Early Epipaleolithic in the Western Highlands of Jordan

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，黛博拉·I. Olszewski和Maysoon al-Nahar将领导一个国际团队进行一个为期三年的项目，调查约旦西部高地（外约旦高原）更新世晚期狩猎采集者的适应情况。在这一时期，用于开发景观资源的行为策略的变化导致了长期的过程，导致了史前时期的一个关键经济转型，农业的起源，这反过来又推动了文明和国家社会的发展。这个西部高地项目的重点是早期Epipaleolithic（约。25，000至18，000校准年BP）狩猎采集者在重大气候变化期间的策略，包括末次盛冰期和气候改善，所有这些都影响了植物和动物群落。以前在加利利海的Ohalo II进行的研究可以追溯到末次冰期最大期，记录了野生谷物（大麦）的广泛使用。然而，目前尚不清楚的是，在多大程度上密集使用野生谷物是整个地区这些群体的战略经济模式，以及这种战略是否持续了一段时间，还是在粮食生产经济开始之前重新引入。为此，西部高地项目将调查位于不同生态区的三个地点-地中海森林，伊朗-图兰草原和开放的帕克兰-覆盖晚冰期最大期和随后的气候反弹。具体任务包括：1）使用全站仪绘制地图; 2）对所有文化材料（石器、动物、贝壳等）进行点源化。和样品在挖掘过程中恢复与全站仪的准确位置，并检查现场埋藏; 3）花粉，植硅体，大型植物遗骸，放射性碳测年和地质考古学，这将产生生存，年表和景观使用的数据动物群和样品的专家分析; 4）现场分析石器，这将告知现场活动和流动性; 5）对所有文化材料进行标记和妥善管理; 6）将所有项目数据（包括图像）存储在数据库中，并在项目网站上提供这些信息，该网站将包括面向公众的部分（包括阿拉伯语部分）。了解早期Epipaleolithic决策和战略选择有关食物资源的使用在不同的栖息地是这个项目的主要知识价值和关键的一步，将提供新的和重要的数据，有关如何狩猎采集解决和生存策略是面对气候和古环境变化的修改，从而更深入地了解驯化经济是如何起源的。就其更广泛的影响而言，西部高地项目是约旦和非约旦（美国，法国、克罗地亚、英国）从主要研究者到学生成员的各级参与者。特别是，每个约旦学生将与一名非约旦学生配对;这将有助于相互学习不同的考古方法，并加强文化理解。所有学生参与者将接受全站仪使用，石器分析，挖掘技术和农业出现之前的约旦史前史的培训。此外，PI和专家将为学生提供机会使用项目材料撰写论文，并鼓励学生作为项目出版物的共同作者进行合作。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Deborah I. Olszewski and Maysoon al-Nahar will lead an international team on a three-year project investigating late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer adaptations in the Jordanian Western Highlands (Transjordanian Plateau). During this period, changes in behavioral strategies used to exploit landscape resources led to long-term processes that resulted in one of the key economic transitions in prehistory, the origins of agriculture, which in turn fueled the development of civilizations and state-based societies. This Western Highlands project focuses on Early Epipaleolithic (ca. 25,000 to 18,000 calibrated years BP) hunter-gatherer strategies during a period of major climatic change, including the Last Glacial Maximum and a climatic amelioration, all of which impacted plant and animal communities. Previous research at Ohalo II, Sea of Galilee, which dates to the Last Glacial Maximum, documented extensive use of wild cereals (barley). What is not clear, however, is the extent to which intensive use of wild cereals was a strategic economic pattern for these groups across the region and whether this strategy persisted through time or was reintroduced just prior to the onset of food production economies.Much of the Jordanian landscape is currently under-explored from this perspective. To this end, the Western Highlands project will investigate three sites that are situated in different ecological zones - Mediterranean forest, Irano-Turanian steppe, and open parkland - covering the Late Glacial Maximum and the succeeding climatic rebound. Specific tasks include 1) mapping sites with a Total Station; 2) point proveniencing all cultural materials (stone artifacts, fauna, shell, etc.) and samples recovered during excavations with the Total Station for accurate locations and to examine site taphonomy; 3) specialist analysis of fauna and samples for pollen, phytoliths, macrobotanical remains, radiocarbon dating, and geoarchaeology, which will yield data on subsistence, chronology, and landscape use; 4) field analyzing stone artifacts which will inform about site activities and mobility; 5) labeling and properly curating all cultural materials; and, 6) storing all project data, including images, in databases, as well as making this information available on a project website which will include a public-oriented component (including a section in Arabic). Understanding Early Epipaleolithic decisions and strategy options regarding food resource use in different habitats is the primary intellectual merit of this project and a crucial step that will provide new and important data relevant to how hunter-gatherer settlement and subsistence strategies are modified in the face of climatic and paleoenvironmental changes, leading to more informed insight into how domestication economies may have originated.In terms of its broader impacts, the Western Highlands project is designed as an international partnership between Jordanian and non-Jordanian (U.S., France, Croatia, U.K.) participants at all levels from the Principal Investigators to the student members. In particular, each Jordanian student will be paired with a non-Jordanian student; this will facilitate learning different archaeological methods from each other, as well as result in enhanced cultural understanding. All student participants will be trained in Total Station use, lithic analysis, excavation techniques, and Jordanian prehistory prior to the advent of agriculture. Additionally, the PIs and specialists will offer opportunities for students to use the project materials for theses, and encourage the students to collaborate as co-authors on project publications.