Adaptive Responses to the End of the Ice Age in Southern Germany

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Michael Jochim博士和来自加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的学生将在德国南部开展为期两年的考古调查和挖掘项目。 这项工作的目标是通过测试三种文化变化模式，更深入地了解该地区的人口如何应对和适应上一个冰河时代结束时的巨大环境变化。 随着环境的迅速变暖，12，000 - 10，000年前，环境经历了植被和动物生活的巨大变化，迫使狩猎采集者群体改变他们的生计，定居模式和社会组织。 这些调整的一般模式是已知的，但欧洲各区域在这些调整的时间和确切性质方面存在很大差异。 阿尔卑斯山以北的德国南部是环境变化最剧烈的地区，在几千年内经历了从冰盖和开放的苔原到封闭的混合森林的转变。 然而，目前这一地区的考古记录并不允许对相应的文化变化进行详细的研究。 该项目将建立在早期研究的基础上，并通过以下方式解决现有知识的不足：1）定位和挖掘新的遗址，这些遗址除了石器外还保存了骨和木制文物; 2）通过野外行走扩大各种不同地点的地表遗址的文物样本。 该项目将集中在两个以前的大湖（Federsee和Pfrunger Ried）和他们的沼泽地，在那里已经进行了相当多的背景研究。这项研究的直接目标是获得更多的了解行为调整，以结束冰河时代在这个地区。 从更广泛的意义上说，这项研究为调查这一时期其他地方的文化变化提供了一个案例研究，并为理解狩猎采集者适应环境变化的过程提供了一个案例研究，通过识别行为调整的不同领域的组合和顺序。教育影响将包括进一步发展一个区域考古数据库，研究区域将提供给其他学者。 此外，该项目将继续让美国学生接触欧洲网站和奖学金，这在过去29年中一直在进行。 PI与蒂宾根大学和巴登-符滕贝格州历史保护办公室有着长期的关系，促进了这种互动，以前的实地考察项目包括德国学生参与挖掘，正在进行的旧石器时代和新石器时代挖掘的特别图尔斯参观，燧石敲击的讲座和演示，以及参与实验项目。 所有材料将在圣巴巴拉分析后与德国斯图加特的Landesmuseum一起策划。

With the support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Michael Jochim and students from the University of California, Santa Barbara will carry out a two-year program of archaeological survey and excavations in southern Germany. The goal of this work is to gain a deeper understanding of how populations in the region coped with and adjusted to the dramatic environmental changes at the end of the last ice age by testing three models of cultural change. With the rapid environmental warming that occurred ca. 12,000 - 10,000 years ago, the environment underwent enormous changes in vegetation and animal life, forcing groups of hunter-gatherers to alter their subsistence, patterns of settlement, and social organization. The general pattern of these adjustments is known, but various regions of Europe show considerable differences in the timing and exact nature of these adjustments. Southern Germany, just north of the Alps, is an area where the environmental changes were most drastic, undergoing a transformation from ice sheets and open tundra to closed, mixed forests within a few thousand years. The current archaeological record from this area, however, does not allow for a detailed examination of the cultural changes that occurred in response. This project will build upon earlier research and address the deficiencies in current knowledge by 1) locating and excavating new sites that provide preservation of bone and wooden artifacts in addition to stone tools and 2) enlarging the sample of artifacts from surface sites in a variety of different locations by fieldwalking. The project will focus on two formerly large lakes (the Federsee and Pfrunger Ried) and their hinterlands where considerable background research has already been carried out.The immediate goal of this research is to obtain greater understanding of the behavioral adjustments to the end of the ice age in this region. In a broader sense, this research provides a case study for investigating cultural changes elsewhere during this period and for understanding the processes of hunter-gatherer adaptation to environmental change in general, by identifying the combination and sequence of different areas of behavioral adjustment.The educational impact will include the further development of a regional archaeological database in a well-studied region that will be made available to other scholars. Moreover, this project will continue the exposure of American students to European sites and scholarship that has been ongoing for the past 29 years. The PI has long-standing relationships with the University of Tübingen and the State Office of Historic Preservation of Baden-Württemberg that has facilitated such interaction, and previous fieldwork projects have included participation of German students in excavations, special tours of ongoing Palaeolithic and Neolithic excavations, lectures and demonstrations of flint-knapping, and participation in experimental projects. All materials will be curated with the Landesmuseum in Stuttgart, Germany after analysis in Santa Barbara.