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

在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·奥哈拉博士将促进人们对狩猎-采集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结束时重新殖民了北欧。末次冰期的顶峰，也就是所谓的末次冰期(LGM)，大约发生在26,500-19,000年前(26.5-19ka BP)。当时，欧洲大部分地区的人口减少，只有南欧被称为避难所的避难所地区的人口减少，那里的避难所环境使生存成为可能。随后的19-11.5 ka BP以剧烈的气候振荡为特征，最终好转到接近现在的状况。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马格达勒人的文化综合体重新殖民。尽管逐渐改善的气候无疑起到了作用，但这些社会的快速扩张速度，特别是在18-16ka BP期间，表明流动性很强的群体积极进入不熟悉的地区，同时与严重的气候不稳定作斗争。尽管出现了明显的逆境，但这些冰川晚期狩猎-采集者的小群体为北欧大片地区的所有后续人口奠定了人口基础：因此，冰川晚期重新殖民化在现代欧洲和欧洲后裔人口的人口史上是一个重要的过程。该项目审查了从这一时期找回的个人饰品，以深入了解法属坎塔布里亚避难所--法国西南部和西班牙北部的一个人口来源地区--在重新殖民化之前和期间的社会地理、交流网络和狩猎采集者的流动战略。对马格达勒尼亚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变化的理解，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，并为当代气候科学研究增加考古学维度。该项目将构建一个从法国-坎塔布里亚的马格达勒尼亚遗址中发现的所有装饰品的类型学综合，并由此产生的数据库询问区域或年代性图案的装饰偏好。随后将对来自美国、法国和西班牙机构的20个马格达勒尼亚遗址的一些装饰品的改装、装饰和使用技术进行直接、深入的技术分析。最后，将利用稳定同位素地球化学对一些装饰穿孔牙齿的来源进行分析。背景分析将通过对现代地质样品和马格达林期饮食动物群遗迹的分析确定锶(87Sr/86Sr)和氧(ä18O)值，之后对马格达林期穿孔牙齿的分析将有助于确定这些物体的地理来源。装饰品在景观中的移动与个人的流动性和物品的底层交换密切相关；对装饰品移动的背景分析将使这些问题得到解决，从而促进对马格达勒尼亚佛朗哥坎塔布里亚社会地理和加速人口扩张的社会结构的理解。

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.