The Neolithic Revolution in Spain

在国家科学基金会的支持下，迈克尔·巴顿博士将在西班牙东部的阿利坎特地区进行探索性考古研究。有证据表明，在6500至7500年前之间，发生了重大变化，种植国内农作物和放牧动物取代了狩猎和采集的生活方式。然而，现有的数据仅限于在少数洞穴和岩石掩体中进行的考古发掘，并没有找到和挖掘任何定居点本身。在一个更大的项目的第一阶段，巴顿博士和他的合作者将在三个河谷进行调查，试图找到这种情况。将采用随机抽样和定向调查相结合的方法，以最大限度地增加发现的遗址数量，并了解它们在整个景观中的分布。所有地点都将被记录下来，选定的材料将被找回。这些数据将为规划未来的工作提供依据。新石器时代的革命--动植物的驯化--构成了人类文化发展的一场重大革命，为复杂社会的兴起铺平了道路。虽然考古学上的大部分注意力都集中在驯化发生的“核心”或“核心”地区，但对驯化到其他地区的了解相对较少。存在两个相互竞争的模型来解释近东农业是如何进入欧洲的。一个组织认为，特征的传播伴随着大规模的人口流动，使用新技术的人从近东搬到了欧洲。其他人认为，变化主要是通过思想和特征的传播而不是人本身造成的，原始人口只是采用和适应了一种新的生活方式。巴顿博士将在他的西班牙语研究中解决这个问题，他将专注于那些可以追溯到农业和牧业出现之前和之后的遗址。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。首先，它将增加我们对欧洲史前一个鲜为人知的时期的了解。它将提供大量考古学家感兴趣的数据。它还将阐明重大文化变革是如何发生的。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Michael Barton will conduct exploratory archaeological research in the Alicante region of Eastern Spain. Evidence indicates that between 6,500 and 7,500 years ago, a major transformation took place and cultivation of domestic crops and the herding of animals replaced a hunting and gathering way of life. The data available, however, is limited to archaeological excavations in a small number of caves and rock shelters and no settlements themselves have been located and excavated. In this first stage of a larger project, Dr. Barton and his collaborators will conduct surveys in three river valleys in an attempt to locate such occurrences. A combination of random sampling and directed survey will be employed both to maximize the number of sites discovered and to understand their distribution across the landscape. All sites will be recorded and selected materials recovered. These data will provide the basis to plan future work. The Neolithic Revolution - the domestication of plants and animals - constitutes a major revolution in human cultural development and paved the way for the rise of complex societies. While much archaeological attention has focussed on the "core" or "nuclear" areas where domestication took place, relatively little is understood about its spread to other areas. Two competing models exist to explain how Near Eastern agriculture entered Europe. One group argues that the spread of traits was accompanied by large scale population movements and that people employing new technology moved out of the Near East into Europe. Others believe that change resulted primarily through the spread of ideas and traits rather than people themselves and that the original populations merely adopted and adapted to a new style of life. Dr. Barton will address this issue in his Spanish research and he will focus on sites which date to immediately before and after agriculture and pastoralism appear. This research is important for several reasons. First, it will increase our understanding of a poorly known period in European prehistory. It will provide data of interest to a large number of archaeologists. It will also shed light on how major cultural transformations take place.