Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Accessing Social Geographies in Late Glacial Franco-Cantabria

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，纽约大学的兰德尔·怀特博士和约翰·奥哈拉博士将推进对狩猎采集者群体的社会行为和相互关系的理解，这些群体在上一个冰河时代末期重新殖民了北欧。末次冰期的高峰被称为末次盛冰期（LGM），大约发生在26,500-19,000年前（26.5-19ka BP）。在这个时候，欧洲大部分地区人口减少，除了南欧被称为难民的庇护地区，那里的庇护环境使生存成为可能。随后的19 ~ 11.5ka BP为剧烈的气候振荡期，最终改善到接近现在的状态。这一时期也见证了人口的扩张，欧洲大片地区被一种被称为抹大拉时期的文化复合体重新殖民。尽管逐渐改善的气候无疑发挥了作用，但这些社会的快速扩张速度，特别是在18-16ka BP期间，表明高度流动的群体在与严重的气候不稳定作斗争的同时，积极地向陌生的景观迁移。尽管有明显的逆境，这些小群体的晚冰期狩猎采集者建立了北欧大片地区所有连续人口的人口基础：因此，晚冰期再殖民是现代欧洲人和欧洲人后裔人口历史上一个重要的过程。该项目研究了从这一时期恢复的个人装饰品，以深入了解佛朗哥-坎塔布里亚难民（一个人口来源地区，包括法国西南部和西班牙北部）在重新殖民时期之前和期间的社会地理、交流网络和狩猎采集者的流动策略。对马格达莱纳社会网络的分析将加强对这些史前社会如何管理不稳定的环境通量的理解，提出气候变化对小规模、非工业化社会的社会组织或重组的潜在影响，并为当代气候科学学术增加一个考古维度。该项目将构建一个从Franco-Cantabria的Magdalenian遗址中回收的所有装饰品的类类学综合，并根据装饰品偏好的区域或时间模式进行数据库查询。接下来是直接深入的技术分析，对来自美国、法国和西班牙机构的20个马格达莱尼遗址的一些装饰品的修饰、装饰和使用技术进行分析。最后，利用稳定同位素地球化学方法对部分装饰齿孔进行来源分析。锶（87Sr/86Sr）和氧（ä18O）值将通过分析现代地质样品和马格达莱期饮食动物遗骸来确定，之后对马格达莱期穿孔牙齿的分析将使这些物体的地理起源得以确定。装饰品在景观中的移动与个人流动性和物品的线下交换密切相关；对装饰品运动的情境化分析将使这些问题得到解决，从而促进对马格达莱尼亚佛朗哥-坎塔布里亚社会地理的理解，以及促成人口扩张的社会结构。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Randall White and John O'Hara of New York University will advance understanding of the social behavior and inter-relationships of the hunter-gatherer groups which recolonized Northern Europe towards the end of the last Ice Age. The peak of the last glacial period, known as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), occured approximately 26,500-19,000 years ago (26.5-19ka BP). At this time, most of Europe was depopulated save for sheltered parts of southern Europe known as refugia, where the sheltered local environment made survival possible. The subsequent period from 19-11.5ka BP was characterized by severe climatic oscillation before ultimately ameliorating to near present conditions. This period also witnessed the expansion of human populations, with large swathes of Europe recolonized by a cultural complex known as the Magdalenian. Although a gradually ameliorating climate undoubtedly played a role, the rapid expansion rates of these societies, particularly in the period 18-16ka BP, indicates highly mobile groups actively moving into unfamiliar landscapes while contending with severe climatic instability. Despite the apparent adversity, these small groups of Late Glacial hunter-gatherers established the demographic base for all successive populations across huge swathes of Northern Europe: the Late Glacial recolonization is therefore a process of importance in the demographic history of modern European and European-descent populations. This project examines the personal ornaments recovered from this period to gain insight into the social geographies, exchange networks and mobility strategies of hunter gatherers in the Franco-Cantabrian refugium - a demographic source region comprising south-western France and northern Spain - prior to and during the period of recolonization. Analysis of Magdalenian social networks will enhance understanding of how these prehistoric societies managed erratic environmental flux, suggest the potential implications of climate change on the social organization - or reorganization - of small-scale, non-industrialized societies, and add an archaeological dimension to contemporary scholarship on climate science.This project will construct a typological synthesis of all ornaments recovered from Magdalenian sites in Franco-Cantabria, with the resulting database interrogated for regional or chronological patterning in ornament preference. This will be followed by direct, in depth technological analysis of techniques of modification, decoration and use of a number of ornaments from twenty Magdalenian sites, housed at institutions in the U.S., France and Spain. Finally, analysis of source of a number of decorative perforated teeth will be undertaken using stable isotope geochemistry. Background strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (ä18O) values will be established by analysis of modern geological samples and Magdalenian-period dietary faunal remains, after which analysis of Magdalenian perforated teeth will allow the identification of the geographic origin of these objects. The movement of ornaments across the landscape is closely tied to both personal mobility and to the down-the-line exchange of objects; contextualized analysis of ornament movement will allow these issues to be addressed, thereby advancing understanding of the social geographies of Magdalenian Franco-Cantabria, and the social structures which precipitated demographic expansion.