Palaeolithic Pyrotechnology, High Resolution Behavioral Events, and the Neanderthal/Modern Human Question

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，保罗·戈德堡博士和一个由同事组成的国际团队将调查以色列（Kebara, Hayonim）和法国（Pech de l’aze IV）洞穴中旧石器时代中期和旧石器时代晚期沉积物的未受打扰的燃烧特征。该团队汇集了美国，意大利，德国和西班牙的考古学，地质学，矿物学和古植物学专家，以研究尼安德特人和现代人如何建造和使用壁炉。火的使用是人类行为的一个重要方面，有时也会引起争议。许多方法被用来评估燃烧的影响（例如，热释光和磁性，如磁化率、石头的热蚀变和氧化特征），以试图确定燃烧是否发生过，以及燃烧是自然现象还是与人类有关的现象。最近，其他技术被用于提供人造燃烧特征的详细特征，例如燃烧的温度和条件。这些分析研究使用了大量样品，这些样品提供了沉积物整体的平均值。其他关于燃烧特征和烟火技术的研究强调了壁炉在生活空间中的空间位置。对Kebara洞穴燃烧和灰分特征的结构和微观形态学研究表明，它们是在同一地点发生的可识别的个体和重复燃烧事件的产物。因此，它们代表了离散的活动事件，而不是几年或几十年发生的几个事件。该项目的第一个目的是评估使用火的技术方面，作为评估短期燃烧事件的行为意义的手段，主要是在旧石器时代中期和晚期。本研究的第二个目的是发展和完善适当的分析策略，以便最大限度地利用这两个时期与烟火技术有关的信息。通过对燃烧特征的详细检查，以高度的时间和空间分辨率揭示了本研究的知识价值。所有研究人员都将分析通过浸渍完整、未受干扰的特征而制备的相同薄片。这种方法在沉积物的真实空间内保持了燃烧和非燃烧材料的环境完整性。它提供了详细的现场分析数据，并允许在分析的所有燃烧特性之间进行直接比较。利用土壤微观形貌、扫描电子显微镜、红外显微光谱、有机岩石学和植物岩分析燃烧特征，将提供有关达到的温度、燃烧条件和所用燃料的性质（包括其保存状态和收集季节）的信息；所有这些都与人类活动的各个方面有关。在相同的样本上进行这种多方面的研究是以前从未进行过的，它将为旧石器时代的行为提供新的、更准确的观点，特别是对尼安德特人和现代人如何建造和使用壁炉有更深入的了解。这项研究的广泛影响是多方面的。这种类型的详细分析有可能揭示智人与尼安德特人在活动和行为上的差异，为人类进化、适应和生活方式提供更完整的图景。这里开发的结果和方案可以扩展到其他旧石器时代中晚期遗址和旧石器时代晚期遗址的燃烧特征。这一策略将能够对旧石器时代的个别事件和短期活动进行详细的比较，因为旧石器时代保存了火的证据，因此可以对人类历史上重要时期的原始人类行为进行监测。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Paul Goldberg and an international team of colleagues will investigate undisturbed combustion features from Middle Palaeolithic and some Upper Palaeolithic deposits from caves in Israel (Kebara, Hayonim) and France (Pech de l'Aze IV) The team brings together U.S., Italian, German and Spanish specialists in archaeology, geology, mineralogy, and paleobotany to examine how Neanderthals and modern humans constructed and used fireplaces.The use of fire is an important, and sometimes controversial, aspect of human behavior. A number of approaches have been used to evaluate the effects of burning (e.g., thermoluminescent, and magnetic properties, such as magnetic susceptibility, thermal alteration of stones, and oxidation features) in attempting to determine whether burning took place at all, and whether burning was a natural or human-related phenomenon. More recently, other techniques have been used to provide detailed characteristics of human-made combustion features, such as temperature and conditions of burning. These analytical studies have made use of bulk samples that have provided average values for the sediment as a whole. Other studies of combustion features and pyrotechnology have emphasized the spatial placement of fireplaces within a living space. Structural and micromorphological study of combustion and ashy features from Kebara Cave showed that they are products of discernible individual and repeated burning events that took place in the same place. As such, they represent discrete activity episodes, rather than several events that took place over years, or decades. The first aim of this project is to assess the technological aspects of fire use as a means to appraise the behavioral significance of short-term burning events principally during the Middle and the Upper Palaeolithic. The second aim of this study is to develop and refine appropriate analytical strategies in order to maximize the information related to pyrotechnology in both periods.The intellectual merit of this study is revealed by the detailed examination of combustion features with a high degree of temporal and spatial resolution. All researchers will analyze the identical thin sections prepared by impregnating intact, undisturbed features. This approach maintains the contextual integrity of combusted and non-combusted material within the true space of the deposits. It provides detailed, in situ analytical data and allows for direct comparisons among all the combustion features analyzed. The use of soil micromorphology, scanning electron microscopy, Infrared Micro-Spectrometry, organic petrology, and phytolith analysis of the combustion feature will provide information on the temperature reached, the combustion conditions, and the nature of the fuel used including its state of preservation and season of collection; all can be related to aspects of human activity. Such a multifaceted approach performed on the same samples has not been undertaken previously and will provide new and more accurate views of Palaeolithic behavior, specifically, greater insight on how Neanderthals and modern humans constructed and used fireplaces. The broad impacts of this study are several fold. This type of detailed analysis has the potential to reveal differences in activities and behavior between H. sapiens and Neandertals, providing a more complete picture of human evolution, adaptations, and lifestyles. The results and protocols developed here can be expanded to combustion features from other Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites and to those from Lower Palaeolithic sites. The strategy will enable detailed comparisons of individual events and short-term activities throughout the Palaeolithic where evidence of fires is preserved, thus permitting the monitoring of hominid behavior over significant portions of human history.