Kostenki: Initial Upper Paleolithic in Eastern Europe

该奖项支持一个为期两年的项目，旨在调查东欧现代人的最早出现。其重点是对位于顿河西岸(莫斯科以南约450公里)的俄罗斯科斯滕基村的考古遗址进行挖掘和分析。科斯滕基遗址出土了东欧已知的最古老的现代人遗骸，甚至更早的居住地痕迹，可能是4万多年前现代人留下的。新项目将挖掘其中两个遗址(科斯滕基12号和14号)最低的人类居住层，以扩大我们对居住者的技术和经济知识，并更准确地确定他们的年龄和环境背景。这项研究将汇集来自考古学、古植物学、古动物学、地质学和地质年代学等多个领域的美国和俄罗斯科学家团队。其中一个项目目标是更好地了解这些地点是如何形成的，这显然涉及到风和斜坡作用、周期性洪水、土壤形成以及可能的其他过程的复杂相互作用。这一目标与更好地确定科斯滕基12号和14号的最早占领水平和重建环境条件密切相关。将从这些层面获得一系列新的绝对日期(放射性碳和发光)和古地磁样本，并将努力将层序与30,000至50,000年前的全球气候变化和古地磁事件联系起来。将收集化石花粉和孢子用于植被重建，并将与化石土壤研究结合使用，以进一步支持与全球序列的对比。2002年和2003年7月至8月期间，将在科斯滕基12号和14号进行挖掘。从最低占领水平发现的人工制品、特征(例如，前壁炉)和相关哺乳动物遗骸的扩大样本将提供关于当时出现在东欧的现代人的技术和经济信息。在这些遗址是如何形成的背景下，对哺乳动物遗骸的研究--例如所代表的身体部位和它们受到的损害--将有助于确定它们是被人类猎杀或采集的，还是通过自然过程沉积的。将从哪里获得石头以及工具是如何制造和使用的(基于对其边缘磨损的微观研究)对石器文物进行分析。较软材料(主要是骨头和象牙)的文物特别令人感兴趣，因为它们的复杂性表明，现代人的技术能力可能比他们在欧洲的尼安德特人祖先实现了巨大的飞跃。该项目将探讨这样一个论点，即复杂和创新的技术对现代人的生存至关重要--现代人最近来自南纬，在形态上适应了温暖的气候--在东欧相对寒冷和干燥的环境中。

This award supports a two-year project designed to investigate the earliest appearance of modern humans in Eastern Europe. It focuses on the excavation and analysis of archaeological sites located in the Russian village of Kostenki on the west bank of the Don River (roughly 450 km south of Moscow). The Kostenki sites have yielded the oldest known remains of modern humans in Eastern Europe, and even earlier traces of habitation that were probably left by modern humans more than 40,000 years ago. The new project will excavate the lowest human occupation layers of two of these sites (Kostenki 12 and 14) in order to expand our knowledge of the technology and economy of their occupants, and to establish with greater precision both their age and environmental setting. The research will bring together a team of American and Russian scientists from several fields, including archaeology, paleobotany, paleozoology, geology and geochronology. One project goal is improved understanding of how the sites were formed, which apparently involved a complex interplay of wind and slope action, periodic flooding, soil formation, and possibly other processes. This goal is closely tied to better dating of the earliest occupation levels at Kostenki 12 and 14 and reconstruction of environmental conditions. A series of new absolute dates (radiocarbon and luminescence) and paleomagnetic samples will be obtained from these levels, and an effort will be made to relate the sequence of layers to global climate-change and paleomagnetic events between 30,000 and 50,000 years ago. Fossil pollen and spores will be collected for reconstructions of vegetation, which will be used in conjunction with the study of fossil soils to provide further support for correlations with the global sequence. Excavations will be conducted at Kostenki 12 and 14 during July-August of 2002 and 2003. The expanded sample of artifacts, features (e.g., former hearths), and associated mammal remains recovered from the lowest occupation levels will yield information about the technology and economy of the modern humans who appeared in Eastern Europe at this time. In the context of how the sites were formed, study of the mammal remains-such as the body parts represented and the damage on them-will help determine whether they were hunted or gathered by humans or deposited by natural processes. Stone artifacts will be analyzed in terms of from where the stone was obtained and how the implements were manufactured and used (based on microscopic study of the wear on their edges). Artifacts of softer materials (chiefly bone and ivory) are of special interest, because their complexity suggests that modern humans may have achieved a quantum jump in technological ability over their Neanderthal predecessors in Europe. The project will explore the thesis that complex and innovative technology was critical to the survival of modern humans-recently derived from southern latitudes and morphologically adapted to warm climates-in the relatively cold and dry environments of Eastern Europe.