Project Details
Description
The emergence of agriculture, a key transformational event in human history, seems to have occurred
significantly later in island SE Asia than surrounding regions. However, the early stages of agriculture may be
archaeologically ‘invisible’ in the tropics due to simple material culture and housing. We propose to use the
recent evolutionary history of agricultural rodent pests, all of which emerged in situ from among a native
rodent fauna, as a proxy for the origins and spread of agriculture, and its subsequent intensification. We will
use phylogeography and population genetics to infer the history of contemporary rodent populations,
combined with archaeozoological and ancient DNA analyses of prehistoric samples to test our inferences.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 30/06/14 → 30/06/17 |
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