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

本论文将分析来自法国、德国和乌克兰旧石器时代中期的12个博物馆藏品的石器形状随大小的变化。这些代表了三个先前描述的技术复合体，它们在地理和时间上广泛分布在欧洲大陆(奎纳·穆斯特尔人、阿舍利传统的穆斯特人和米科克人)，可以被视为包含了尼安德特人的大部分技术诀窍。该项目寻求将生物科学的统计技术应用于石器的形态变化，并将尝试测试以前的分类的有效性，这些分类基于对石器生产的描述性方法，并从重新磨削模式的数学分类中得出结论。更具体地说，该项目提出了一种假设，即以生产双面工具为特征的行业与以单面薄片工具为主的行业在重磨模式方面存在差异。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的重要认知和文化差异。因此，该项目将根据一个直接索引人类行为的通用过程来比较两种技术上不同的装配类别，在这种情况下是工具维护。重磨被用来解释旧石器时代、旧印度时代和澳大利亚环境中某些类型工具的可变性，提出形态类型代表重复使用的连续体的阶段。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进行有意义的比较和分类的能力，因此开发一种横跨技术类型学、年代学、地理学和矿物学类别的方法是重要的。特别是，这个项目试图建立在所研究的行业中记录的重磨模式，并根据单个石器的公制属性和减小的尺寸之间的几何关系来分析它们。这些属性将借助数字数据获取技术来收集，如图像分析和使用3-D数字化仪，这两种技术对考古学研究都是新的。然后，根据生物学和古生物学中建立的协议，对数据进行多变量异速生长分析。总而言之，这个项目将扩大重磨理论的范围，使其不再被用作对传统类型学方法的反驳。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，这项工作还将作为几篇文章和一部专著的起点。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影响之外，所采取的方法将有助于建立一种协议，可以被其他人用来描述和分析其他时间段和地理区域的石器。以期刊形式发表结果以及通过网站和光盘发布数据，应鼓励开展更多这类性质的项目。

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.