Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Identification of Pastoral Neolithic Sites in East Africa: A Geoarchaeological Approach

在菲奥娜·马歇尔博士的指导下，露丝·沙哈克-格罗斯女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她的研究目标是探测表明过去家畜存在的土壤模式，并开发有助于实现这一目标的技术。“新石器革命”，即从狩猎和采集到驯化和随后对动植物的依赖，导致了人类生活方式的根本变化，并为村庄、城市和国家组织水平的兴起提供了基础。因此，考古学家希望了解导致驯化的过程，并追踪其随着时间的发展。虽然动物骨骼在某些考古环境中保存得很好，但在其他考古环境中，动物骨骼会迅速分解并消失，因此，找到牲畜存在的其他指标将非常有用。这在驯化过程的早期阶段尤其有价值，当时定居点频繁移动，他们在景观上可见的考古印记很小。Shahack-Gross女士将在东非讲马赛语的人群中进行实地考察。许多马赛人仍然遵循着传统的田园生活方式，放牧牛、羊和山羊。在她的研究的第一部分，MS Shahack-Gross将研究Maasi放牧实践和村庄空间组织。她将从围栏内外收集土壤样本，并检查被占领和废弃的营地。这些材料将在以色列和美国的实验室进行分析。据推测，家畜围场的土壤将具有独特的矿物学，由蛋白石植岩、含钙球粒、草酸钙和磷酸盐矿物组成。还有一种假设是，微形态薄片分析将检测土壤空隙和颗粒的层状，并且纹理变化也将表明在湿季和旱季的形成。这项研究很重要，因为所开发的方法将适用于世界许多地区和许多时期。如果成功，这些技术将被广泛应用于解决一系列问题。这个项目还将有助于培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Fiona Marshall, MS Ruth Shahack-Gross will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. The goal of her research is to detect soil patterns which indicate the past presence of domestic animals and to develop techniques which will facilitate this. The "Neolithic Revolution", the change in subsistence from hunting and gathering to the domestication and subsequent dependence on plants and animals, resulted in a fundamental change in human lifestyle and provided the base for the rise of village, city and state levels of organization. Therefore archaeologists wish to understand the processes which led to domestication and trace its development over time. While animal bone is well preserved in some archaeological situations it rapidly disintegrates and disappears in others and therefore it would be extremely useful to have other indicators of livestock presence. This would be particularly valuable in earlier stages of the domestication process when settlements moved frequently and their visible archaeological imprint on the landscape is slight.MS Shahack-Gross will conduct fieldwork among Maasi speaking peoples in East Africa. Many Maasi still follow a traditional pastoral lifestyle and herd cattle, sheep and goats. In the first part of her study MS Shahack-Gross will examine Maasi herding practices and village spatial organization. She will collect soil samples from both within and outside penning areas and examine both occupied and abandoned campsites. These materials will be analyzed in laboratories in both Israel and the United States. It is hypothesized that soils from livestock enclosures will have distinctive mineralogy consisting of forms of opaline phytoliths, calcium-containing spherulites, calcium oxalates and phosphatic minerals. It is also hypothesized that micromorphological thin section analysis will detect lamination of soil voids and grains and that textural alterations will also indicate penning during wet vs. dry seasons. This research is important because the methods developed will be applicable in many parts of the world and for many time periods. If successful the techniques will be widely employed to address a range of questions. This project will also assist in training a promising young scientist.