Late Pleistocene Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations in the Inland Levant: The Wadi Al-Hasa Model (West-Central Jordan)

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Nancy Coinman博士和Deborah Olszewski博士将在约旦西部瓦迪阿尔-哈萨附近高地地区的一系列遗址进行为期两个季节的考古研究。尽管该地区今天由被解剖的泛滥平原组成，但在上一个冰河时代的后期，它包含了一个湖泊和广泛的相关沼泽地，这些沼泽地的大小和形态随着气候的变化而变化。在他们之前在该地区的工作中，Coinman和Olszewski博士定位了大量的考古遗址，这些遗址跨越了大约25,000到12,000年前的时间段，这些构成了他们目前项目的重点。在学生和一些专家的帮助下，调查人员将追求几个目标。他们将收集数据，详细重建随着时间的推移古环境的变化。将寻求有关宏观气候状况、相对湿度状况以及泉水和凝灰岩形成的信息。将确定不同的湖泊水位和相关的湖泊特征。将继续对考古遗址进行调查，并绘制遗址图，以确定不同时期景观上的人口分布。将对过去研究中的几个岩石掩体进行测试，以确定考古沉积的范围和性质，并将在两个过去的工作证实存在深层分层沉积的地点扩大挖掘范围，这些地点的动物遗骸总体保存良好。在此基础上，应该有可能重建人类对急剧变化的环境条件的反应。考古学家希望了解人类社会如何在技术简单的水平上适应并将自己映射到不同的环境中。由于其漫长的史前记录和作为文明摇篮之一的作用，许多研究人员将目光投向了近东，并提出了许多模式。Al-Hasa地区令人感兴趣，不仅因为它保存完好的考古遗迹，还因为初步数据表明，该定居点模式不符合已知的旧世界模式。Coinman和Olszewski设计了另一种在美国西部环境相似地区开发的方法，并希望确定这种方法与Al-Hasa数据的吻合程度。正是在这一时期结束时，近东出现了家养动植物，这项研究也可能揭示人类向固定生活方式的基本过渡。这项研究很重要，因为它将增加我们对人类适应的理解。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并有助于本科生的培训。

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Nancy Coinman and Deborah Olszewski will conduct two seasons of archaeological research at a series of sites located in the upland region of western Jordan in the vicinity of Wadi Al-Hasa. Although the area consists today of dissected floodplain, during the later part of the last ice age it contained a lake and extensive associated marshland which varied in size and configuration as climate changed. During their prior work in the area Drs. Coinman and Olszewski have located a large number of archaeological sites which span the time period between ca. 25,000 to 12,000 years ago and these form the focus of their present project. With the assistance of students and a number of specialists the investigators will pursue several goals. They will collect data to reconstruct in detail the changes in paleoenvironment over time. Information on macro-climatic regimes, relative moisture regimes and spring and tufa formations will be sought. Varying lake levels and associated laucustrine features will be determined. Survey of archaeological sites will be continued and occurrences mapped to determine population distribution on the landscape at different periods of time. Several rockshelters located in past research will be tested to determine the extent and nature of archaeological deposits and excavation will be expanded at two sites where past work has confirmed the presence of deep stratified deposits with good overall preservation of faunal remains. On this basis it should be possible to reconstruct the human response to dramatically changing environmental conditions. Archaeologists wish to understand how human societies at a technologically simple level adapt and map themselves onto a varied environment. Because of the long prehistoric record and its role as one cradle of civilization, many researchers have focused on the Near East and a number of models have been proposed. The Al-Hasa area is interesting not only because of its well preserved archaeological remains but also because preliminary data indicates that the settlement pattern fits no known Old World model. Coinman and Olszewski have devised another approach developed in an environmentally similar region in the Western United States and wish to determine how well this fits the Al-Hasa data. It is at the end of this period that domestic plants and animals appear in the Near East and the research may also shed light on this basic human transition to a settled way of life. This research is important because it will increase our understanding of human adaptation. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and assist in the training of undergraduate students.