The Ahmarian Tradition of the Upper Paleolithic in Northeastern Sinai

9311368菲利普斯与国家科学基金会支持博士。詹姆斯·菲利普斯和布鲁斯·格拉德费尔特将在埃及西奈沙漠进行一季的考古实地考察。他们将在属于Ahmarian传统的遗址进行小规模的挖掘，这些遗址可以追溯到大约3万到3.5万年前。他们还将关注这一时期的相关沉积物，这些沉积物可能含有花粉和其他残留物，可以进行精细的环境重建。这项工作是一个更大规模项目的第一步，在这个项目中，该小组希望挖掘整个地点，以重建具体活动，并将具体地点的数据纳入更广泛的环境背景。这项研究应该揭示Ahmarian群体所采用的潜在生存策略。阿姆哈拉人可以追溯到近东旧石器时代早期，是最早的文化之一，与解剖学上的现代人有着独特的联系。使它特别有趣的是它有限的面积分布。菲利普斯博士认为，阿姆哈里亚人发展出了生存策略，促进了他们对一个零零散散的马赛克环境的适应，而且群体的规模和迁徙最大化地利用了广泛的有限资源。他希望收集的数据将使他能够检验这一假设。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据。它还将增加我们对人类如何在简单的技术水平上适应边缘半干旱环境的理解。

9311368 Phillips With National Science Foundation support Drs. James Phillips and Bruce Gladfelter will conduct one season of archaeological fieldwork in the Sinai Desert of Egypt. They will carry out small scale excavations at sites which belong to the Ahmarian tradition and date to approximately 30,000 to 35,000 years ago. They will also focus on associated sediments from this period which are likely to contain pollen and other remains permitting fine scale environmental reconstruction. This work constitutes the first step in a larger scale project in which the team hopes to excavate entire sites to reconstruct specific activities and to integrate site specific data into a broader environmental context. The research should reveal the underlying subsistence strategies employed by Ahmarian groups. The Amharian dates to the early Upper Paleolithic period in the Near East and represents one of the earliest cultures uniquely associated with anatomically modern humans. What makes it of particular interest is its limited areal distribution. Dr. Phillips believes that Amharian peoples developed subsistence strategies which facilitated adaptation to what was a patchy mosaic environment and that group size and movement maximized use of a wide range of areal limited resources. The data he wishes to collect will allow him to examine this hypothesis. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will also increase our understanding of how humans at a simple level of technology adapted to a marginal semi-arid environment.