Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Cultivation Strategies in Pastoral Landscapes

本论文研究的目的是研究最适合流动畜牧业的山区植物种植的劳动力投入。考古学的历时性为研究人类生存策略的发展、维持和影响提供了越来越重要的视角。更好地了解社区层面的粮食安全是一个至关重要的研究途径，特别是考虑到全球变暖、天气事件日益频繁以及粮食/水不安全等世界当前面临的挑战。研究区域的社区保持着互动网络。这一地区促成了一场连接各国人民、传播思想、技术和驯养动植物的全球化事件。近年来，在揭示这些史前、多资源、农牧社区的动物管理方面已经有了相当大的势头。然而，植物栽培在这些系统中的作用研究较少。该项目将研究不同流动性的牧民如何协调他们的劳动力和时间来种植促进这些植物驯化传播的作物。此外，该项目将有助于在美国学者和其他多个国家之间建立有益的伙伴关系，并为学生提供学习机会，以获得考古植物学和考古技能。本研究侧重于历史上较少研究的流动牧民群体的农业实践。在最早引入驯化植物时，群落是采用劳动密集型的种植策略，还是修改了现有的策略（驯化植物的来源），以适应更广泛的农牧生活方式，即山地流动畜牧业的特征？为了回答这个问题，该项目对九个地点的杂草分类群进行了系统分析，并对烧焦的谷物（小麦和大麦）进行了稳定的碳和氮同位素测量。杂草分类群和作物稳定同位素作为灌溉、施肥和除草的代理，是了解植物栽培劳动投入的互补证据线。这项研究不仅将解决当地特定的关于生存选择的问题，而且还将解决在具有挑战性的环境中关于农牧选择可变性的全球主题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this dissertation project is to research labor investment in plant cultivation in mountainous regions which were optimal for mobile pastoralism. The diachronic nature of archaeology provides an increasingly important lens into the development, maintenance, and repercussions of human populations’ survival strategies. A better understanding of food security at the community level is a crucial research avenue, particularly in light of the world’s current challenges facing global warming, increasingly frequent weather events, and food/water insecurity. Communities in the study region maintained networks of interactions. This region enabled a globalization event connecting peoples and spreading ideas, technologies, and domesticated animals and plants. There has been considerable momentum in recent years to uncover the management of animals within these prehistoric, multi-resource, agropastoral communities. However, the role of plant cultivation within these systems is less studied. This project will examine how pastoralists of varying mobility negotiated their labor and time to grow crops that facilitated the spread of these plant domesticates. Additionally, this project will aid in engendering beneficial partnerships between United States scholars and multiple other nations and provide learning opportunities for students to acquire archaeobotanical and archaeological skills.This research focuses on the historically less-studied agricultural practices conducted by mobile pastoral groups. During the earliest introduction of domesticated plants did communities adopt a labor-intensive cultivation strategy or did they modify prexisting strategies (the source of the domesticated plants) to fit a more extensive agropastoral lifestyle characteristic of mountainous mobile pastoralism? To answer this question, the project utilizes a systematic analysis of weed taxa from nine sites coupled with stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements of charred cereal grains (wheat and barley). Weed taxa and crop stable isotopes are complimentary lines of evidence to understand labor investment in plant cultivation by acting as proxies for watering, manuring, and weeding. The research will address not only locally specific questions regarding subsistence choice, but also global themes about the variability of agropastoral choices within challenging environments.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.