Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Neolithic Transition in the South-Western Caucasus

在奥弗·巴-约瑟夫博士的指导下，兹诺维·马茨科维奇先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。在国家科学基金会的支持下，他将探索新石器时代复杂的社会互动和“史前种族”的本质——驯化的植物和动物——从近东的中心地带传播到南高加索地区。该项目将调查造成这种扩大的潜在机制，包括扩散、迁移或本土改造。在与格鲁吉亚同事的合作下，他将在高加索地区的四个史前遗址进行小规模的挖掘，这些遗址跨越了中石器时代、新石器时代和新石器时代（约公元前11,000 - 4,000年）。实地工作预计将提供分层的物质文化组合，包括农业和畜牧业首次出现的时期。放射性碳定年法将为绝对年表提供依据。对目前存放在格鲁吉亚国家博物馆的先前发掘的考古组合的综合研究，以及在本研究过程中获得的考古组合，将在近东和东南欧农业传播考古学的更广泛背景下加以考虑。新石器时代标志着人类与环境以及人与人之间关系的深刻变化。随着植物和动物的驯化，人们建立了一条从小部落狩猎采集者到包含数万人的早期文明的轨迹。虽然考古学家已经将相当多的注意力集中在驯化的多个“摇篮”上，但对它们如何在文化和空间中传播却知之甚少。人们提出了多种机制，包括人的扩散vs.植物和动物本身vs.观念。这项研究将有助于在这样一个摇篮附近的地区建立基本的文化和时间背景，并允许多种假设得到检验。这项研究还将进一步促进一名有前途的研究生的学术和智力进步，并加强美国和格鲁吉亚共和国之间的科学关系。

Under the direction of Dr. Ofer Bar-Yosef, Mr. Zinovi Matskevich will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. With NSF support he will explore the nature of social interactions and 'prehistoric ethnicity' during the spread of the Neolithic complex - domesticated plants and animals - from a heartland in the Near East into the Southern Caucasus region. The project will investigate the potential mechanisms which include diffusion, migration or indigenous transformation responsible for this expansion. In collaboration with Georgian colleagues, he will conduct small scale excavations at four prehistoric sites in the Caucasus which span the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Eneolithic (ca 11,000 - 4,000 BC) The fieldwork is expected to provide stratified assemblages of material culture which encompass the period when agriculture and pastoralism first appeared. Radiocarbon dating will provide the basis for an absolute chronology. A combined study of archaeological assemblages from prior excavations, currently stored in the State Museum of Georgia, as well as those obtained in the course of the present study will be considered in a broader context of the archaeology of the spread of agriculture in the Near East and South-Eastern Europe.The Neolithic marks a profound change in humans' relation both to the environment and to one another. With the domestication of plants and animals a trajectory was established which led from hunter gatherers living in small bands to early civilizations encompassing tens of thousands of individuals. While archaeologists have focused considerable attention on the multiple 'cradles' of domestication, much less is understood about how they spread across cultures and space. Multiple mechanisms including the diffusion of people vs. plants and animals per se vs. ideas have been proposed. This research will help to establish the basic cultural and chronological context in a region adjacent to such a cradle and permit multiple hypotheses to be examined.The research will also further the academic and intellectual advancement of a promising graduate student and strengthen scientific relations between the US and the Republic of Georgia.