Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing Variability within Lithic Production Sequences

博士论文研究：评估石块生产序列中的变异性

• 批准号: 2133631
• 负责人: Gilbert Tostevin
• 金额: $ 1.78万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2133631&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Assessing; Variability

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Much of archaeological research seeks to understand the origins and diffusion of human culture. Without the option of observing living populations, archaeologists must rely solely on the objects produced by prehistoric peoples (i.e. the material culture record) when reconstructing the evolutionary history of prehistoric cultures. Distinguishing “related” or “unrelated” cultural groups in prehistory has to date relied largely on similarities among stone tool assemblages. But, how much variation one can expect within a single assemblage remains unknown. Only after quantifying the amount of variation one can expect within a single occupation can one begin to distinguish populations which fall outside of the expected amount for a shared cultural group. This project helps to fill this void by developing a new analytical approach to stone tool technology, advancing the field of stone tool analysis and researchers’ abilities to extract human behavioral practices in prehistory. A key component is the digitization of unique stone tool collections which will not only ensure their longevity but will ensure their accessibility to researchers and the public without typical constraints such as travel and finances. In addition to the digital heritage preservation impact, this project provides an example to the public of a young female scholar working at a rare intersection of multiple fields. Materials produced will be incorporated into K-12 education modules to inspire students from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds in science, evolution, and archaeology.This project addresses the degree to which stone tool production varies within a single population and between two different populations. This project will focus on very specific types of stone tool artifacts because these have the greatest potential for storing and thus yielding human actions at the individual level. These objects are referred to as refits in the archaeological community, meaning all of the material which was produced during the production of stone tools (i.e. flintknapping) by a prehistoric person are preserved in the archaeological record and eventually pieced back together. These “refits” therefore display the actions taken by an individual while they were working towards a goal. It is the very sequence of actions recorded in these refits coupled with variables which have been demonstrated to be meaningful proxies for cultural relatedness which are analyzed. Because of the sequential nature of the data, time-series statistical analyses is performed in collaboration with mathematician colleagues to quantify the amount of variability present within a single population and among populations. From this, a quantitative standard by which archaeologists can evaluate cultural continuity versus independent convergence in stone tool technological behavior can be produced. The results from this project will contribute to the field of archaeology by advancing analytical techniques for stone tool technology, demonstrating the utility of collaborations with mathematicians, and providing a quantitative standard by which other teams may test hypotheses concerning convergence vs. cultural continuity in prehistory.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。大部分考古研究旨在了解人类文化的起源和传播。由于没有观察现存人口的选择，考古学家在重建史前文化的进化史时，必须完全依靠史前人民生产的物品（即物质文化记录）。迄今为止，区分史前“相关”或“无关”的文化群体主要依赖于石器组合之间的相似性。但是，在一个单一的组合中可以预期多少变化仍然是未知的。只有在量化了一个职业中的预期变异量之后，人们才能开始区分出一个共同文化群体的预期变异量之外的人群。该项目通过开发一种新的石器技术分析方法，推进石器分析领域和研究人员提取史前人类行为实践的能力，有助于填补这一空白。一个关键的组成部分是独特的石器收藏品的数字化，这不仅将确保它们的寿命，而且将确保研究人员和公众能够在没有旅行和资金等典型限制的情况下获得它们。除了数字遗产保护的影响，该项目为公众提供了一个年轻女学者在多个领域罕见的交叉点工作的例子。制作的材料将被纳入K-12教育模块，以激励来自科学，进化和考古学等社会经济背景的学生。该项目解决了单一人口和两个不同人口之间石器生产的差异程度。这个项目将集中在非常具体类型的石器文物，因为这些有最大的潜力，储存，从而产生在个人层面上的人类行为。这些物品在考古界被称为refits，这意味着史前人在生产石器（即燧石）过程中产生的所有材料都被保存在考古记录中，并最终拼凑在一起。因此，这些“改装”显示了个人在朝着目标努力时所采取的行动。这是非常序列的行动记录在这些改装再加上变量已被证明是有意义的代理人的文化相关性进行了分析。由于数据的连续性，时间序列统计分析是与数学家同事合作进行的，以量化单个人群和人群之间的变异量。由此，可以产生一个量化的标准，考古学家可以评估文化的连续性与独立的收敛在石器技术行为。该项目的成果将通过推进石器技术的分析技术，展示与数学家合作的效用，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。