Cultural And Biological Approaches To Domestic Animal Management

研究人员试图了解人类和动物如何适应不断变化的环境条件，以及它们在创造新环境中扮演的角色。考古学特别适合于提供长期环境变化及其对人类的影响的相关信息，因为它可以确定人类、动物和景观在很长一段时间内的相互作用。在此背景下，本项目将描述驯养动物引入欧洲的文化、生物和生态影响。在生物多样性地区小规模引进家畜（绵羊、山羊、牛和猪）的影响尚未得到很好的研究。这个项目的重点是大约8000年前第一次直接和有意地将动物引入巴尔干半岛，这是欧盟生物多样性的热点地区。通过研究该地区最早的农民对当地动植物群落的影响，特别是他们的家畜管理策略，研究人员将建立有意引入哺乳动物对环境影响的基线数据，作为其他地区的比较数据集。研究结果将有助于指导那些经历了数十年、数百年或数千年畜牧活动的地区的现代保护工作，并将为理解非工业化社会中驯养动物对环境和文化的影响提供相关信息。这个项目将训练本科生和研究生产生和使用考古数据来解决重要的生态问题，并将扩大多个机构的研究能力。大约8000年前驯养动物被引入欧洲的生态和文化基础仍然知之甚少。本项目以克罗地亚达尔马提亚中部海岸考古遗址的动物骨骼、陶器、土壤和植物（种子和木炭）样本为研究案例，重点研究家畜管理（牛、羊、山羊、猪）的生物和文化标志。通过这项研究产生的数据包括稳定同位素分析、贝叶斯放射性碳年表、功能形态学、陶瓷残留物分析、植物学研究和动物种群动态，并将提供多种证据来描述这一时期的动物管理实践。结果将确定牛奶在早期农业中的作用；历史上重要的动物迁移和环境退化模式的古老；以及当地生态系统的相对脆弱性或复原力。多种证据将描绘早期欧洲驯养动物的特征，并进一步加深我们对人与动物关系及其对当地生态系统的影响的理解。研究结果将在国际出版物上发表，并通过讲座、演示和展览向美国和克罗地亚的公众观众发表。

Researchers seek to understand how humans and animals adapt to changing environmental conditions and the roles they play in creating new environments. Archaeology is particularly well suited to provide relevant information on long-term environmental change and its effects on humans because it can identify the interplay between humans, animals, and landscapes over extended periods of time. Within this context this project will characterize the cultural, biological, and ecological impacts of the introduction of domesticated animals into Europe. The effects of small-scale introductions of domestic animals (sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs) into biodiverse regions are not well studied. This project focuses on the first directed and intentional animal introductions into the Balkans, a European Union biodiversity hotspot, ca. 8,000 years ago. By studying the effects of region's earliest farmers on local plant and animal communities, in particular their domestic animal management strategies, the investigators will establish baseline data on the environmental effects of deliberate mammal introductions as a comparative dataset for other regions. The results will help guide modern conservation efforts in regions that have witnessed decades, centuries, or millennia of herding activity, and will contribute relevant information to understanding the environmental and cultural impacts of domesticated animals in non-industrialized societies. This project will train undergraduate and graduate students in generating and using archaeological data to address important ecological questions and will expand the research capacities of multiple institutions. The ecological and cultural underpinnings of the introduction of domesticated animals to Europe ca. 8000 years ago are still poorly understood. This project focuses on biological and cultural markers of domestic animal management (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs) by studying animal bones, pottery, soil, and botanical (seeds and wood charcoal) samples from archaeological sites on the central Dalmatian coast of Croatia as a case study for this research. Data generated through this research include stable isotopic analyses, Bayesian radiocarbon chronologies, functional morphology, ceramic residue analyses, botanical studies, and animal population dynamics, and will provide multiple lines of evidence to characterize animal management practices during this period. Results will identify the role of milk in early farming; the antiquity of historically important patterns of animal transhumance and environmental degradation; and the relative fragility or resilience of local ecosystems. Multiple lines of evidence will characterize early European domesticated animal use and further our understanding of human-animal relationships and their impacts on local ecosystems in general. Results will be published in international publications and through lectures, presentations, and exhibits to public audiences in the US and Croatia.