Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Livestock Management Practices

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

The spread and propagation of domesticated plants and animals by the world’s earliest farming societies restructured landscapes into ecological niches suitable for agriculture. The scale of today’s global agricultural industry has raised legitimate concerns about the carbon footprint of food production, and researchers have sought to explain why and how changes in the scale of these processes occur.

Many debates have focused on increasing population size as a key factor in the intensification of production; but the relationship between population size and intensification is likely more complicated. Archaeological evidence indicates that non-industrial farming economies through the millennia engaged in a range of subsistence strategies at both small and large scales, sometimes pursued in parallel.

Moreover, subsistence farmers make decisions about the level of investment per unit land on the scale of individual field and cropping systems. Therefore, intensification of production may be less a reflection of external pressures such as increasing population size and more directly shaped by how farmers cope with the risk of crop or livestock products falling short of subsistence needs.

Within this broader context, this research will examine how changes in the scale of production and land use can occur through the adoption of innovative technologies that enable increased yields per unit land farmed or livestock raised.

Dairy fermentation was a key innovation that emerged millenia ago. Processed dairy foods such as cheese, yogurt, and butter can be stored for longer than raw milk and more easily transported making them vital resources for minimizing the risk of starvation during times of food scarcity. The earliest evidence for fermentation technology appeared approximately 7,000-years ago and was gradually adopted by small-scale farmers.

These farmers resided in permanent open-air farms where they grew wheat and barley, and herded small numbers of goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs. However, it is unclear how livestock were managed and what, if any, changes followed the adoption of dairy fermentation technology that would have incentivized increased use of milk. This project will use stable isotope analysis of livestock bones and teeth from six archaeological sites to assess change or stasis in animal diet, breeding, and mobility.

The investigators will provide hands-on training in archaeological excavation, zooarchaeological analysis, and preparation of bone and tooth samples in a laboratory setting to undergraduate students at a Hispanic Serving Institution. Student assistants will also have opportunities to coauthor peer-reviewed journal articles and collaborate on conference presentations.

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.