Excavations at Abri Castanet

世纪早期，法国教师丹尼斯·佩罗尼（Denis Peyrony）在位于法国多尔多涅地区的岩石庇护所Abri Castanet遗址进行了考古发掘。虽然研究结果只是粗略地发表，但他在那里发现的材料在定义奥里尼亚克工业方面发挥了核心作用，现在被认为是欧洲最古老的旧石器时代晚期文化。尽管它的早期，该网站包含和丰富的艺术品的形式雕刻石灰石块，其中最早的图形表示在欧洲。Peyrony发现了数百个来自大西洋海岸的穿孔贝壳，当时该地点被占领，距离约200公里。Abri Castanet在骨头和鹿角中获得了丰富的工具和武器样本，以及数百个象牙和皂石珠子和刺穿的动物牙齿。这些是人类最早使用的个人装饰品之一。在国家科学基金会的支持下，兰迪白色博士将在该遗址进行一次新的大规模挖掘。虽然Peyrony的工作在当时是开创性的，但它不符合现代标准，例如，大量的石制品已经从他挖掘时移除的背面泥土中恢复。白色博士在他自己的初步实地考察中已经找到并清理了佩罗尼的战壕，并确定了大量完整的存款仍然存在。他还发现，最初的挖掘没有达到基岩和最低的奥里尼亚克水平尚未达到。白色博士将进行大规模挖掘，以恢复文化和动物遗骸。该地点的多个Aurignation职业仍然没有日期，放射性碳样本将被收集。由于要暴露的地区很大，因此有可能解决空间格局问题，并获得关于社会组织的信息。 大约4万年前，在解剖学和行为学上现代人取代了居住在欧洲超过10万年的尼安德特人。人类学家希望了解这些新人类带来了什么样的适应性，使他们能够更有效地适应这种严酷的冰川环境，因此应特别关注这一过程的早期阶段。Abri Castanet很重要，因为它代表了这个时期。虽然许多奥里尼亚克遗址都有加工过的骨头和艺术品，但Abri Castanet在数量和种类上都是独一无二的。白色博士的发掘工作将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据，并为欧洲最早的现代人类提供新的线索。

In the early decades of the twentieth century Denis Peyrony, a French school teacher conducted archaeological excavations at the site of Abri Castanet, a rock shelter located in the Dordogne region of France. Although the results were published in only cursory fashion, the material he found there played a central role in defining the Aurignacian industry, now recognized as the oldest Upper Paleolithic culture in Europe. Despite its early date, the site contained and abundance of art objects in the form of engraved limestone blocks, among the earliest known graphic representations in Europe. Peyrony discovered hundreds of pierced seashells from the Atlantic shore some 200 km distant at the time the site was occupied. Abri Castanet yielded a rich sample of tools and weapons in bone and antler as well as several hundred ivory and soapstone beads and pierced animal teeth. These are among the earliest known personal ornaments employed by humans. With National Science Foundation support Dr. Randy White will undertake a new large scale excavation at the site. Although Peyrony's work was pathbreaking at the time it was conducted, it does not meet modern standards and large numbers of stone artifacts, for example, have been recovered from the back dirt removed during his excavations. During his own preliminary fieldwork Dr. White has located and cleaned the Peyrony's trenches and determined that a significant amount of intact deposit still remains. He has also discovered that the original excavation did not reach bedrock and the lowest Aurignacian levels have not yet been reached. Dr. White will conduct large scale excavation to recover both cultural and faunal remains. The multiple Aurignation occupations at the site remain undated and radiocarbon samples will be collected. Because of the large areas to be exposed, it will be possible to address issues of spatial patterning and to obtain information on social organization. Approximately 40,000 years ago anatomically and behaviorally modern peoples replaced Neanderthals who had inhabited Europe for over 100,000 years. Anthropologists wish to understand what adaptations these new people brought which allowed them to adapt more effectively to this harsh glacial environment and therefore particular attention should be focused on the earliest part of this process. Abri Castanet is important because it represents just this time period. Although many Aurignacian sites contain worked bone and art objects, Abri Castanet is unique both for the number and variety of objects represented. Dr. White's excavations will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and shed new light on the earliest modern human peoples in Europe.