Paleoecology and new perspectives on domesticated animals from faunal and stable isotope analyses

Zavodny Emily, Orlando FL

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. John Krigbaum at the University of Florida, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist examining the introduction of domesticated animals (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs) to different ecosystems and their long-term impact on human behavior and environments at local and regional levels. By combining traditional zooarchaeological analyses with innovative archaeometric techniques, this research will contribute to our understanding of the diverse and enduring impacts domestication has had on landscapes, environments, and other species. Data collection will also actively involve and train undergraduate and graduate students. This project develops zooarchaeological, isotopic, and spatial data to evaluate the scale, timing, and continuing effects of local animal husbandry practices from the early Chalcolithic (ca. 4500 BC) until the end of the Iron Age (ca. 35 BC). Zooarchaeological assemblages recovered from Chalcolithic, Bronze, and Iron Age sites will be systematically analyzed. Population profiles of fauna will be reconstructed to help characterize broader regional and temporal trends in livestock and husbandry practices. Some integral aspects of livestock management, such as foddering and penning, are less visible through traditional archaeological methods and isotopic studies of different bodily tissues offer a systematic approach to mapping these diverse activities. In order to examine changes in management strategies at various temporal and spatial scales, dental enamel from different domesticated species will be sampled for carbon, oxygen, strontium (87Sr/86Sr), and lead (20nPb/204Pb) isotopes. Data will then be incorporated into a GIS database to better contextualize regional patterns and test theories about the development of new management systems such as transhumance. Novel animal management strategies are expected to have developed over time, first in response to the unique environment and then to accommodate increasing populations at the start of the Late Bronze Age. Results are expected to inform current debates about biodiversity and conservation globally, and be of interest to all scholars working on issues of resilience, sustainability, and human-environment interaction. 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.