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Assessing the economic role of the founder crops prior to the emergence of agriculture

Descrizione del progetto

Scoprire il posto delle colture fondatrici neolitiche nella società del sud-ovest asiatico

Il farro monococco e dicocco, l’orzo, le lenticchie, i piselli, i ceci, l’ervo e il lino sono noti come le colture fondatrici dell’agricoltura neolitica. L’ipotesi era che fossero alimenti vegetali stabili anche prima della loro coltivazione e domesticazione. Tuttavia, recenti prove archeobotaniche stanno mettendo in discussione questo punto di vista. Focalizzandosi sull’analisi interdisciplinare di un tipo di artefatto ancora poco conosciuto, i resti conservati di alimenti vegetali preparati, il progetto Founders, finanziato dall’UE, determinerà il ruolo che le specie fondatrici hanno svolto prima dell’agricoltura, contribuendo così alla nostra comprensione dei fattori che hanno innescato il processo di domesticazione delle piante nel sud-ovest asiatico.

Obiettivo

Between 10.7 and 10.2 ka cal. BP a process culminated in southwest Asia that marked the path of human history: the domestication of plants. A group of eight species including wild cereals, pulses and flax become the “founder crops” of Neolithic agriculture, revolutionizing our economy and subsistence for the time to come. But why were these species domesticated and not others? It has often been assumed that these species were staples, and the increasing need to procure more of these daily foods eventually triggered their cultivation, and domestication. However, recent archaeobotanical evidence is starting to challenge this long-held view. Building on eight of the richest and most iconic Natufian hunter-gatherer and Pre-Pottery Neolithic farming sites in SWA (14.6-10.2 ka cal. BP), this project seeks to test the hypothesis that the Neolithic “founder crops” were also staples before the emergence of agriculture. Any deviation from this view will revolutionise our understanding of the factors that triggered the process of plant domestication in SWA. To provide fresh perspectives, the work will focus on one of the most innovative, yet understudied, frontiers of archaeological research: the analyses of charred food remains (CFR). The fellow will receive training on the analyses of CFR, and pioneer an inter-disciplinary approach based on state-of-the-art archaeobotanical and biomolecular techniques, ethnobotany and experimental archaeology. In turn, she will transfer her world-class expertise in hunter-gatherer plant subsistence and archaeobotany and expand the analyses of CFR to periods and regions not previously explored by the host, as well as to foster new collaborations with academic (secondments) and non-academic partners (gastronomic faculties and haute chefs). All together, this project guarantees the two-way transfer of knowledge and represents a solid investment of funds from which the fellow, the host institutions and the European society will largely benefit.

Campo scientifico (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifica i progetti con EuroSciVoc, una tassonomia multilingue dei campi scientifici, attraverso un processo semi-automatico basato su tecniche NLP.

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Coordinatore

MUSEUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 196 707,84
Indirizzo
RUE CUVIER 57
75005 Paris
Francia

Mostra sulla mappa

Regione
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Tipo di attività
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Collegamenti
Costo totale
€ 196 707,84