Early herding and monumental architecture in the West Turkana, Kenya

国家科学基金会的资金将支持对肯尼亚西北部图尔卡纳湖附近的早期放牧和纪念性建筑的调查。史前时期从狩猎/采集到粮食生产（农耕和/或放牧）的过渡以及社会组织的相关变化，是当今世界各种经济和社会结构发展的关键步骤。肯尼亚西北部是一个有趣的位置来研究这些变化有两个原因。首先，不像世界上大多数地区，农业是早期粮食生产的关键，在肯尼亚西北部，畜牧业在农业之前已经存在了至少1000年。第二，几个具有纪念意义的“石柱遗址”，巨石，高架平台和石圈，建于4000年前，大约在人们开始在图尔卡纳湖附近放牧的时候。在全球考古记录中，由没有庄稼的移动的人建造纪念性建筑是极不寻常的。它表明，主要的社会变化伴随着经济转向放牧，并提出了几个问题：1。当农作物不是一揽子计划的一部分时，以动物为基础的粮食生产系统是如何传播到新的地区的？是通过移民，还是通过思想和牲畜的传播？2.牧民建造纪念性遗址的社会目的是什么？这些目的与那些激励农业巨石建造者的目的不同吗？在巨石阵）？3.人们是在粮食生产的最初阶段，在经济/社会作用不断变化的时候，还是在后来，在新的规范到位的时候，建立和使用“支柱场地”？为了回答这些问题，由Elisabeth Hildebrand博士领导的一个团队，以及来自美国、肯尼亚、加拿大、厄立特里亚和德国的专家，将在图尔卡纳湖以西进行两个季节的考古调查、挖掘和分析。该项目的一个分支将研究6000-3000年前在不同环境区从狩猎/采集/捕鱼到放牧过渡的居住（生活）地点。对石器和陶器的分析将表明该地区的第一批牧民是移民，还是从北方人那里获得牲畜的长期居民。对人类和动物骨骼的研究将评估饮食的变化。该项目的另一个分支将扩大在四个石柱遗址的挖掘（已经追溯到公元前200年）。4000年前），探测平台，石圈和石堆特征。可持续性分析将确定在界碑点发生了何种活动，并评估附近同时期的界碑点是否用于类似或不同的目的。日期将表明人们是否在放牧进入该地区时建造了石柱遗址，或者在新的经济和社会角色确立之后稍晚一些。四名美国博士生将为他们的论文收集数据，并获得实地经验。该项目还将支持三名非洲学者利用新方法（石器工具采购、人类牙齿同位素研究以重建古代饮食以及陶器中碳的年代测定）进行科学创新，以解决与该项目有关的研究问题。最后，该项目将保护一个因靠近一条主要道路而易受破坏的界碑遗址，并促进当地社区和肯尼亚国家博物馆代表今后对其进行保护。

National Science Foundation funds will support investigations of early herding and monumental architecture near Lake Turkana in NW Kenya. Prehistoric transitions from hunting/gathering to food production (farming and/or herding), and related changes in social organization, were crucial steps in the development of the diverse array of economies and social structures in the world today. NW Kenya is an intriguing location to investigate these transformations for two reasons. First, unlike most regions of the world where farming was key to early food production, in NW Kenya herding was practiced for at least 1000 years before farming. Second, several monumental "pillar sites" with megaliths, elevated platforms, and stone circles, were built 4000 years ago, around the time people began herding near Lake Turkana. Construction of monumental architecture by mobile people who have no domestic crops is extremely unusual in the global archaeological record. It suggests major social changes accompanied the economic shift to herding, and raises several questions: 1. How did animal-based food production systems spread into new areas when crops were not part of the package? Via migration, or the spread of ideas and livestock? 2. For what social purpose(s) did herders construct monumental sites? Did these purposes differ from those motivating agrarian megalith builders (eg. at Stonehenge)?3. Did people build and use "pillar sites" during initial phases of food production, when economies/social roles were in flux, or later, when new norms were in place? To answer these questions, a team led by Dr. Elisabeth Hildebrand, with specialists from the United States, Kenya, Canada, Eritrea, and Germany, will conduct two seasons of archaeological survey, excavation, and analysis west of Lake Turkana. One arm of the project will examine habitation (living) sites spanning the transition from hunting/gathering/fishing to herding, 6000-3000 years ago, in different environmental zones. Analysis of stone tools and pottery will show whether the region's first herders were immigrants, or longstanding residents who acquired livestock from people to the north. Studies of human and animal bone will assess changes in diet.The other arm of the project will expand excavations at four pillar sites (already dated to c. 4000 years ago), probing platform, stone circle, and cairn features. Artifact analysis will determine what kinds of activities took place at pillar sites, and assess whether nearby contemporaneous pillar sites served similar or different purposes. Dates will indicate whether people built pillar sites just as herding entered the area, or slightly later, after new economic and social roles had taken hold.Four American PhD students will acquire data for their dissertations, and gain field experience. The project will also support scientific innovation by three African scholars using novel methods (stone tool sourcing, isotopic studies of human teeth to reconstruct ancient diets, and dating of carbon in pottery) to address research questions related to the project. Finally, the project will conserve a pillar site vulnerable to damage due to its proximity to a major road, and facilitate its future protection by local communities and representatives of the National Museums of Kenya.