H2020Индивидуална стипендия2022–2024

CroProLITE · Crop Production in the Levant and International Trade Exchange: investigating coprolites and crop plant remains from the 1st millennium CE Negev Highlands and Aravah Valley

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 224 934 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Растителни остатъци и окаменели изпражнения от животни в пустините Негев и Арава разкриват как са се разпространявали култури като патладжана. Анализът помага да се разбере как се е променяло земеделието и диетата на хората в Близкия изток през първото хилядолетие.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Crop Production in the Levant and International Trade Exchange: investigating coprolites and crop plant remains from the 1st millennium CE Negev Highlands and Aravah Valley

Long-term historical processes of plant domestication and diffusion have shaped global mosaics of contemporary crop cultivation and consumption. While archaeological research on these processes has largely focused on the prehistoric origins and the spread of agriculture, later developments in agrarian history have had no lesser impact and are essential for understanding the long-term history and evolution of agricultural crops. This research develops new approaches to studying the transformative developments of agriculture in the first millennium CE through a study of plant remains and herbivore dung from archaeological sites in the Negev-Aravah. Results of this research indicate that the 1st c. BCE to the 4th c. CE marked a period of unprecedented crop diffusion in the Southern Levant – a phenomenon coined in project publications as “Roman Agricultural Diffusion” (RAD). In the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, this new agricultural diversity becomes evident in Negev desert settlements, along with at least one crop species first introduced in the Early Islamic period: the aubergine. The latter represents a component of the “Islamic Green Revolution” (IGR). Considering the IGR and RAD together, the first millennium CE saw more new contributions to agricultural diversity than any previous millennium – and this appears to be the case throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean. However, in the Negev at least, none of the first millennium introductions are well-represented in archaeobotanical assemblages. This suggests that they did not quickly change local diets or landscapes, and supports a gradualist model for agricultural change over the last 10,000 years. The CroProLITE project also made contributions to multi-proxy coprolite analysis—particularly of herbivore faecal pellets found at Negev desert sites. Project pilot studies demonstrated the value of micro-CT scanning as a screening technique for macroremain preservation, and of ancient DNA as an important source for dietary reconstruction. This complements previous and ongoing analyses of archaeobotanical proxies including seeds, pollen and phytoliths. An additional pilot study demonstrated the reliability of dung pellet exterior shavings for radiocarbon dating, making it possible to use an otherwise discarded source of contaminants. This will improve multi-proxy workflows to better unpack these rare time capsules of past economies and ecologies.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

CroProLITE aims to evaluate the Islamic Green Revolution (IGR) thesis–involving crop introduction from eastern and central Asia to the Mediterranean by Early Islamic empires–through a microregional comparative study of 1st millennium CE agropastoral change. It applies archaeobotanical and biomolecular methods to numerous well-preserved plant macrofossils and herbivore dung pellets from rubbish dumps at nine Roman-Early Islamic trading sites in the Aravah valley on the southern border of modern Israel-Jordan and the adjacent Negev Highlands. Some sites are associated with Early Islamic agrotechnological introduction of qanat irrigation, indicating likely Early Islamic crop introduction there. Capitalizing on similarity of archaeological context alongside dissimilarity of historic-economic context, the comparative method will be applied to these regions and periods. To identify seasonal agropastoral rhythms, an extensive and innovative multi-proxy methodological study will analyse contents of ancient dung pellets from the sites. New datasets generated from plant remains and coprolites will allow synthesis of agropastoral developments at seasonal to millennial scales and framing of findings in terms of ancient economic history and Mediterranean deep history. Lessons on agricultural continuity and change from the Negev-Aravah in the face of first millennium CE global climate change, plague and cultural conflict hold promise for improved understanding of historical effects of environmental stressors. In unearthing such lessons, CroProLITE will contribute to long-term environmental risk assessment and reflection on our own society’s future, offering a model for environmental humanities research.Host supervisor and leading palaeoproteomics scholar Matthew Collins will guide biomolecular archaeology training through coprolite analysis, alongside multiple mentors for ancient economic history and Mediterranean history-archaeology, including career mentor Cyprian Broodbank.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE · CAMBRIDGEКоординаторОбединеното кралство