Late Pleistocene Prehistory of the Hatay, Turkey

土耳其哈塔伊人的更新世晚期史前史

• 批准号: 9804722
• 负责人: Steven Kuhn
• 金额: $ 8.15万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-06-15 至 2001-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9804722&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Late; Pleistocene; Prehistory; Hatay; Turkey

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Steven Kuhn and Mary Stiner will conduct two field seasons of research at three archaeological sites located in the Hatay region of Turkey. Because of its position near the Syrian border, the sites are situated in an important transition zone at the edge of the Middle East. Work by prior excavators, as well as preliminary research at these sites by Kuhn and Stiner indicates that all three contain long sequences of Upper Paleolithic material and that the earliest levels likely exceed 40,000 years in age. This makes them of great anthropological significance. In Europe at approximately 40,000 years ago an important biological and cultural change took place when anatomically modern humans succeeded Neanderthal peoples and an Upper Paleolithic technology characterized by a different more function specific stone tool technology, bone tools and art replaced a more general technological adaptation. In Europe, where archaeological data are abundant, it is fairly clear that replacement rather than in situ development took place. However the point of origin for the Upper Paleolithic industries is unknown and the underlying process which led to their emergence is not understood. Anatomically modern humans are present in the Near East prior to their appearance in Europe and paleoanthropologists have thus focused their attention on this area. It is this fact together with the early dates and presence of bone tools which make the Hatay sites so interesting. Because stratigraphic data indicate that they document long periods of time, it is possible to consider them from the perspective of development as well or origins. The research team will conduct preliminary stratigraphic excavations. They will collect and analyze both the lithic and faunal remains and collect samples for radiometric dating. On this basis a longer term project is planned.

在国家科学基金会的支持下。史蒂文·库恩和玛丽·斯蒂纳将在土耳其哈塔伊地区的三个考古遗址进行两个实地研究。由于其位置靠近叙利亚边境，这些地点位于中东边缘的重要过渡地带。先前挖掘机的工作以及库恩和斯蒂纳对这些遗址的初步研究表明，所有三个遗址都含有旧石器时代晚期材料的长序列，并且最早的水平可能超过 40,000 年。这使得它们具有重大的人类学意义。大约四万年前，欧洲发生了一场重要的生物和文化变革，当时解剖学上的现代人类继承了尼安德特人，旧石器时代晚期的技术以不同的、功能更具体的石器技术、骨器和艺术为特征，取代了更普遍的技术适应。在考古数据丰富的欧洲，很明显发生的是更替而不是原地开发。然而，旧石器时代晚期工业的起源尚不清楚，导致其出现的基本过程也不为人所知。从解剖学上来说，现代人类在欧洲出现之前就已经出现在近东，因此古人类学家将注意力集中在这一地区。正是这一事实，加上早期的年代和骨器的存在，使得哈塔伊遗址如此有趣。由于地层数据表明它们记录了很长一段时间，因此也可以从发展或起源的角度来考虑它们。 研究小组将进行初步地层发掘。他们将收集和分析石器和动物遗骸，并收集样本进行放射性测年。在此基础上规划了一个长期项目。