Exploring the Feasibility of Landscape Archaeology at Olduvai Gorge

Drs。Robert Blumenschine和Fidelis Masao将在坦桑尼亚北部的Olduvai峡谷进行探索性古人类学研究，以测试一系列调查和分析技术。他们希望确定是否有可能将原始未受干扰环境中的物质与从其他地方侵蚀而来的物质区分开来，这些物质位于地层序列的上层，然后再沉积和再埋藏。他们将使用三种技术——大规模的表面收集，从不同大小的正方形中集中收集表面，最后是控制挖掘——收集一系列动物骨骼和石器。然后对这些进行分析和比较。奥杜瓦伊峡谷为人类的发展提供了至关重要的证据，因为它的地层包含了跨越近200万年的考古材料。尽管在峡谷进行了许多古人类学研究，但大部分都集中在“遗址”或密集的石器和动物遗骸上。这为史前景观和早期人类如何融入其中提供了一幅有偏见的画面。考古学家已经意识到，为了提供一个平衡的画面，中等和低人工制品密度的区域也应该进行检查。然而，在奥杜瓦伊，这可能很难或不可能做到。由于峡谷非常陡峭，物质往往会从原始环境中被侵蚀并向下携带。为了获得有助于揭示人类行为的分布数据，有必要分离来自于原位的材料。Drs。Blumenschine和Masao的工作将表明，这是否真的可以做到。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。希望它将有助于开发和测试适用于许多考古情况的分析技术。它将为一个更大的研究项目奠定基础，并可能本身增加我们对这个重要地点的了解。由于一名研究人员是美国人，另一名是坦桑尼亚人，这也将促进这两个国家之间的科学合作。

Drs. Robert Blumenschine and Fidelis Masao will conduct exploratory paleoanthropological research at the site of Olduvai Gorge in Northern Tanzania to test a series of survey and analytic techniques. They wish to determine whether it is possible to distinguish materials in primary undisturbed context from those which have been eroded from elsewhere, higher up the stratigraphic sequence, and then redeposited and reburied. They will use three techniques - broad scale surface collection, intensive surface collection from squares of different size, and finally, controlled excavation - to collect series of animal bones and stone tools. These then will be analyzed and compared. The Olduvai Gorge provides crucial evidence on the development of humans because its strata contain archaeological materials which span almost two million years. Although much paleoanthropological research has been conducted at the Gorge, it has focussed, for the most part, on "sites" or dense concentrations of lithic and faunal remains. This has provided a biased picture of the prehistoric landscape and how early humans fit into it. Archaeologists have come to realize that to provide a balanced picture, areas of medium and low artifact density should be examined as well. At Olduvai, however, this may be difficult or impossible to do. Because the Gorge is so steep, materials tend to be eroded from their primary context and carried downward. To acquire distributional data which will shed light on human behavior, it is necessary to separate derived from in situ materials. Drs. Blumenschine's and Masao's work will show whether, in fact, this can be done. This research is important for several reasons. It will, hopefully, serve to develop and test analytic techniques which will be applicable in many archaeological situations. It will set the stage for a larger research project and may, in itself, increase our understanding of this important site. Since one investigator is American and the other Tanzanian, it will also foster scientific cooperation between these two countries.