Dissertation Research: The Effects of Raw Material and Land Use Patterns of Lithic Assemblage Variability in the Acheulean at Olorgesailie, Kenya

在斯坦利·安布罗斯博士的指导下，迈克尔·诺尔先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将分析从位于肯尼亚南部裂谷的Olorgesailie考古遗址发现的石器。该遗址的时间跨度约为90万年至60万年前，大量出土的考古材料样本代表了直立人的阿舍利文化。第一位在Olorgesailie进行系统研究的考古学家格林·艾萨克博士指出，在该遗址的不同区域发现的集合体差异很大，但它们无论是在空间上还是在时间上都没有显示出有规律的变化。这种变化似乎是随机的，没有可辨别的原因，因此反映了现代人不具有的思维模式。诺尔将重新评估这一假设。他指出，和艾萨克博士一样，石器是由各种各样的原材料制成的，有些比另一些更容易剥落。他认为，随着时间的推移，这些材料的可用性不断变化，以及石头本身的物理限制，可能在很大程度上解释了观察到的差异。为了进行这项工作，诺尔将首先确定原材料产地，并确定它们在地质上暴露的时间间隔。然后，他将进行一系列剥落实验和工程分析，以阐明剥落特性。特别是，他希望了解某些类型的材料是否比其他类型的材料更容易制成工具。最后，他将检查考古组合，并试图根据这些因素解释观察到的变化。考古学家希望了解原始人行为是如何随着时间的推移而变化和发展的。虽然许多阿舍利时代的遗址已经被挖掘出来，尽管这些人的行为显然与他们的现代同行不同，但事实证明，很难洞察他们的思维过程。由于阿舍利石块在东半球广泛分布，它们为这项研究提供了最好的数据来源，诺尔先生开发了一种有望实现这一目标的技术。他的工作成果将会引起许多人类学家的兴趣。该项目还将帮助培养一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Stanley Ambrose, Mr. Michael Noll will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will analyze stone tools recovered from the archaeological site of Olorgesailie which is located in the southern Kenya Rift Valley. The site spans a period of from ca. 900,000 to 600,000 years ago and the large and well excavated samples of archaeological materials are representative of the Acheulean culture of Homo erectus. Dr. Glynn Isaac, the first archaeologist to conduct systematic research at Olorgesailie noted that that the assemblages recovered from different areas of the site varied significantly from each other but that they displayed no patterned change over either space or time. The variation seemed to be random with no discernible cause and reflected, therefore, patterns of thought uncharacteristic of modern humans. Mr. Noll will re-evaluate this hypothesis. He notes, as did Dr. Isaac, that the stone tools are fashioned from a wide variety of raw materials, some more amenable to flaking than others and he believes that changing availability of these materials over time and the physical constraints of the stones themselves may, to a large extent, explain the variation observed. To conduct this work, Mr. Noll will first locate raw material sites and determine the time intervals when they were geologically exposed. He will then conduct a series of flaking experiments and engineering analyses to elucidate flaking properties. In particular he wishes to learn whether some types of materials are more easily fashioned into tools than others. Finally he will examine the archaeological assemblages and attempt to explain observed variation in light of these factors. Archaeologists wish to understand how hominid behavior changed and developed over time. While many Acheulean period sites have been excavated, and while it is evident that these people acted differently than their modern day counterparts, it has proven very difficult to gain insight into their thought processes. Because Acheulean lithics are widespread across the Old World, they provide the best source of data for such a study and Mr. Noll has developed a technique which hopefully will accomplish this goal. The results of his work will be of interest to many anthropologists. The project will also assist in training a promising young scientist.