Excavation at Pech de l'Aze IV (Dordogne, France)

Pech de lAze IV 的发掘（法国多尔多涅省）

• 批准号: 0073856
• 负责人: Harold Dibble
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-06-01 至 2008-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0073856&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Excavation; Pech; de; Aze; IV

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Harold Dibble and Shannon McPherron will conduct four seasons of archaeological excavation and analysis at the site of Pech de l'Aze IV located in the Dordogne region of France. First excavated by the (now deceased) French archaeologist, Francois Bordes, the site has played a major role in controversies surrounding the development of human culture in Western Europe. The site contains multiple levels of Mousterian materials which include abundant lithic and faunal remains. Attributable to Neanderthal people, the site documents behavioral variation over a significant period of the Upper Pleistocene and numerous researchers have attempted to interpret this variability in terms of tribal movement, activity differentiation and directional change over time. This debate is important because of divergent scientific views on the basic cognitive abilities, the social organization and ultimately the fate of European Neanderthal peoples. While the Bordes' excavated material is massive in amount and well documented - an excavation of similar scale today would likely be prohibitively expensive today - relevant stratigraphic and environmental data were not collected. Drs. Dibble and McPherron have analyzed the excavated materials and shall now return to the site to collect the necessary remaining information. Through carefully controlled excavations, they will collect fresh dating samples, undertake full sedimentological and geophysical studies, asses site formation processes and possible post-depositional disturbances and also evaluate the nature and degree of possible excavator bias during recovery. They will use the information collected not only to provide a richer contextual setting for the original materials but also to answer specific research questions: what is the nature of Mousterian assemblage variability and what factors explain the changes observed over time? What is the role of raw materials on Mousterian assemblage variability? What is the nature of Mousterian subsistence economy?This research will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and shed light on the early prehistory of Europe.

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，哈罗德·迪布尔博士和香农·麦克弗森博士将在法国多尔多涅地区的Pech de l 'Aze IV遗址进行四季的考古挖掘和分析。该遗址由法国考古学家弗朗索瓦·博德斯（Francois Bordes）（现已去世）首次发掘，在围绕西欧人类文化发展的争议中发挥了重要作用。该遗址包含多个层次的莫斯特时期的材料，其中包括丰富的石器和动物遗迹。由于尼安德特人，该网站记录了上更新世一个重要时期的行为变化，许多研究人员试图解释这种变化，部落运动，活动分化和方向变化。这场辩论之所以重要，是因为对基本认知能力、社会组织以及最终欧洲尼安德特人的命运，科学界存在分歧。虽然博德斯挖掘的材料数量巨大，而且有很好的记录--今天类似规模的挖掘可能会昂贵得令人望而却步--但没有收集到相关的地层和环境数据。Dibble和McPherron博士已经分析了挖掘出的材料，现在应该返回现场收集必要的剩余信息。通过精心控制的挖掘，他们将收集新的测年样本，进行全面的沉积学和地球物理研究，评估场地形成过程和可能的沉积后扰动，并评估挖掘机在恢复期间可能出现的偏差的性质和程度。他们将使用收集到的信息，不仅为原始材料提供更丰富的背景设置，而且还回答了具体的研究问题：什么是Mousterian组合变异性的性质，以及什么因素解释了随着时间的推移观察到的变化？原材料对Mousterian组合变异性的作用是什么？什么是莫斯特生存经济的本质？这项研究将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据，并阐明欧洲早期的史前史。