Site Structure at the Abri Castanet

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Randall白色博士和一个国际同事团队将在法国Abri Castanet的34，000年遗址进行为期三年的挖掘，该遗址是了解现代人类及其Aurignacian文化最初扩散到欧亚大陆西部的关键遗址之一。Castanet的发掘提供了有关5万至3万年前现代人从非洲扩散的宝贵信息。在这一时期，尼安德特人和他们的Mousterian文化被身体上的现代人所取代，他们的Aurignacian文化表现出地球上罕见的创新。Abri Castanet是欧洲发现这些新行为的重要遗址之一：雕刻/绘画，骨武器和工具，个人装饰品和异国原材料。Abri Castanet的工作为理解以下问题提供了可靠的数据：1）整个更替范围内的Mousterian/Aurignacian相互作用，2）更替的文化过程，3）相关社会内部运作的差异。白色博士组建的团队由来自6个不同国家的19所大学和实验室的20名研究科学家组成。从2007年到2009年，Castanet挖掘将探索人类活动的组织，大约25平方米的连续职业表面。最初的Aurignacian居住者直接移动到一个裸露的基岩平台上，使Castanet团队能够绘制这个基岩表面，并记录其不均匀，复杂的形态条件的方式，并被修改以适应Aurignacian活动。特别重点将放在挖掘一个巨大的火灾特征，几乎覆盖了所有剩余的挖掘区域。自20世纪50年代和60年代由国家科学基金会资助的Abri Pataud项目以来，法国西南部还没有挖掘出这种类型的Aurignacian壁炉。从那时起，考古学取得了相当大的进步，包括：对沉积物进行薄片分析，以确定火灾温度和重新点燃的次数;。从工具和武器制造过程中提取微小残留物，包括植物残骸和碎片;。这些和其他方法的应用，在一个国家的最先进的挖掘的背景下，产生了重要的见解，古代人类的行为集中在这样的火功能。Castanet项目的智力价值将是进行富有想象力和严格的国际合作，结合古人类学中不同国家传统的各种优势。它结合了地质学家，人类学家，史前史学家，植物学家和地理学家，致力于国际科学界公认的重要单一目标。Castanet的工作的更广泛的影响是，它为未来几代科学家提供了重要的数据和研究收藏，并为有关早期现代人类的几个问题提供了现代质量的数据，包括年表，原材料供应，季节性，动植物开发，技术组织，艺术和个人装饰。同样重要的是，Castanet的发掘为增进美国人和欧洲人之间的国际理解创造了一个论坛，无论是在研究人员还是学生参与者之间。卡斯塔内的年轻美国研究人员和学生的科学和文化经验为专业关系和研究，合作和理解的新途径奠定了基础。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Randall White and an international team of colleagues will conduct three years of excavation at the 34,000 year-old site of Abri Castanet, France, one of the key sites for understanding the initial dispersal of modern humans and their Aurignacian culture into Western Eurasia. The Castanet excavations provide precious information concerning the dispersal of moderns from Africa between 50,000 and 30,000 years ago. In this period, the Neandertals and their Mousterian culture were replaced by physically modern humans whose Aurignacian culture showed innovations rarely before seen on earth. Abri Castanet is one of the key European sites to have yielded evidence of these new behaviors : engravings/ paintings, bone weapons and tools, personal ornaments and exotic raw materials. The work at Abri Castanet contributes robust data to an understanding of 1) Mousterian/Aurignacian interactions across the replacement range, 2) of the cultural processes of replacement, and 3) of differences in the internal workings of the societies concerned.The team assembled by Dr. White is composed of twenty research scientists representing 19 universities and laboratories from 6 different countries. From 2007 through 2009, the Castanet excavations will explore the organization of human activities across approximately 25 contiguous square meters of occupational surface. The initial Aurignacian occupants moved directly onto a bare bedrock platform, allowing the Castanet team to map this bedrock surface and to document the ways in which its uneven, complicated morphology conditioned, and was modified to accommodate, Aurignacian activities. Particular emphasis will be placed on the excavation of on an enormous fire feature, extending over almost all of the remaining area to be excavated. Aurignacian fireplaces of this type have not been excavated in SW France since the NSF-funded Abri Pataud project of the 1950's and 1960's. Since that time, there have been considerable advances in archaeological science, including : . thin-section analysis of sediments to determine fire temperature and number of re-lightings; . extraction of microscopic residues including plant remains and debris from tool and weapon manufacture; . study of carbonized plant remains; The application of these and other methods, in the context of a state-of-the-art excavations, yields important insights into ancient human behavior concentrated around such fire features. The intellectual merit of the Castanet project will be to undertake an imaginative and rigorous international collaboration combining diverse strengths of different national traditions in paleoanthropology. It combines geologists, anthropologists, prehistorians, botanists, and geographers, working toward a single goal recognized as important by the international scientific community. It applies innovative methods of archaeological excavation and analysis to the resolution of a challenging scientific problem.The broader impacts of the work at Castanet are that it provides important data and research collections for future generations of scientists and contributes modern quality data to several questions about early modern humans including chronology, raw material provisioning, seasonality, animal and plant exploitation, technological organization, art and personal adornment. Just as importantly, the Castanet excavation creates a forum for improving international understanding between Americans and Europeans, both among researchers and among student participants. The scientific and cultural experience of young American researchers and students at Castanet establishes a foundation for professional relationships and for new avenues of research, collaboration and understanding.