Reassessing plants and pastoralist foodways in ancient eastern Africa

当今世界，数以千万计的人依靠牛、绵羊和山羊等牲畜来养家糊口并推动当地经济发展。研究人员和政策制定者现在认识到，这种被称为畜牧业的生活方式具有高度的活力和灵活性，因此，当气候变化威胁到粮食安全，进而造成社会或政治不稳定时，它使人们能够茁壮成长。在非洲，至少七千年来，畜牧业一直是人们生活的支柱。然而，考古学家缺乏基本的数据来理解畜牧业是如何发展的，如何在整个大陆上扩张，以及如何随着时间的推移而变化的。这限制了考古学家利用过去的数据来为当今关于土地利用和牧民复原力的讨论提供信息的程度。特别是，考古研究中缺少的一个关键因素是游牧食物系统中的植物成分。虽然众所周知，牧民今天通常将作物和野生植物纳入其食物系统，但由于保存相对较差，并且缺乏这方面的研究，过去非洲牧民对植物的使用情况知之甚少。这个为期三年的多学科研究项目通过实地考察和相关的实验室工作来解决这一研究缺口。该项目包括对本科生和研究生的培训。结果将通过美国的考古开放获取数据库向更广泛的公众提供。一个国际研究小组调查了植物在古代游牧食物方式中的作用，他们把重点放在一个保存得特别好的地方，有三千年的历史。植物在烹饪上的重要性的初步证据包括在陶器和磨石上发现的植物痕迹。为了全面重建过去的食物系统，该项目支持通过民族植物学研究挖掘和研究古代动植物遗骸。后者包括与牧民和农民社区就植物鉴定和传统用途进行访谈；收集现代植物样本，以便与古代遗骸进行比较和改进鉴定；开发民族植物学数据库，将物理植物样本与传统植物知识和使用的文本、音频和视频数据配对。这项研究的广泛影响还包括在两个国际地点建立永久性植物研究收藏。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。

In the world today, tens of millions of people rely on livestock such as cattle, sheep, and goat to feed their families and drive local economies. Researchers and policymakers now recognize that this way of life – known as pastoralism – is highly dynamic and flexible, and therefore enables people to thrive when climate change threatens food security and, by extension, creates social or political instability. In Africa, pastoralism has been a mainstay of life for at least seven millennia. Yet archaeologists lack basic data with which to understand how pastoralism developed, expanded across the continent, and changed over time. This limits the extent to which archaeologists can use data from the past to inform present-day discussions of land use and pastoralist resilience. In particular, a key missing element of archaeological research is the plant component of pastoralism food systems. While it is known that pastoralists commonly incorporate crops and wild plants into their food systems today, past pastoralist plant use in Africa is poorly known, due to relatively poor preservation, and a lack of research in this area. This three-year, multidisciplinary research project tackles this research gap with fieldwork and associated laboratory work. The project includes training for undergraduate and graduate students. Results will be made available to a broader public via a US-based archaeological open access database.An international team of researchers investigates the roles of plants in ancient pastoralist foodways by focusing on a single location with exceptionally good preservation and a three thousand year history. Preliminary evidence for the culinary importance of plants includes plant traces detected in pottery and on grinding stones. In order to holistically reconstruct past food systems, this project supports excavation and study of ancient plant and animal remains informed by an ethnobotanical study. The latter includes interviews with pastoralist and farmer communities on plant identifications and traditional uses; collection of modern plant samples for comparison to and improved identification of ancient remains; and the development of an ethnobotanical database that pairs physical plant samples with text, audio, and video data on traditional plant knowledge and use. Broader impacts of this research also includes the creation of a permanent botanical research collection in two international locations.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.