Excavation at Pech de l'Aze IV (Dordogne, France)

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下。Harold Dibble和Shannon mcphron将在位于法国多尔多涅地区的Pech de l'Aze IV遗址进行四季的考古挖掘和分析。该遗址最早由法国考古学家弗朗索瓦·博尔德斯（现已去世）发掘，在围绕西欧人类文化发展的争议中发挥了重要作用。该遗址包含多个层次的莫斯特材料，其中包括丰富的石器和动物遗迹。由于尼安德特人，该遗址记录了上更新世重要时期的行为变化，许多研究人员试图从部落运动、活动分化和方向变化的角度来解释这种变化。这场辩论很重要，因为在基本认知能力、社会组织以及欧洲尼安德特人的最终命运等问题上，科学观点存在分歧。虽然博尔德斯挖掘的材料数量巨大，而且有充分的文献记录——今天类似规模的挖掘在今天可能会非常昂贵——但相关的地层和环境数据没有收集到。Drs。迪布尔和麦克弗伦已经分析了挖掘出来的材料，现在将返回现场收集必要的剩余信息。通过精心控制的挖掘，他们将收集新的测年样本，进行全面的沉积学和地球物理研究，评估现场形成过程和可能的沉积后扰动，并评估在恢复过程中可能的挖掘机偏差的性质和程度。他们将利用收集到的信息不仅为原始材料提供更丰富的背景设置，而且还将回答具体的研究问题：穆斯特组合变动性的本质是什么？什么因素解释了随着时间的推移所观察到的变化？原料对莫斯特组合变异性的作用是什么？莫斯特式自给经济的本质是什么？这项研究将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据，并阐明欧洲早期的史前史。

With National Science Foundation support Drs. Harold Dibble and Shannon McPherron will conduct four seasons of archaeological excavation and analysis at the site of Pech de l'Aze IV located in the Dordogne region of France. First excavated by the (now deceased) French archaeologist, Francois Bordes, the site has played a major role in controversies surrounding the development of human culture in Western Europe. The site contains multiple levels of Mousterian materials which include abundant lithic and faunal remains. Attributable to Neanderthal people, the site documents behavioral variation over a significant period of the Upper Pleistocene and numerous researchers have attempted to interpret this variability in terms of tribal movement, activity differentiation and directional change over time. This debate is important because of divergent scientific views on the basic cognitive abilities, the social organization and ultimately the fate of European Neanderthal peoples. While the Bordes' excavated material is massive in amount and well documented - an excavation of similar scale today would likely be prohibitively expensive today - relevant stratigraphic and environmental data were not collected. Drs. Dibble and McPherron have analyzed the excavated materials and shall now return to the site to collect the necessary remaining information. Through carefully controlled excavations, they will collect fresh dating samples, undertake full sedimentological and geophysical studies, asses site formation processes and possible post-depositional disturbances and also evaluate the nature and degree of possible excavator bias during recovery. They will use the information collected not only to provide a richer contextual setting for the original materials but also to answer specific research questions: what is the nature of Mousterian assemblage variability and what factors explain the changes observed over time? What is the role of raw materials on Mousterian assemblage variability? What is the nature of Mousterian subsistence economy?This research will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and shed light on the early prehistory of Europe.