The Application of High Resolution Excavation in Reconstructing Early Technologies

高分辨率挖掘在重建早期技术中的应用

• 批准号: 1755237
• 负责人: Deborah Olszewski
• 金额: $ 16.19万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-03-15 至 2023-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1755237&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Application; Resolution; Excavation; Reconstructing; Early

Dr. Harold Dibble, of the University of Pennsylvania, along with colleagues from the US, Canada, and Europe, will investigate the use of fire by European Neandertals at 100,000 years ago. This research will be conducted at the French Paleolithic site of Pech de l'Azé IV. While evidence for human use of fire appears to extend back to around 1 million years ago, several lines of evidence suggest that fire was not used regularly until much later, at around 300,000 to 400,000 years ago. More recent evidence shows that the frequency of fire use, at least for some Neandertal groups, was not constant, however, and that it actually decreased during colder periods of the Pleistocene. Perhaps this is because they lacked the ability to start fires themselves and thus had to acquire it from natural wildfires, which were more prevalent during warmer periods. Nonetheless, this pattern implies that fire for warmth or cooking was not necessary for their survival. This, in turn, raises the question of exactly how did they use fire when it was available. The research is significant because it examines the fundamental relationship between technology and human behavior and sets it into a deep chronological context.The research to be conducted at Pech de l'Azé IV is designed to obtain the maximum amount of information concerning the numerous hearth features at the site. Much of this information comes from newly-developed analytical techniques that can determine from the sediment and associated artifacts the temperatures of ancient fires and the fuels used, as well as being able to detect the presence of organic materials. In order to apply these methods, this project will significantly enhance the precision and accuracy of current excavation techniques by removing blocks of intact sediment from the site and excavating it under highly controlled techniques in a laboratory setting. This approach, developed specifically for this project, will allow the researchers to identify individual hearths and to establish geochemical, geophysical, and sedimentological signatures of them that reflect how they were used.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.

宾夕法尼亚大学的 Harold Dibble 博士将与来自美国、加拿大和欧洲的同事一起调查 10 万年前欧洲尼安德特人使用火的情况。这项研究将在法国佩赫德旧石器时代遗址进行。虽然人类使用火的证据似乎可以追溯到大约 100 万年前，但一些证据表明，直到很久以后，大约 30 万年前，人们才经常使用火。然而，最近的证据表明，至少对于一些尼安德特人群体来说，使用火的频率并不是恒定的，而且在更新世的寒冷时期，使用火的频率实际上有所下降，也许这是因为他们缺乏使用火的能力。人类自己生火，因此必须从自然野火中获取能量，而自然野火在温暖时期更为普遍，然而，这种模式意味着取暖或烹饪的火对于它们的生存来说并不是必需的。这项研究意义重大，因为它考察了技术与人类行为之间的基本关系，并将其置于深刻的时间顺序背景中。在 Pech de l'Azé IV 进行的研究旨在获得有关该地点众多炉灶特征的最大信息量，其中大部分来自新开发的分析技术，这些技术可以从沉积物和相关文物中确定古代火灾的温度和所使用的燃料。检测有机材料的存在。为了应用这些方法，该项目将通过从现场移除完整的沉积物块并在实验室环境中采用高度控制的技术进行挖掘，显着提高当前挖掘技术的精度和准确性。允许研究人员识别单个炉床，并建立反映其使用方式的地球化学、地球物理和沉积学特征。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持标准。