Dissertation Research: Blade Production in the Early Levantine Mousterian

在Anthony Marks博士的指导下，Katherine Monigal女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将研究从以色列的莫斯特遗址挖掘出来的石器材料，这些材料存放在美国和以色列的博物馆里。这些石器都可以归因于一个被称为“Tabun-D”的考古行业；它们的历史都超过4万年，跨度可能长达20万年。这些场地本身位于一些环境区域。Monigal女士将描述和测量选定的石头的大量属性，并根据这些数据重建制作石器的技术。传统上，考古学家关注的是生产出来的最终产品，而不是达到这一目的的过程。根据收集到的数据，Monigal女士将比较不同时期和不同环境分区的Tabun-D遗址，试图确定技术数据是否支持将这些遗址纳入单一文化传统，并试图解释可能观察到的变化的原因。根据在欧洲的工作，考古学家认为，某些石器类型的生产，如刀片，与解剖学上的现代人密切相关。在世界的这个地区，刀片生产工业的出现可以追溯到大约4万年前。然而，正如Monigal女士和其他人所指出的那样，在近东的遗址中出现的刀片要早得多，并且许多组合支持这一结论。根据这一单一特征，考古学家将这些事件归类为“Tabun-D”。然而，这个名称在社会术语中意味着什么，以及这个行业的制造者是否属于同一群体或传统，都是非常不清楚的。在此之前，不可能询问这些数据是否与解剖学上的现代人的出现等问题有关。通过她对工艺过程的研究，Mo nigal女士将能够以一种新颖的方式来解决这个问题。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将产生许多考古学家感兴趣的数据。它将提供对现代人类出现的见解，并有助于培养有前途的年轻科学家。

Marks/Monigal Under the direction of Dr. Anthony Marks, Ms. Katherine Monigal will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will study collections of lithic materials which have been excavated from Mousterian sites in Israel and are stored in museums in both the United States and Israel. The lithics are all attributable to an archaeological industry termed "Tabun-D"; are all older than 40,000 years and may span a period of up to 200,000 years. The sites themselves are located in a number of environmental regions. Ms. Monigal will describe and measure a large number of attributes on selected pieces and with these data will reconstruct the technology used to make stone tools. Archaeologists traditionally focus on the final products which are produced and not on the process used to reach this end. With the data collected, Ms. Monigal will then compare Tabun-D sites across time and environmental subzone, attempt to determine whether technological data support the incorporation of these sites into a single cultural tradition and try to explain the causes of variation which may be observed. Based on work in Europe, archaeologists have argued that the production of certain stone tool types, such as blades, is tightly associated with anatomically modern humans. In this region of the world, the emergence of blade producing industries dates to about 40,000 years ago. However, as Ms. Monigal and others have noted, blades appear much earlier in sites in the Near East and a number of assemblages support this conclusion. Using this single characteristic, archaeologists have grouped these occurrences under the heading "Tabun-D." However it is very unclear what this designation means in social terms and whether the makers of this industry belonged to the same group or tradition. Until this is done, it is not possible to ask whether this data is relevant to questions such as the emergence of anatomically modern humans. Through her study of technological process, Ms. Mo nigal will be able to address this question in an original way. This research is important for several reasons. It will produce data of interest to many archaeologists. It will providfe insight into the emergence of modern humans and help to train a promising young scientist.