行类似的分析。将对分解的沉积物样本进行检查，以确定头发或其他有助于确定贡献者的材料。这项研究有几个重要的原因。首先是方法论。由于考古材料的保存普遍很差，考古学家重建过去是极其困难的。动物骨骼很少能存活下来，需要非常特殊的化学和地质条件才能保存下来。布斯曼博士和他的同事们希望完善的技术将广泛应用于许多情况。其次，这项研究很重要，因为它将为非洲南部的过去提供新的视角。在世界的这个地区，动物不是驯化的，而是从外面引进的。绵羊、山羊和后来的牛的收养对人们的生活方式产生了巨大的影响。目前尚不清楚驯化动物是何时、如何或以何种方式到达这一地区的，布斯曼博士的研究将为这一问题提供新的线索。最后，家畜对环境有重要影响，计划中的研究将增加我们对人与环境相互作用的理解。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Charles Bousman and his collaborators will conduct archaeological field work at the site of Blydefontein Rockshelter which is located in the Karoo region of South Africa. They will also analyze the excavated finds. Blydefontein is interesting because its deposits span the last several thousand years and it was during this period that domestic livestock first appeared in Southern Africa. Although the site contains no skeletal remains of domesticates from this period, one layer is composed largely of animal dung which may have been deposited by sheep. The goal of this project is to collect and analyze this material by a variety of techniques. The results will be compared to controlled samples which derive from modern day sheep and from hyraxes - small guinea pig-like animals which also inhabit caves in Southern Africa. Dr Bousman and colleagues will conduct microstratigraphic analysis at the site. They will also study pollen and plant phytoliths which are incorporated into the deposit. Similar analyses will be undertaken with diatoms and calcite spherolites. Disaggregated sediment samples will be inspected in an attempt to identify hair or other materials which could help identify contributors. This research is significant for several reasons. The first is methodological. Given the generally poor preservation of archaeological materials it is extremely difficult for archaeologists to reconstruct the past. Animal bones survive only very rarely and need very specific chemical and geological conditions to be preserved. The techniques that Dr. Bousman and his colleagues hope to perfect will be widely applicable in a large number of situations. Secondly, this research is important because of the new light it will provide on Southern Africa's past. Animals were not domesticated in this region of the world but rather were introduced from the outside. The adoption of sheep and goat and later cattle had an enormous impact of the way people lived. It is unclear when, how or by what means domesticates arrived in this region and Dr. Bousman's research will shed new light on the subject. Finally domestic animals have had major effect on environment and the planned research will increase our understanding of human-environment interactions.