Exploitation and Domestication of Animals in Southeastern Turkey: The Faunal Remains from Neolithic Cayonu Tepesi

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Meadow博士，Hongo博士和他们的同事将分析从位于土耳其东南部的Cayonu考古遗址中发现的动物遗骸。这个早期村庄遗址的挖掘工作于1964年至1991年间进行，发现了跨越公元前300年至1991年间的一系列职业。在8,000年和5,000年前。它们还导致了中东地区这一时期任何遗址中最大的建筑遗迹之一（超过7，000平方米），因此提供了一个难得的机会来检查遗址内部的变化。该遗址对研究人员特别重要，因为它跨越了近东首次驯化动物的时期，并且因为它包含了大量保存完好的动物群遗骸。因此，它可以阐明从狩猎和采集到利用家养物种的过渡。研究小组将从严格控制的地层和建筑背景中选择动物群样本。最初的重点将放在动物开发和变化，通过记录和比较分类丰度，关闭模式和骨骼部分分布。研究的第二阶段将涉及动物驯化，调查人员将试图确定这一基本过程是否发生在该地点。卡约努位于一个地区，那里有几个家养物种的祖先，如猪。研究的第三阶段将涉及场地内的变化，重点是场地内不同建筑配置区域的组合。有了这些数据，就有可能研究涉及社会分化和社会等级出现的问题。将使用标准的动物考古学技术（包括形态学和测量学文献）对标本进行鉴定和表征。 “新石器时代革命”的标志是植物和动物的驯化以及田园和农业生活方式的起源。在此之前，人们仅以狩猎和采集为生，新石器时代构成了人类文化发展的基本分水岭。驯化动物提供的更可靠和丰富的资源为定居的乡村生活方式、大规模的人口聚集和国家的最终崛起铺平了道路。这种转变之所以如此有趣，是因为它独立地发生在新旧世界的许多不同地方，因此必然涉及某种潜在的因果过程，而不仅仅是历史上的偶然事件。考古学家希望了解这种转变，并假设了一些可能的原因。要从中选择，有必要有一系列有据可查的案例，而卡约努因为它含有丰富和年代久远的遗骸，而且因为它跨越了相关的时间段，从考古学的角度来看是极其重要的。虽然它的动物群的一部分已被分析，这些材料从来没有接近在一个全面和一致的方式，因此博士草甸和本乡的研究是特别重要的。 该项目将为许多考古学家提供非常感兴趣的数据，并将被广泛使用。它将增加我们对人类史前史中最根本的转变之一的理解，并将有助于学生的培训。

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Meadow, Hongo and their colleagues will analyze faunal remains recovered from the archaeological site of Cayonu which is located in southeastern Turkey. Excavations at this early village site were conducted between 1964 and 1991 and have uncovered a long sequence of occupations spanning the period between ca. 8,000 and 5,000 years ago. They also resulted in one of the largest exposures of architectural remains of any site from this period in the Middle East (over 7,000 square meters) and thus provide a rare opportunity to examine intra-site variability. The site particularly important to researchers because it spans the period when animals were first domesticated in the Near East and because of the large numbers of well preserved faunal remains it contains. It can therefore shed light on the transition from hunting and gathering to the use of domestic species. The research team will select faunal samples from tightly controlled stratigraphic and architectural contexts. Initial focus will be placed on animal exploitation and change through time by documenting and comparing taxonomic abundances, kill-off patterns and skeletal part distributions. A second stage of the research will relate to animal domestication and the investigators will attempt to determine whether this fundamental process took place at the site. Cayonu is located in a region where the progenitors of several domestic species such as pig are located. A third stage in the research will involve intra-site variability with the focus on assemblages from areas of the site with different architectural configurations. With such data it will be possible to examine questions which involve social differentiation and the emergence of social hierarchies. Specimens will be identified and characterized using standard zooarchaeological techniques including morphological and metrical documentation. The `Neolithic Revolution` is marked by the domestication of plants and animals and the origin of pastoral and agricultural ways of life. Prior to this, peoples lived solely by hunting and gathering and the Neolithic constitutes a fundamental watershed in human cultural development. The more dependable and abundant resources provided by domesticates paved the way for a settled village way of life, large population aggregations and the eventual rise of the state. What makes this transformation so interesting is that it occurred independently in many different parts of the Old and New Worlds and therefore some underlying causal process and not mere historical accident must be involved. Archaeologists wish to understand this transformation and have postulated a number of possible causes. To select among them it is necessary to have a series of well documented cases and Cayonu because of the abundant and well dated remains it contains and because it spans the relevant period of time is extremely important from an archaeological perspective. Although portions of its fauna have been analyzed, these materials have never been approached in a comprehensive and consistent way and therefore Drs. Meadow's and Hongo's research is particularly important. This project will provide data of great interest to many archaeologists and will be widely used. It will increase our understanding on one of the most fundamental transitions in human prehistory and will assist in the training of students.