Dissertation Research: Aurignacian Lithic Economy in the Vezere Valley

在Randall White博士的指导下，Brooke Blades先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将研究法国机构收藏的三件考古藏品，这些藏品可归因于法国西南部维泽尔山谷的奥里尼亚纪文化。这些材料都是在年代确定的地点经过精心控制的发掘，跨越了这些早期现代人居住在欧洲和近东的主要时间间隔。布雷兹先生将进行几项研究。首先，他将研究这些工具的制造和最终成型的技术。他特别感兴趣的是原材料的利用强度和使用效率。其次，基于视觉分析，他将尝试将原材料（主要是燧石）与起源来源相匹配，并以此方式重建史前运动的模式和程度。最后，与密苏里大学的研究人员合作，他将获得一个亚系列的微量元素数据，以表征来源区域，并将出土文物与之进行化学匹配。布雷兹先生工作的目标是了解奥里尼亚西亚人的生存策略。在奥里尼亚人占领西欧的几千年里，冰川进退，气候发生了巨大变化。这些变化是通过古环境记录重建的，布雷兹博士希望了解奥日尼亚期的生存和范围模式是如何相应变化的。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。Aurignacians是欧洲最早的解剖学上的现代人，这项工作将为他们的文化能力和策略提供新的线索。因此，它设定了一个基准，用以判断以后的成就。这项工作还增加了我们对人与环境相互作用的理解，并将展示人们如何使用相对简单的技术来适应快速而显著变化的环境。最后，该项目将有助于培养一名有前途的年轻科学家。＊＊＊

9311880 White Under the direction of Dr. Randall White, Mr. Brooke Blades will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will study three archaeological collections which are housed in French institutions and are attributable to the Aurignacian culture of Vezere Valley in Southwest France. These materials are all from carefully controlled excavations at well dated sites and span the major interval when these early modern humans inhabited Europe and the Near East. Mr. Blades will conduct several studies. First he will examine the technologies by which these tools were produced and shaped to produce their final form. In particular he is interested in the intensity of utilization of raw material and the efficiency with which it was used. Secondly, based on visual analysis he will attempt to match the raw material - mostly flint - to the source of origin and in this way reconstruct patterns and extent of prehistoric movement. Finally, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Missouri, he will obtain trace element data on one subseries to characterize source areas and chemically match excavated artifacts to them. The goal of Mr. Blades work is to understand the subsistence strategies practiced by Aurignacian peoples. During the millennia when the Aurignaican occupied Western Europe, glaciers advanced and retreated and climate changed dramatically. These shifts have been reconstructed through the paleoenvironmental record and Dr. Blades wishes to understand how Aurignacian subsistence and ranging patterns varied accordingly. This research is important for several reasons. The Aurignacians are the earliest anatomically modern people in Europe and this work will shed new light on their cultural competence and strategies. It therefore sets a baseline against which later accomplishments can be judged. The work also increases our understanding of human- environment interactions and will show how people with relatively simple technologies adapted to a rapidly and markedly changing environment. Finally the project will contribute to the training of a promising young scientist. ***