Doctoral Dissertation Research Proposal: Investigating Late Pleistocene Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Patterns in Northern Spain

在Lawrence G. Straus，John Rissetto将研究Magdalenian（17，000 - 11，500 B. P.）的地理流动性和领土模式。来自西班牙坎塔布里亚的狩猎采集者目前的假设是，这些群体存在于最后一个冰河时代的末期，并创造了著名的阿尔塔米拉洞穴壁画，保持着小的，以区域为基础的领土。然而，由于这些群体与比利牛斯山脉北部的其他群体之间共享的各种艺术和技术相似性，人们也认为比利牛斯山脉之间的接触和互动比现有考古记录最初解释的要多得多。本研究的目的是通过追踪从原始地质露头到最终考古背景的石材运输，调查西班牙马格达林狩猎采集者领土的实际规模，本研究将集中于收集，使用和丢弃位于西班牙坎塔布里亚东部阿森河流域的五个马格达林遗址的燧石原料制成的石器。燧石是一种坚硬、细粒的沉积岩，被马格德林时代的狩猎采集者用于生产90%的日常和专业石器。这种原材料类型在整个西欧的抹大拉遗址中无处不在，这使得它非常适合用于识别人们可能从原始地质露头携带了相当长的距离的文物。由于燧石形成的异质性，没有单一的“银弹”分析技术可以准确地追踪单个燧石片回到其原始地质形成。但是，当从各种技术的分析证据相结合，组成的“指纹”可以建立准确地代表个别燧石文物或整个燧石露头的结构特征。这项研究计划将采用三层分析方法，结合宏观，岩相学和微量元素分析，以地质来源废弃的燧石文物，以更好地了解和确定的地理运动的Magdalenian狩猎采集者。这项研究，这是与美国国家科学基金会共同资助，西班牙-美国挖掘的El Miron洞穴在阿森山谷，将有助于促进教学和培训，。在西班牙北方和美国，与这项研究相关的公共宣传将纳入目前为埃尔米龙开展的地方、区域和国家宣传活动。这场运动包括公共和专业介绍、网站开发、博物馆和解释性展示，以及在英文和西班牙文的期刊上发表现有研究。此外，这项研究的资金将大大有助于作者继续研究生培训和及时完成他的博士论文。通过这项研究，西班牙社会将直接受益于对其史前历史的更深入了解，而全球社会将受益于对过去人类群体如何使用地理运动的更多了解，就像我们今天所做的那样，作为应对社会或生态变化或逆境的手段。

Under the supervision of Dr. Lawrence G. Straus, John Rissetto will examine the geographic mobility and territoriality patterns of Magdalenian (17,000-11,500 B.P.) hunter-gatherers from Cantabria, Spain. It is currently hypothesized that these groups, who existed at the end of the last Ice Age and created the famous Altamira cave paintings, maintained small, regional-based territories. However, because of the diverse artistic and technological similarities shared between these groups and other groups from north of the Pyrenees, it is also assumed that there was a great deal more trans-Pyrenean contact and interaction than originally interpreted through the existing archaeological record. It is the goal of this research to investigate the actual size of Spanish Magdalenian hunter-gatherer territories though the tracking of transported stone materials as they moved from their original geologic outcrop to their eventual archaeological context.This research will focus on the collection, use, and discard of stone artifacts made of chert raw material from five Magdalenian sites located in the Ason River basin in eastern Cantabria, Spain. Chert, which is a hard, fine grained, sedimentary rock, was used by Magdalenian hunter-gatherers for the production of 90% of their everyday and specialized stone tools. The ubiquity of this raw material type within Magdalenian sites, across Western Europe, makes it ideal for identifying artifacts that people may have carried substantial distance from their original geologic outcrop. Because of the heterogeneous nature of chert formation, there is no single "silver-bullet" analytical technique that can exactly trace an individual piece of chert back to its original geologic formation. But, when the analytical evidence from various techniques is combined, a compositional "finger-print" can be established that accurately represents the structural characteristics of individual chert artifacts or entire chert outcrops. This research program will use a three-tiered analytical methodology that incorporates macroscopic, petrographic, and trace element analyses to geological source discarded chert artifacts in order to better understand and identify the geographic movements of Magdalenian hunter-gatherers.This research, which is associated with the NSF co-funded, Spanish-American excavation of El Miron Cave in the Ason Valley, will help to promote teaching and training, . In northern Spain and in the United States, public outreach associated with this research will be incorporated into the existing local, regional, and nation outreach campaign currently in place for El Miron. This campaign includes public and professional presentations, website development, museum and interpretative displays, and the publication of existing research in both English and Spanish language refereed journals. In addition, the funding of this research will assist greatly in the author's continued graduate training and the timely completion of his doctoral dissertation. Through this research Spanish society will directly benefit from a greater understanding of its prehistoric past, while the global community will benefit from an increased understanding of how past human groups used geographic movement, much like we do today, as a means of dealing with social or ecological change or adversity.