Investigating the Neo-lithic Transition

这项研究的基本目标是洞察人类与环境相互作用的过程，以及人类和自然系统如何相互影响。新石器时代的早期可能是人类历史上最伟大的转变--这是一个戏剧性的变化时期，人们从觅食的生活方式转变为以农业为基础的生活方式，从而改变了人类历史的进程和我们在环境系统中的地位。尽管我们认识到新石器时代的重要性，但它的文献记载仍然很少。对人类变革这一重要时期的更好的记录可能有助于我们更好地了解当今快速的技术变革。在国家科学基金会的支持下，玛丽·斯泰纳博士和一个国际考古学家团队将调查中东地区绵羊驯化和放牧实践的最初阶段。这项研究的重点是早期羊群管理的社会和经济后果以及与之相关的人类建造环境的变化。这项研究将在土耳其中部最早的定居点之一进行，这里是新石器时代之前的陶器遗址。脚踝骨山)，可以追溯到10,300-11,000年前。利用人与动物共同进化的理论框架，这项研究考虑了迭代解决问题如何改变了人类和绵羊在大约50代人中的选择条件。调查将通过对该遗址的动物骨骼、地质遗迹和植物(植硅石)遗骸的综合研究来完成。人们对觅食社会和粮食生产社会之间的过渡时期知之甚少，这与新石器时代后期的丰富信息形成了鲜明对比。国际动物保护协会和他的同事先前在A TAY KLäHöyük所做的研究表明，绵羊是在现场圈养的。这样管理绵羊给这些人带来了好处，也带来了挑战。人与动物如此接近，预计会引发废物和虫害管理的新战略，改变建筑和社区布局，以及围绕这些动物的开发重组社会机构。这项研究将提供关于动物管理形成阶段的日常环境的关键信息，以及这一人与动物之间密切互动的最初历史如何将社会带入社会经济变革的新道路。这项调查还将揭示最终产生驯化形式的绵羊的“选择规则”。这项研究的创新之处在于采用了跨学科的方法来检验在发展进化框架中得出的想法。这项研究将持续3年(2014-2017年)，国家科学基金会的资金将用于挖掘和材料回收成本，并支持在放射性碳测年、沉积物微形态、植硅体分析和动物考古学方面的广泛专业实验室研究。NSF基金还将支付PI、合作者和UA研究生的旅费和每日费用，并为土耳其博士生提供短期的考古科学培训机会。这项研究的更广泛的影响集中在动物管理中微小的、累积的创新与它们对人类社会基本素质的长期影响之间令人惊讶的关系。现代人类生存的几乎方方面面都被我们对家养动植物的依赖以某种方式触及。人类对少数物种(包括绵羊)的协同使用和操纵改变了历史进程，并极大地影响了人类在自然系统中的地位。尽管其中一些影响是深远的，但科学家和感兴趣的公众仍然不明白这些过程是如何启动的。考古的细节和连续性足以作为婚礼的实验室，让我们了解动物驯化背后的生态和社会进化过程。与此同时，这项研究解决了驯化研究中对综合方法的更大需求，并为下一代培养熟练的、有创造力的科学家。

The fundamental goal of this research is to provide insight into the process of human - environmental interaction, and how human and natural systems, each influence the other. The early Neo-lithic period was perhaps the greatest transition in human record--a time of dramatic change in which people moved from a foraging lifestyle to a farming-based one, thus altering both the course of human history and our place in environmental systems. Although we recognize the significance of the Neo-lithic period, it remains poorly documented. Improved documentation of this important time period of human change may help us better understand our present day rapid technical change.With the support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Mary Stiner and an international team of archaeologists will investigate the very beginnings of sheep domestication and herding practices in the Middle East. The research focuses on the social and economic consequences of early sheep management and related changes to the human-built environment. The study will be conducted at one of the first settlements in central Turkey, the pre-pottery Neolithic site of Aþýklý Höyük (transl. ankle-bone hill), dating to the interval of 10,300-11,000 years ago. Using the theoretical framework of human-animal co-evolution, this study considers how iterative problem-solving altered the conditions of selection for both humans and sheep across roughly 50 human generations. The investigation will be accomplished through an integrated study of animal bones, geological traces and botanical (phytolith) remains from the site. The transitional period between foraging and food-producing societies is poorly known, in stark contrast to a wealth of information on the later Neolithic. Prior research at Aþýklý Höyük by the PI and colleagues has demonstrated that sheep were held captive on site. Managing sheep in this way brought on both advantages and challenges to these people. Such close human-animal proximity is expected to have provoked novel strategies of waste and pest management, alterations in architecture and community layout, and reorganization of social institutions surrounding the exploitation of these animals. This study will provide critical information on the day-to-day contexts of animal management in its formative stages, and how this initial history of close interaction between humans and animals set society on a new path of socioeconomic change. The investigation will also shed light on the "selection rules" that ultimately produced domesticated forms of sheep. The research is innovative in its implementation of an interdisciplinary approach to test ideas drawn in a developmental evolutionary framework. The study will last 3 years (2014-2017), and NSF funds will contribute to excavation and material recovery costs and support a wide range of specialized laboratory studies in radiocarbon dating, sediment micromorphology, phytolith analysis, and zooarchaeology. NSF funds will also cover travel and per diem costs for the PI, collaborators and UA graduate students, and provide short-term focused training opportunities for Turkish PhD students in archaeological science. The broader impacts of this research center on the surprising relations between small, cumulative innovations in animal management and their long-term effects on fundamental qualities of human society. Nearly every aspect of modern human existence is touched in some way by our dependence upon domestic plants and animals. Humans' concerted use and manipulation of a select few species (including sheep) has altered the course of history and greatly affected humans place in natural systems. As profound as some of these effects have been, scientists and a keenly interested public still do not understand how the processes were set in motion. The archaeology of Aþýklý Höyük is sufficiently detailed and continuous to serve as a laboratory for wedding our understandings of ecological and social evolutionary processes behind the story of animal domestication. The research meanwhile addresses larger needs for integrative approaches in domestication research and the development of skilled, creative scientists for the next generation.