Landscape Archaeology at Olduvai Gorge

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Robert Blumenschine博士和他的同事们将在坦桑尼亚北部的Olduvai峡谷进行两个季节的考古研究。他们将把重点放在两个地层上，这两个地层可以追溯到近200万年前，并保留了人类活动的痕迹。Blumenschine博士及其同事将通过精心控制的挖掘对这些地平线进行取样，并收集石制文物和动物遗骸。因为每个视界都延伸了相当大的水平距离，通过样本的比较，研究小组将能够重建大范围的原始人（也可能是非原始人）活动，深入了解地理上不同的行为，并将其置于环境框架中。这项研究有两个重要的原因。首先，它将为人类文化能力的出现提供新的线索。奥杜瓦伊峡谷不仅发现了重要的人类化石遗迹，而且还发现了大量的石器组合和明显相关的动物群。这些材料为研究早期原始人的文化能力提供了一个焦点。利用奥杜瓦伊遗址的数据，古人类学家推测了一些问题，比如肉在早期原始人饮食中的作用，并质疑这些人是否有狩猎的能力。大多数可用的数据来自“遗址”或密集的、空间上聚集的石头和骨头遗骸群。然而，考古学家们已经意识到，这样的集群只代表了原始人行为的一个方面，那些没有任何材料的较小的、密度较低的分散和区域也可以提供重要的相关信息。Blumenschine博士和他的同事们将以一种系统的方式将注意力集中在“集群”和地点之间的分散上。其次，这项工作将有助于开拓“景观考古学”领域。该小组将发展收集和分析非遗址数据的技术，这些方法将适用于各种各样的考古情况。这项工作将提供对早期人类行为的深入了解。它将产生许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并协助培训坦桑尼亚研究人员。它将有助于加强非洲和美国科学家之间的科学联系。＊＊＊

9000099 Blumenschine With National science Foundation support, Dr. Robert Blumenschine and his colleagues will conduct two seasons of archaeological research at Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania. They will focus on two stratigraphic horizons which date to just under 2 million years ago and which preserve traces of human activity. Dr. Blumenschine and colleagues will sample these horizons through carefully controlled excavation and will collect both stone artifacts and faunal remains. Because each horizon extends over a considerable horizontal distance, through comparison of samples, the team will be able to reconstruct a broad range of hominid (and likely non-hominid) activities, gain insight into geographically varied behavior, and place this in an environmental framework. This research is significant for two primary reasons. First it will shed new light on the emergence of human cultural capabilities. Olduvai Gorge has yielded not only important hominid fossil remains, but also numerous assemblages of stone tools and apparently associated fauna. These materials have provided a focus for examination of the cultural capacities of early hominids. Using data from the Olduvai sites paleoanthropologists have speculated on issues such as the role of meat in early hominid diet and questioned whether such peoples had the ability to hunt. Most of the available data comes from "sites" or dense, spacially clustered groups of stone and bone remains. Archaeologists however have come to realize that such clusters represent only one aspect of hominid behavior and that smaller less dense scatters and areas which have no material at all can also provide important relevant information. Dr. Blumenschine and colleagues will focus their attention in a systematic fashion on both the "clusters" and the scatter between the sites. Secondly, this work will help to pioneer the field of "landscape archaeology." The team will develop techniques for the collection and analysis of non-s ite data and these methods will be applicable in a wide variety of archaeological situations. This work will provide insight into early hominid behavior. It will yield data of interest to many archaeologists and assist in the training of Tanzanian researchers. It will serve to strengthen the scientific ties between African and United States scientists. ***