Dama International: fallow deer (Dama dama dama) and European society 4000 BC - AD 1600

访问任何庄严的家庭，你都会发现一群欧洲休闲鹿(Dama)。这些优雅的动物是自然史上的谜题之一，因为尽管它们的名字叫它们，但它们不是欧洲原产的：它们原产于土耳其，人们从那里逐渐将它们运送到世界各地。因此，休闲鹿的分布是人类种群变动、贸易和意识形态的直接记录，有可能为一系列学科和受众提供最高质量和相关性的文化证据。有许多关于休闲鹿的出版物，但这些出版物基本上重复了人们公认的智慧。事实上，令人惊讶的是，人们对休闲鹿知之甚少；它们的历史被模棱两可的语言、文字、图像和考古证据所混淆。为了纠正这种情况，我们进行了一项名为休闲鹿项目的试点研究，其结果挑战了关于该物种历史的既定理论，并为了解罗马人、盎格鲁-撒克逊人和诺曼人的社会提供了新的见解。它还突显了有关休闲鹿的科学工作的稀缺性，并展示了新的数据集将如何使我们能够探索欧洲考古学中的一些最引人注目的问题：例如，地中海东部新石器时代的性质和传播，青铜时代爱琴海、铁器时代希腊和高卢，以及罗马、拜占庭、伊斯兰和诺曼帝国的社会结构和世界观。为了实现这一潜力，我们的跨学科团队将采用我们的初步研究证明的方法--例如，将考古学、历史学、地理学和人类学与遗传学、稳定同位素分析和骨学研究相结合--来回答以下问题：1)休闲鹿是被驯化的吗？驯化是一个备受瞩目的话题，但在与D.D.Dama有关的问题上却被忽视了。有趣的是，与牛、羊或马不同，休闲鹿没有提供牛奶、羊毛或牵引力来保证它们的生存，然而大多数考古达玛人活到了老年--是什么促使不同的人类群体与这个物种形成了密切的、长期的关系？2)休闲鹿是在什么情况下在欧洲建立起来的？休闲鹿的迁徙似乎始于新石器时代，到青铜时代，它们已经在整个爱琴海建立起来。他们似乎拥有一种神奇的宗教地位，这种地位一直持续到铁器时代和罗马时代，当时他们的骨头被作为圣物进行交易。这种贸易混淆了对达玛生物地理学的理解，但我们的研究表明，罗马人在整个欧洲建立了这个物种。我们现在需要澄清这些动物/身体部位是如何、从哪里以及为什么被运送的。3)罗马帝国的崩溃是否导致了休闲鹿的灭绝？在中世纪早期的欧洲，休闲鹿的证据很少；然而，它们可能已经存在，但根本没有被人们开发。这个问题的结果将在问题4和5中进一步讨论。4)诺曼人是否通过伊斯兰影响重新引入了休闲鹿？休闲鹿、阿拉伯公园的概念和新的狩猎仪式是从西西里岛的诺曼王国输出的，这一想法是基于间接证据。我们将研究来自伊斯兰和基督教中世纪世界的所有可用数据，以确认现有的信仰，并提供对这一时期文化接触的洞察，或者表明罗马达玛人在诺曼之前的欧洲生活，这需要重新评估诺曼征服的影响。5)人与神的关系如何揭示世界观？人类与野生动物之间的关系一再表明，人与野生动物之间的关系反映了一个社会的结构和信仰。当然，无论休闲鹿被转移到哪里，它们都被纳入了社会文化身份和意识形态的表达中。我们将探索不同的人类群体如何通过与休闲鹿的互动来协商地位、性别、宗教和文化信仰。

Visit any stately home and you will find a herd of European fallow deer (Dama dama dama). These elegant animals are one of natural history's puzzles because, despite their name, they are not of European origin: they are native to Turkey from where people have gradually transported them around the globe. The distribution of fallow deer is thus a direct record of human population movements, trade and ideology with the potential to provide cultural evidence of the highest quality and relevance for a range of disciplines and audiences.There are many publications devoted to fallow deer but these largely recycle 'received wisdom'. In fact, astonishingly little is known about fallow deer; their history is obfuscated by ambiguous linguistic, textual, iconographic and archaeological evidence. To rectify this situation we carried out a pilot study, The Fallow Deer Project, whose results have challenged established theories about the species' history and provided new insights into Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman society. It also highlighted the scarcity of scientific work on fallow deer and demonstrated how a new dataset will enable us to explore some of the highest-profile issues in European archaeology: e.g. the nature and spread of the Neolithic in the eastern Mediterranean and the structure and worldview of societies in the Bronze Age Aegean, Iron Age Greece and Gaul, and the Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and Norman Empires.To realise this potential, our transdisciplinary team will employ methods proven by our pilot study - e.g. the integration of archaeology, history, geography and anthropology with genetics, stable isotope analysis and osteological research - to answer the following questions:1) Were fallow deer domesticated? Domestication is a high-profile topic but it has been overlooked in relation to D. d. dama. Interestingly, unlike cattle, sheep or horses, fallow deer provide no milk, wool or traction to warrant their maintenance, yet most archaeological Dama lived into old age - what prompted different human groups to form close, long-term relationships with this species?2) Under what circumstances were fallow deer established across Europe? Fallow deer translocation seemingly began in the Neolithic and by the Bronze Age they were established throughout the Aegean. They appear to have held a magico-religious status that endured into the Iron Age and Roman period, when their bones were traded as holy relics. This trade has confused understanding of Dama biogeography but our research indicates that the Romans established the species across Europe. We now need to clarify how, from where and why these animals/body parts were transported. 3) Did the collapse of the Roman Empire cause extirpation of fallow deer? Evidence for fallow deer is scarce in early medieval Europe; however, they may have been present but simply not exploited by people. The results of this question will be considered further in questions 4 and 5. 4) Did the Normans reintroduce fallow deer via Islamic influence?The idea that fallow deer, the Arabic concept of parks and new hunting rituals were exported from the Norman Kingdom of Sicily is based on circumstantial evidence. We will examine all available data from the Islamic and Christian medieval world either to confirm existing beliefs and provide insights into the culture-contact of this period, or to indicate that Roman Dama populations endured in pre-Norman Europe, necessitating a re-assessment of the Norman Conquest's impact. 5) How do human-Dama relationships reveal worldview?It has been shown repeatedly that the relationship between humans and wild animals reflects a society's structure and beliefs. Certainly wherever fallow deer were translocated, they were incorporated into expressions of socio-cultural identity and ideology. We will explore how different human groups negotiated status, gender, religious and cultural beliefs through interactions with fallow deer.