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

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Stephen Savage博士将从位于上埃及Naga-ed-Der的前王朝埃及公墓N7000获得大约100个有机样本的放射性碳测年。这些材料出土于本世纪初，在加州大学伯克利分校的赫斯特博物馆进行了策展，时间范围从公元前2700年到公元前2100年。该墓地包括635个坟墓和大约900个墓葬，以及许多坟墓物品，包括陶瓷、编织服装和食物供品。样本将在亚利桑那大学AMS实验室进行年代测定，因此只会牺牲少量的材料。尽管埃及的前王朝史前对于了解埃及帝国的崛起和总体上的社会复杂性很重要，但它的年代测定令人惊讶地很糟糕。传统的方法不是基于以放射性碳为基础的绝对年代学，而是基于陶瓷风格的相对系列化。来自这一地区墓地的格拉夫特最初是在20世纪初连载的。假设具有最相似陶瓷的墓穴在时间上最紧密地联系在一起，并通过相似程度的比较来构建序列。在近东的大部分地区，上埃及序列被用来确定地理上分散的地点的年代，因此它的影响非常广泛。然而，最初的和后来的系列受到了质疑，及时安全地放置这些陶瓷样式是很重要的。为了理解变化，考古学家必须确定遗址的绝对和相对位置。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。研究成果将得到广泛应用。

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.