Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Micoquian, Quina, and MTA: Revisiting the Bifacial/Unifacial Dichotomy in European Middle Paleolithic Systematics

本文将分析法国、德国和乌克兰12个博物馆收藏的旧石器时代中期石器的形状变化。这些代表了先前描述的三种技术综合体，它们在地理上和时间上广泛分布于欧洲大陆（奎纳莫斯特人，阿舍利传统的莫斯特人，和米科金人），可以被视为包含了尼安德特人的大部分技术知识。该项目试图将生物科学的统计技术应用于石器的形态变化，并将尝试根据对石器生产的描述性方法测试以前分类的有效性，并从重新磨刀模式的数学分类中得出结论。更具体地说，该项目建议测试一个假设，即以生产双面工具为特征的行业与以单面片状工具为主导的行业在重新锐化模式上有所不同。目前认为，双面/单面二分法反映了上述技术各自制造者之间重要的认知和文化差异。因此，该项目将根据直接索引人类行为的共同过程（在本例中是工具维护）来比较两种技术上独立的组合类。通过提出形态类型代表了重复使用的连续阶段，重新锐化被用来解释旧石器时代、古印第安和澳大利亚背景下某些类别工具的可变性。由于对组合多样性的理解高度依赖于我们对来自不同背景和地区的石器收藏品进行有意义的比较和分类的能力，因此开发一种交叉技术类型学、时间顺序、地理和地貌学分类的方法非常重要。特别是，这个项目试图建立在被研究的行业中有记录的重新锐化模式的基础上，并根据单个石器的度量属性与减小尺寸之间的几何关系来分析它们。这些属性将在数字数据采集技术的帮助下收集，例如图像分析和使用3-D数字化仪，这两种技术对考古研究都是新的。然后，这些数据将根据生物学和古生物学中建立的协议进行多变量异速测量分析。总而言之，该项目将扩大再锐化理论的范围，超越其作为传统类型学方法的反论证。此外，旧石器时代中期的技术多样性传统上被认为对解释与创新和知识的社会传播有关的认知进化具有影响。除了为论文学生提供经验和培训外，这项工作将作为几篇文章和专著的起点。新的定量技术是为比较目的而设计的，专门针对可复制性。除了这项研究对欧洲旧石器时代中期的理论意义之外，所采用的方法将有助于建立一个协议，可以被其他人用来描述和分析来自其他时期和地理区域的石器工具。以期刊形式发表研究结果，并通过网站和CD-ROM公布数据，应鼓励进一步开展这类项目。

This dissertation will analyze size-dependent shape changes in stone tools from 12 museum collections from Middle Paleolithic contexts in France, Germany, and Ukraine. These represent three previously described techno-complexes that have a geographically and temporally widespread distribution on the European continent (the Quina Mousterian, the Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition, and the Micoquian), and can be seen as encompassing much of the technological know-how of Neandertals. This project seeks to apply statistical techniques from the biological sciences to morphological variation in stone tools, and will attempt to test the validity of previous classifications based on descriptive approaches to stone tool production with conclusions derived from a mathematical classification of resharpening patterns. More specifically, the project proposes to test the hypothesis that industries characterized by the production of bifacial tools differ in resharpening patterns from ones where unifacial flake-tools are dominant. The bifacial/unifacial dichotomy is currently believed to reflect important cognitive and cultural differences between the respective makers of the said technologies. Thus, the project will compare two technologically separate classes of assemblages according to a common process that directly indexes human behavior, in this case tool maintenance. Resharpening has been used to explain variability in certain classes of tools within Paleolithic, Paleoindian, and Australian contexts, by proposing that morphological types represent stages in a continuum of re-use. Since understanding assemblage diversity is highly dependent on our ability to meaningfully compare and classify collections of stone tools from different contexts and regions, developing a methodology that cross-cuts techno-typological, chronological, geographic, and taphonomic categories is important. In particular, this project attempts to build upon documented resharpening patterns in the studied industries and analyze them in terms of the geometric relationships between metric attributes of individual stone tools and decreasing size. These attributes will be collected with the aid of digital data acquisition techniques such as image analysis and the use of a 3-D digitizer, both of which are new to archaeological studies. The data will then be subjected to an analysis of multivariate allometry following protocols established in biology and paleontology. Altogether, this project will expand the scope of the theory of resharpening beyond its usage as a counter-argument to traditional typological approaches. Furthermore, technological diversity in the Middle Paleolithic has been traditionally viewed as having implications for interpreting cognitive evolution in relation to innovation and the social transmission of knowledge. In addition to providing experience and training for the dissertation student this work will serve as the starting point for several articles and a monograph. The new quantitative techniques are designed for comparative purposes and specifically aimed at replicability. Beyond the theoretical implications of this study for the European Middle Paleolithic, the approach taken will help to establish a protocol that can be used by others to describe and analyze stone tools from other time periods and geographic regions. The publication of the results in journal format and of the data via a web site and a CD-ROM should encourage further projects of this nature.