This project investigates the roots of the forager-producer socioeconomic transition at the site of Asikli Houk in Central Anatolia (Turkey). This mound site is located in the northern arc of the "Fertile Crescent", the Old World region that gave rise to the first farming and herding cultures. The basal cultural layers of the mound exceed 8200 cal BC, and they present a rare opportunity to examine the ecological and social substrates from which village economies arose out of a hunter-gatherer heritage. Led by Prof. Mary Stiner from the University of Arizona, the study will last 3 years and is nested within a larger international excavation and conservation effort overseen by Prof. M. Ozbasaran of Istanbul University, Turkey.
The research program integrates zooarchaeological, geoarchaeological (including micromorphological), and radiocarbon dating methods to address a common set of questions. Of great interest is the ecological and behavioral background of incipient sheep and goat domestication as hypothesized strategies for enhancing meat security and responses to social competition. The zooarchaeological part of the study considers possible evidence for harvesting pressure on wild animal populations (sheep, goats, deer & wild cattle), changes in dietary breadth, intensified carcass processing such as grease extraction, and possible evidence for corraling of animals on site. The econimic evidence will be used as the standard against which anomalous (less explicitly practical) patterns of animal use can be guaged, such as those that may relate to social display or conspicuous consumption.
Another goal of the study is to understand how some or all of the consumer behaviors listed above may have contributed to shifts in trophic level and energy capture from the environment at the end of the Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene. In addition to dating the 2 m of cultural deposits, an analyses of biomineralized Celtis endocarps will be conducted to obtain background information on local precipitation during the periods of occupation.
The geoarchaeological component of the research program is crucial for determining the functions of mudbrick structures on the site and the kinds of activities conducted on prepared floor and natural ground surfaces. Evidence for animal captivity, hypothesized for wild sheep and goat, is expected to include microscopic dung remnants inside enclosures. Preliminary tests indicate that traces of dung are present in the younger layers of the site, and the contents of the earliest layers are unknown. A pilot geological sampling study will also be conducted in the surrounding region in anticipation of future strontium isotope work on ungulate teeth. The latter effort is important to establishing the geographic areas where animals were hunted as opposed to those which may have been held captive on site.
The proposed research is interdisciplinary, and its components are bound together by close conceptual and technical links. The issues of collections access, sample suitability, and available infrastructure have been worked-out, greatly increasing the chances for successful completion of the study. The research builds on existing approaches but is also distinct in its emphasis on an integrated model of social and economic valuations of meat resources. In addition to its scientific contributions, the research program contributes substantively to the development of synergistic professional exchanges between Turkish and American researchers, on the excavation and through two workshops to be held at the University of Arizona.
The research will generate unique data on one of the most remarkable periods in human evolution. The forager-producer transition marks a profound restructuring of human socioeconomics, demographic potential, and relationships with nature. The Aşıklı Höyük stratigraphic series is sufficiently detailed and continuous to examine the conditions from which domestic ungulates and ownership evolved. Because the sedimentary layers and faunas targeted by this study push the evolutionary chronology of Central Anatolia back into a poorly known period, the results will enhance the value of existing data sets in the region. Not all benefits to come from this study concern the past: any success in understanding the underlying processes of the forager-producer transition can also expose important lessons in conservation and management for the present and future of humans in natural systems.
