Periodic Reporting for period 1 - H-E Interactions (Increasingly Anthropogenic Landscapes and the Evolution of Plant-Food Production: Human - Environment Interactions during the Final Pleistocene and Early Holocene in the Levant.)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2017-09-01 do 2019-08-31
This project, H-E Interactions, aimed to creatively employ a range of archaeobotanical techniques (phytoliths, starches and microcharcoals) and geoarchaeological methods (including micromorphology) on on- and off-site contexts to investigate the development and intensification of H-E interactions (i.e. increasing anthropogenic fire disturbance and other impacts related to human activity on the environment) through the Final Pleistocene and into the Early Holocene (ca. 23-8 ka cal. BP) in the Levant. By integrating the latest theoretical Human Niche Construction (HNC) perspectives with the tool-kit of environmental archaeology to investigate five well-excavated wetland oriented archaeological sites in the Southern Levant, the project aimed to consider if and how increasingly anthropogenic wetland landscapes, and the reliable resources within those environments, influenced the evolution of plant-food production and the origins of agriculture.
Two years of data collection and research by the ER has resulted in the preparation, mounting, imaging and measuring, of a robust starch (> 100 specimens) and phytolith (> 300 specimens) comparative collection for the Levant. This material has and is facilitating multidisciplinary analysis of ancient bread ‘crumbs’ (charred food remains), food processing residues on ground stone in close collaboration with use-wear specialists (n: >50 stones encompassing > 300 residue samples from six key sites in the region), and the analysis of on-site sediments (n: >300) from seven archaeological sites ranging from the Early Epipaleolithic through to the final stages of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. The data being collected constitutes an extremely unique archaeobotanical database and is a major contribution to archaeological understandings of the transition to agriculture in the Levant as there is currently very limited direct botanical evidence in the region, particularly during the Epipaleolithic period.
This project and the archaeobotanical evidence being generated has also allowed the ER to develop her ideas regarding the long-term, cumulative impact of human niche construction. This work has been central to several large grant applications, including a successful Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, which will facilitate the ER’s continued research on H-E interactions in the Levant.
Finally, H-E Interactions has also initiated two unexpected, but exciting food-ways research avenues for the ER – residue analysis of ‘food crusts’ from some of the earliest Neolithic Pottery in the region in collaboration with Julien Vieugue (CNRS) as part of the French based CREASTONE project, and proteomics analysis of human teeth (‘prospecting’ to find evidence of human consumption of gazelle milk) at the site of Kharaneh IV in collaboration with Matthew Collins (UCAM and U. Copenhagen).
The project achieved most of its major research objectives: Determine how plant resource collection and processing strategies changes from the Early Epipaleolithic to the PPNB/PPNC, and reassess the origin of agriculture in the Levant in light of HNC perspectives and the latest archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence.
The main results of the project have been disseminated to academic and non-academic audiences, in the form of: 1 peer-reviewed OA article already published with a high-tier international journal (PNAS); 1 single-author article in prep to be submitted and made available OA next year; 4 multi-author articles in prep to be submitted and made available OA next year; 2 invited speaker talks; 1 radio interview on the Canadian Broadcast Corporations flagship science programme, Quirks and Quarks; 1 international workshop, with another rescheduled for the fall of 2020 due to COVID-19; and the ER presented the projects initial results at 1 international conference. 2 more international conference presentations detailing H-E Interactions results have been postponed due to COVID-19 and rescheduled for the spring of 2021.
The ER took part in 2 workshops, attended over 30 academic presentations and talks and participated in over 50 reading groups or lab meetings at the McDonald Institute.
Throughout the project the ER significantly expanded her research network within Europe and established new colleagues and collaborators within the University of Cambridge, the UK, Europe, the US and Canada.