Middle Paleolithic Landscape Use in the High Desert of Middle Egypt

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Deborah Olszewski博士将带领考古学家和地质学家团队开展一个为期两年的项目，对阿比多斯(埃及中部)以西的高沙漠景观形成过程进行考古调查和研究，重点是上更新世早期的材料。这是一个重要的研究领域，因为正是在这段时间(大约10万年前)，第一批解剖学上的现代人可能离开了撒哈拉以南的非洲，去殖民旧世界的其他地方，尼罗河走廊代表了一条，而且很可能是发生这种扩散的路线。虽然这项研究的目的不是记录这种传播，但该项目将提供有关这些景观在这段时间内被利用的方式的新的重要数据。这是理解现代人传播的关键一步，也是这个项目的主要智力价值所在。之前在埃及中部高沙漠地区的研究几乎不存在，已经完成的有限调查也没有系统化。然而，这个团队在那里的初步工作表明，它具有相当大的考古潜力。在他们开发的方法的基础上，由个人组成的团队将详细记录文物发生的情况，并收集和分析那里发现的石器。对高沙漠景观演变的研究将包括对排水模式和形式的分析，以更好地了解在过去50万年前改变高原表面的过程。该项目的基本目标包括收集研究区内分层洞穴、避难所和第四纪泉水碳酸盐的古气候和年代学数据；更全面地了解高沙漠地区现有的石器技术。最终目标是重建埃及中部高地沙漠的景观利用，包括测试其使用与尼罗河谷财产的两种模型。就其更广泛的影响而言，该项目的结果不仅适用于研究地区，还将填补我们对埃及旧石器时代发生的重大空白，迄今为止，埃及旧石器时代的发生主要集中在绿洲、尼罗河流域本身和东部山区。此外，它还将建立对一般考古景观研究和景观形成及其对遗址形成的影响有用的方法。它还将为许多研究生和本科生提供实地培训，并通过维护项目网站(www.oldstoneage.com)，在可以理解的情况下向普通公众提供工作成果。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Deborah Olszewski will lead a team of archaeologists and geologists on a two-year project of archaeological survey and study of landscape formation processes of the high desert west of Abydos (Middle Egypt), focusing primarily on the materials from the early Upper Pleistocene. This is an important area of research, since it is during this time (ca. 100,000 years ago) that the first anatomically modern humans presumably left subSaharan Africa to colonize the rest of the Old World, and the Nile corridor represents one, and quite probably the, route by which this dispersal took place. While the goal of this research is not to document that spread, this project will provide new and important data on the ways in which these landscapes were used during that time interval. This is a crucial step in understanding the spread of modern humans, and one that forms the primary intellectual merit of this project.Prior research in the high desert of Middle Egypt is virtually non-existent, and the limited surveys that have been done have not been systematic. However, preliminary work there by this team has shown that it has considerable archaeological potential. Building on a methodology developed by them, teams of individuals will make detailed records of artifact occurrences and collect and analyze the stone tools found there. Study of landscape evolution in the high desert will include analyses of drainage pattern and form in order to better understand the processes that have altered the plateau surface over the last 500,000 years ago. The fundamental goals of this project include collection of paleoclimatic and chronological data available at stratified caves, rockshelters, and Quaternary spring carbonates located in the study area; and development of a more comprehensive understanding of the stone tool technology present in the high desert. The ultimate goal is to reconstruct landscape use in the Middle Egyptian high desert, including the testing of two models of its use vs. that of the Nile Valley proper.In terms of its broader impacts, the results of this project will be applicable not only to the study area, but will also fill in major gaps to our understanding of the Paleolithic occurrences of Egypt, which heretofore have been concentrated on oases, the Nile valley proper, and in the mountain areas to the east. Moreover, it will build on methodologies that are of use to archaeological landscape studies in general and landscape formation and its effects on site formation. It will also provide field training for many graduate and undergraduate students, and provide results of the work to the lay public, in a context that is understandable, through the maintenance of the project website (www.oldstoneage.com).