Investigation of Adaptation to the Arid Zone in the Levantine Early Neolithic

在国家科学基金会的支持下，唐纳德·亨利博士和一个国际合作科学家小组将继续调查位于约旦南部的Ayn Abu Nukhayla新石器时代早期遗址。该遗址位于人类第一次开始从事谷物种植和动物(绵羊/山羊)放牧的时候。这项研究建立在美国国家科学基金会早期支持的工作基础上，并专注于了解这个8500年前遗址的居住者如何能够利用今天是地球上最干燥的环境之一。研究继续集中在挖掘这一大型的、建筑丰富的遗址上，同时对附近地区进行地质和古环境调查。这项研究将包括三个具体部分：(1)高分辨率的气候-环境重建；(2)利用胶结物增量分析和稳定的同位素特征对替代的生存--定居模式进行评价；(3)旨在追踪定居点的社会和经济层面的详细的地点间空间分析。新石器时代早期近东地区的显著增长和扩张以及随后的破坏通常被归因于气候环境变化，但研究人员对这种变化的时间和方向存在分歧。拟议的研究将通过从遗址附近一个大型干湖的沉积物中恢复植物(花粉、植硅体、硅藻)和地质(沉积学、地球化学和同位素)证据的形式的环境替代数据来解决这一问题。此外，地质柱应该相当准确地确定种植谷物和牧群的第一次出现，这反映在谷类花粉和植硅体(来自植物的二氧化硅元素)和粪便球粒(绵羊/山羊粪便中的方解石小体)中。早些时候的探测和试点研究证实，存在与可测年木炭有关的此类数据。根据早期测深建立的放射性碳计时学的外推表明，可以通过追溯到大约8-12,000年前的更深的测深来发展出高分辨率的气候环境记录。早期的研究表明，Ayn Aba Nukhayla的居住者遵循了觅食、放牧和耕作的组合，被认为是整合在一种转移战略中(即，定居点的季节性和高程转移)。这可能包括从秋季到春季对附近的泥田(从高地径流中浇水)进行耕作，然后在温暖干燥的季节放弃该地点，以便将牛群转移到高地牧场。为了验证这一想法，将研究被猎杀的(野兔、瞪羚、野山羊)和成群的(绵羊/山羊)动物牙齿的牙骨质增量，以提供与该地点占用相关的季节性信息。此外，当地环境和附近高地之间的植被和地质底物的差异提供了一种手段，通过分析来自草食动物牙齿和骨骼的稳定同位素特征来追踪放牧行为。圆顶填充物内保存完好的职业地板也为研究新石器时代早期群落中人类互动的空间模式提供了一个不同寻常的机会。尽管有兴趣了解社区组织的变化，这些变化可能伴随着粮食生产的出现和发展，但在家庭的组成和社区结构方面仍然存在相当大的分歧。虽然特征、人工制品和生态制品(骨骼、植物和粪便签名)的空间模式可以追溯到家庭在经济和社会上自主的程度，但到目前为止，这种详细的空间研究在该地区还没有进行。拟议研究的更广泛影响包括教学部分，研究生将从事与科学有关的全面任务，涉及研究设计、现场和实验室仪器、数据管理、假设检验和报告准备。

Through support from The National Science Foundation, Dr. Donald Henry and an international group of collaborating scientists will continue the investigation of the Early Neolithic site of Ayn Abu Nukhayla, located in southern Jordan. The site falls at the time when humans were first beginning to engage in cereal cultivation and animal (sheep/goat) herding. The research builds on earlier NSF supported work and focuses on understanding how the occupants of this 8,500 year site were able to exploit a setting that today is one of the driest on earth. The research continues to center on the excavation of this large, architecturally rich site in conjunction with geologic and paleoenvironmental investigations of the nearby area. The study will have three specific components: (1) a high resolution climatic-environmental reconstruction; (2) an evaluation of alternative subsistence-settlement models using cementum increment analysis and stable isotope signatures; and (3) a detailed inter-site spatial analysis that is intended to trace the social and economic dimensions of the settlement. The remarkable growth and expansion of the Near Eastern Early Neolithic followed by disruption is often attributed to climatic-environmental changes, but researchers disagree on the timing and direction of such changes. The proposed research will address this issue through the recovery of environmental proxy data in the form of plant ( pollen, phytolith, diatom) and geologic (sedimentological, geochemical, and isotopic) evidence from deposits of a large dry lake near the site. Additionally, the geologic column should identify rather precisely the first appearance of cultivated cereals and herding as reflected in cereal pollen and phytoliths (silica elements from plants) and fecal spherulites (calcite bodies in sheep/goat dung) . Earlier soundings and pilot studies confirm the presence of such data in association with datable charcoal. Extrapolation of the radiocarbon chronometry established from the earlier soundings indicates that a high resolution, climatic-environmental record can be developed through deeper soundings that stretches back some 8-12,000 years ago. Earlier research indicates the occupants of Ayn Aba Nukhayla followed a combination of foraging, herding, and farming thought to have been integrated within a strategy of transhumance (i.e., seasonal and elevational shifts in settlement). This is likely to have involved farming the nearby mudpan (watered from upland run-off) from Fall through Spring followed by abandonment of the site during the warm-dry season for the movement of herds to upland pastures. To test this idea, the cementum increments of the teeth of hunted (hare, gazelle, ibex) and herded (sheep/goats) animals will be studied to provide seasonal information relative to the occupation of the site. Also, differences in vegetation and geologic substrates between the local setting and the nearby uplands offer a means of tracing herding practices through the analysis of stable isotope signatures derived from herbivore teeth and bones.The well preserved occupational floors within the fills of the pithouses also provide an unusual opportunity to study spatial patterns of human interaction in an Early Neolithic community. Despite interest in understanding changes in community organization that are likely to have accompanied the emergence and elaboration of food production, there remains considerable disagreement on the composition of households and community structure. While the spatial patterning of features, artifacts, and ecofacts (bones, plant and dung signatures) can trace the degree to which households were economically and socially autonomous, such detailed spatial studies have here-to-fore not been undertaken in the region Broader impacts of the proposed research include a pedagogical component in which graduate students will engage in a full range of science related tasks involving research design, field and laboratory instrumentation, data management, hypothesis testing, and report preparation.