Developing an AMS Radiocarbon Based Chronology for the Predynastic Egyptian Cemetery, N7000, at Naga-ed-Der

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，斯蒂芬·萨维奇博士将从位于上埃及Naga-ed-Der的前埃及墓地N7000中获得大约100个有机样本的放射性碳年代测定。这些材料是本世纪初出土的，现收藏于加州大学伯克利分校的赫斯特博物馆，涵盖的时间范围从公元前2700年到2100年。墓地里有635座坟墓和大约900个墓葬，还有大量的陪葬品，包括陶瓷、编织衣服和食物。样品将在亚利桑那大学AMS实验室进行测年，因此只有少量的材料将被牺牲。尽管埃及的前王朝史前史对于理解埃及帝国的崛起和社会复杂性非常重要，但令人惊讶的是，它的年代却很不准确。传统的方法不是基于放射性碳的绝对年表，而是基于陶瓷风格的相对序列。这个地区墓地里的墓葬最初是在20世纪早期被连载的。人们认为，具有最相似陶瓷的坟墓在时间上联系最密切，通过比较相似程度，可以构建一个序列。在近东的大部分地区，上埃及序列被用来测定地理上分散的遗址的年代，因此它的影响非常广泛。然而，原始和随后的系列化受到质疑，重要的是要及时安全地放置这些陶瓷风格。为了理解变化，考古学家必须确定遗址之间的绝对和相对关系。萨维奇博士的研究将有助于在世界上一个非常重要的时期和地区实现这一目标。研究结果将得到广泛应用。

With support from the National Science Foundation Dr. Stephen Savage will obtain radiocarbon dates on approximately one hundred organic samples from a Predynastic Egyptian cemetery, N7000 located at Naga-ed-Der in Upper Egypt. Excavated in the early part of this century, the materials are curated at the Hearst Museum at the University of California, Berkeley, and cover the time range from ca. 2,700 to 2,100 B.C. The cemetery contains 635 graves and ca. 900 burials as well as numerous grave goods including ceramics, woven clothing and food offerings. Samples will be dated at the University of Arizona AMS laboratory and thus only small amounts of material will be sacrificed.Although the Predynastic prehistory of Egypt is important for understanding the rise of the Egyptian empires and social complexity in general, it is surprisingly poorly dated. Traditional methods are based not on an absolute chronology anchored with radiocarbon but rather on relative seriation of ceramic styles. Gravelots from cemeteries in this region were originally seriated in the early part of the 20th century. It was assumed that graves with the most similar ceramics were most closely associated in time and through a comparison of the degree of similarity a sequence was constructed. Over wide portions of the Near East the Upper Egyptian sequence is used to date geographically dispersed sites and thus its impact is very broad. However the original and subsequent seriations have been questioned and it is important to place these ceramic styles securely in time. To understand change, archaeologists must anchor sites both absolutely and relative to each other. Dr. Savage's research will help to achieve this for a very important time period and region of the world. The results will be widely used.