Collaborative Research: Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia and Mid-Holocene Environmental Changes

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Joy McCorriston博士（俄亥俄州州立大学），Eric Oches博士（南佛罗里达大学）以及他们的同事和学生将在也门南部的Hadramawt地区进行三个季节的实地研究，以调查中全新世（约2000年）的环境和文化影响。5,000年前）季风衰退和伴随的干旱化。 阿拉伯半岛南部中全新世气候模式的变化迫使处于发展农业自给经济早期阶段的人们调整他们的种植技术、水管理做法和放牧策略，以适应日益干旱的景观。具体研究目标包括：（1）重建全新世早期至中期较湿润时期阿拉伯南部高地的人类经济行为，（2）通过比较不同高地地区的序列，为高分辨率考古和古生态记录提供更广泛的区域背景（Wadi Sana和Wadi Idim），以及（3）发展高分辨率的年代学，以记录与中期-中期环境变化有关的考古和沉积记录。全新世降水的气候变化。由考古学家（McCorriston），地质学家（Oches）和也门民族志学家（Bin .Aqil）领导的跨学科团队将在植被，水文和气候的沉积和化石记录的背景下重建人类行为的考古记录。考古发掘将集中在岩石庇护所，坑房子的住所，和水管理结构，已确定在以前的实地考察，并通过放射性碳和人工制品类型学的日期之间的CA。9，000 - 5，000年（日历）前。 该团队将通过考古调查和挖掘，民族考古学，人工制品分析，古植被研究，沉积学分析和古水文重建进行研究和培训跨学科的学生。 将努力让也门研究人员和学生参加实地研究，以提供考古和地质培训。 研究结果将用于开发概念和GIS（地理信息系统）模型，以解释在阿拉伯半岛南部不断变化的中全新世古环境中采用农业所涉及的文化和环境因素，并有助于对一个鲜为人知的地区的古环境知识。也门南部的研究区域，除了被遗弃的景观外，所有景观都得到了很好的保护，这些景观曾经是由全新世早期的人类和环境过程塑造的，为解决阿拉伯在早期农业传播中的作用及其对过去气候和环境变化的记录提供了无与伦比的背景。

With the support of the National Science Foundation, Dr Joy McCorriston (The Ohio State University), Dr. Eric Oches (University of South Florida), and their colleagues and students will conduct three seasons of field research in the Hadramawt region of southern Yemen in order to investigate environmental and cultural impacts of the middle-Holocene (ca. 5,000 years ago) monsoon decline and accompanying aridification. Changing middle-Holocene climatic patterns in southern Arabia forced people in the early stages of developing agricultural subsistence economies to adapt their cultivation technologies, water management practices, and herding strategies to an increasingly arid landscape. Specific research objectives include: (1) reconstruct human economic behaviors in the southern Arabian uplands during the wetter early- to middle-Holocene, (2) provide wider regional context for high-resolution archaeological and palaeoecological records by comparing sequences from different highland areas (Wadi Sana and Wadi Idim), and (3) develop high-resolution chronology for the archaeological and sedimentary record of environmental changes associated with the middle-Holocene climatological shift in precipitation. The interdisciplinary team headed by an archaeologist (McCorriston), geologist (Oches), and Yemeni ethnographer (Bin .Aqil) will reconstruct the archaeological record of human behavior in the context of sedimentary and fossil records of vegetation, hydrology, and climate. Archaeological excavations will focus on rock-shelters, pit-house dwellings, and water management structures that have been identified in previous fieldwork and are dated by radiocarbon and artifact typology between ca. 9,000 - 5,000 (calendar) years ago. The team will conduct research and train interdisciplinary students through archaeological survey and excavation, ethnoarchaeology, artifact analysis, paleovegetation studies, sedimentological analysis, and paleohydrological reconstruction. Efforts will be made to include Yemeni researchers and students in field studies in order to provide archaeological and geological training. Results of the study will be used to develop conceptual and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) models to explain the cultural and environmental factors involved in the adoption of agriculture in the changing middle-Holocene paleoenvironments of southern Arabia and to contribute toward paleoenvironmental knowledge of a little-known region. The research areas in southern Yemen, with their good preservation of all-but abandoned landscapes once shaped by early Holocene human and environmental processes, provide an unparalleled context to resolve Arabia's role in the spread of early agriculture and its record of past climate and environmental changes.