The Neolithic Revolution in Spain

在国家科学基金会的支持下，迈克尔·巴顿博士将在西班牙东部的阿利坎特地区进行探索性考古研究。有证据表明，在6500年至7500年前，人类发生了重大转变，种植农作物和放牧动物取代了狩猎和采集的生活方式。然而，现有的资料仅限于对少数洞穴和岩石掩体的考古发掘，并没有发现和挖掘任何定居点。在一个更大项目的第一阶段，巴顿博士和他的合作者将在三个河谷进行调查，试图找到这种现象。将采用随机抽样和定向调查相结合的方法，以最大限度地增加发现的地点数量，并了解它们在整个景观中的分布。所有地点都将进行记录，并回收选定的材料。这些数据将为规划今后的工作提供依据。新石器时代革命——植物和动物的驯化——构成了人类文化发展的一次重大革命，为复杂社会的兴起铺平了道路。虽然许多考古学的注意力集中在驯化发生的“核心”或“核”地区，但对其传播到其他地区的了解相对较少。存在两种相互竞争的模式来解释近东农业是如何进入欧洲的。一组人认为，性状的传播伴随着大规模的人口流动，使用新技术的人从近东搬到了欧洲。另一些人则认为，变化主要是由于思想和特征的传播，而不是由于人们自己，原来的人口只是采用和适应了一种新的生活方式。巴顿博士将在他的西班牙研究中解决这个问题，他将把重点放在农业和畜牧业出现前后的遗址上。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。首先，它将增加我们对欧洲史前一段鲜为人知的时期的了解。它将为大量考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它还将揭示重大文化转型是如何发生的。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Michael Barton will conduct exploratory archaeological research in the Alicante region of Eastern Spain. Evidence indicates that between 6,500 and 7,500 years ago, a major transformation took place and cultivation of domestic crops and the herding of animals replaced a hunting and gathering way of life. The data available, however, is limited to archaeological excavations in a small number of caves and rock shelters and no settlements themselves have been located and excavated. In this first stage of a larger project, Dr. Barton and his collaborators will conduct surveys in three river valleys in an attempt to locate such occurrences. A combination of random sampling and directed survey will be employed both to maximize the number of sites discovered and to understand their distribution across the landscape. All sites will be recorded and selected materials recovered. These data will provide the basis to plan future work. The Neolithic Revolution - the domestication of plants and animals - constitutes a major revolution in human cultural development and paved the way for the rise of complex societies. While much archaeological attention has focussed on the "core" or "nuclear" areas where domestication took place, relatively little is understood about its spread to other areas. Two competing models exist to explain how Near Eastern agriculture entered Europe. One group argues that the spread of traits was accompanied by large scale population movements and that people employing new technology moved out of the Near East into Europe. Others believe that change resulted primarily through the spread of ideas and traits rather than people themselves and that the original populations merely adopted and adapted to a new style of life. Dr. Barton will address this issue in his Spanish research and he will focus on sites which date to immediately before and after agriculture and pastoralism appear. This research is important for several reasons. First, it will increase our understanding of a poorly known period in European prehistory. It will provide data of interest to a large number of archaeologists. It will also shed light on how major cultural transformations take place.