Microliths and Mortuary Practices: late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers and landscapes in the Azraq Basin, Jordan.

对上石器时代的研究通常将黎凡特的干旱地区视为边缘地区，而将地中海地区视为EP晚期文化发展的中心。虽然EP站点分布使这一观点受到质疑（例如，Garrard et al. 1988 and forthcoming），Stock博士和Maher博士最近的研究表明，约旦早期和中期的EP遗址被认为是由移动的狩猎采集者占据的，与后来定居的社会复杂群体（Natufians）的遗址非常相似。Uyun al-Hammam（Maher，2005年）的七个以上的人类墓葬使这一时期的人类骨骼数量翻了一番，并提供了关于健康、饮食、行为和生物亲和力的数据。我们的工作提出了关键的见解，第一个定居村庄的时间和性质，早期动物驯化，动物在社会生活中的作用，史前健康，太平间的做法，和第一个墓地。它还提出了一个问题，即`Uyun al-Hammam的特点是否是独特的，或是否表明了EP行为的广泛趋势。拟议的研究旨在通过在Kharaneh IV和Ayn Qasiyah遗址进行挖掘以及分析Epipalaeolithic行为变化的考古证据来测试这些问题。初步工作表明，这些遗址具有解决我们先前研究所提出的问题的巨大潜力，无论是从其丰富的考古和环境记录，还是人类墓葬的存在，这两个遗址都位于阿兹拉克盆地，这是一个提供丰富资源的前湿地，是整个欧洲议会的人类定居点的一个有吸引力的位置。在Kharaneh IV（Muheisen，1988年）的测试挖掘揭示了一个长期的人类定居序列，从早期到中期EP（c。20，000 - 15，000卡B. P.），在约旦发现了棚屋结构、壁炉和一些已知的最早人类墓葬的证据。Kharaneh IV为该地区人类定居的悠久历史提供了证据，现场埋葬的个人可能代表了景观中“标记”特殊地点的过程。Ayn Qasiyah展示了两个早期EP（c。21，000 - 17，000卡B. P.）后期EP（C。14，500 - 10，200 cal B.P.）在早期EP视野中，职业和成年骨骼的半关节遗骸。该遗址对沼泽沉积物进行了出色的有机保护，将使我们能够挖掘墓葬，并更详细地了解沼泽地内空间组织、遗址使用和不断变化的条件所反映的行为模式。在最近发现的背景下，这些地点人类墓葬的存在首次提供了研究这一时期的健康、饮食和丧葬实践的机会，并将这些数据与纳图夫墓葬的骨骼学分析相结合（Stock等人）。，2005年）。反过来，这些数据对于解决有关习惯行为和sedentism的起源、向植物集约化的社会经济转变、与行为变化相关的饮食变化以及埋葬做法的制定等更大规模的问题来说是不可或缺的。我们的项目目标取决于三位申请人和相关专家的明确合作所带来的互补类型的数据。我们的研究将通过挖掘两个地点来批判性地重新评估“农业起源”范式，战略性地选择其空间和时间背景，并重新评估现有证据。该项目将把这种转变纳入一个更广泛的理论框架，包括人类生物学，环境变化，景观利用，生态位建设和社会机构。这种综合的方法突出了人类对物质和社会环境的知识参与，通过物质记录来表达，并将测试农业的行为根源是否在纳图菲之前被发现。

Studies of the Epipalaeolithic often regard the arid areas of the Levant as marginal, while considering the Mediterranean zone as the centre of cultural developments in the late EP. While EP site distributions have brought this view into question (e.g., Garrard et al. 1988 and forthcoming), recent research by Dr. Stock and Dr. Maher demonstrates that early and middle EP sites in Jordan assumed to have been occupied by mobile hunter-gatherers strongly resemble later sites of sedentary, socially-complex groups (Natufians). More than seven human burials from `Uyun al-Hammam (Maher 2005) doubles the number of human skeletons from this time period and provides data on health, diet, behaviour, and biological affinities. Our work presents critical insights into the timing and nature of the first sedentary villages, early animal domestication, the role of animals in social life, prehistoric health, mortuary practices, and the first cemeteries. It also raises questions as to whether the characteristics of `Uyun al-Hammam are unique, or indicative of broad trends in EP behaviour. The proposed research aims to test these questions through a combined programme of excavation, at the sites of Kharaneh IV and Ayn Qasiyah, and analysis of archaeological evidence for behavioural change in the Epipalaeolithic. Preliminary work demonstrates the excellent potential of these sites for addressing the questions raised by our previous research, both from their rich archaeological and environmental records, and the presence of human burials.Both of these sites fall within the Azraq Basin, a former wetland that provided abundant resources and was an attractive location for human settlement throughout the EP. Test excavations at Kharaneh IV (Muheisen, 1988) revealed a long sequence of human settlement, from the early to the middle EP (c. 20,000-15,000 cal B.P.), with evidence for hut structures, hearths, and some of the earliest known human burials in Jordan. Kharaneh IV provides evidence for a prolonged history of human settlement in the region, and the burial of individuals on-site may represent a process of 'marking out' special places in the landscape. Ayn Qasiyah exhibits both early EP (c. 21,000-17,000 cal B.P.) and late EP (c. 14,500-10,200 cal B.P.) occupations and the semi-articulated remains of an adult skeleton in the early EP horizons. Work at the site, which has excellent organic preservation of the marsh deposits, will enable us to excavate the burial and gain a more detailed understanding of behavioural patterns reflected by spatial organization, site use, and changing conditions within the marshland. The presence of human burials at these sites, in the context of recent discoveries, presents the first opportunity to study the health, diet, and mortuary practices of this period, and to integrate this data with the osteological analysis of Natufian burials (Stock et al., 2005). These data, in turn, are integral to address the larger-scale issues regarding habitual behaviour and the origins of sedentism, socio-economic shifts to plant intensification, dietary changes associated with behavioural change, and the elaboration of burial practices. Our project goals hinge on the complimentary types of data brought together by the explicit collaboration of the three applicants and related specialists.Our research will critically re-evaluate the 'origins of agriculture' paradigm through the excavation of two sites, strategically chosen for their spatial and temporal context, and re-evaluation of existing evidence. This project will place this transition within a broader theoretical framework that includes human biology, environmental change, landscape use, niche construction, and social agency. This integrated approach highlights humans' knowledgeable engagement with a physical and social environment, expressed through the material record, and will test whether the behaviourial roots of agriculture are found prior to the Natufian.