Palaeolithic Pyrotechnology, High Resolution Behavioral Events, and the Neanderthal/Modern Human Question

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Paul Goldberg博士和一个国际团队的同事将调查以色列（Kebara，Hayonim）和法国（Pech de l 'Aze IV）洞穴中旧石器时代中期和一些旧石器时代晚期沉积物的未受干扰的燃烧特征。意大利、德国和西班牙的考古学、地质学、矿物学和古植物学专家将考察尼安德特人和现代人如何建造和使用壁炉。使用火是人类行为的一个重要方面，有时也是有争议的。已经使用了许多方法来评估燃烧的影响（例如，热释光和磁性，如磁化率，石头的热蚀变和氧化特征），试图确定燃烧是否发生，以及燃烧是自然现象还是人为现象。最近，其他技术已被用于提供人为燃烧特征的详细特性，例如燃烧的温度和条件。这些分析研究利用了提供整个沉积物平均值的大量样品。其他的燃烧特性和烟火技术的研究强调了壁炉在生活空间中的空间布置。对Kebara洞穴的燃烧和灰烬特征的结构和微形态研究表明，它们是在同一地点发生的可辨别的单独和重复燃烧事件的产物。因此，它们代表了离散的活动片段，而不是几年或几十年来发生的几个事件。本项目的第一个目的是评估火的使用技术方面，作为一种手段，以评估短期燃烧事件的行为意义，主要是在中期和晚期旧石器时代。本研究的第二个目的是制定和完善适当的分析策略，以最大限度地提高在这两个periods.The知识产权的优点，这项研究的燃烧特性的详细检查，具有高度的时间和空间分辨率。所有的研究人员将分析通过浸渍完整的，未受干扰的特征制备的相同的薄切片。这种方法保持了沉积物真实空间内燃烧和未燃烧物质的环境完整性。它提供了详细的现场分析数据，并允许直接比较分析的所有燃烧特征。使用土壤微形态学，扫描电子显微镜，红外显微光谱，有机岩石学和燃烧特征的植硅石分析将提供有关温度达到，燃烧条件和所用燃料的性质，包括其保存状态和收集季节的信息;所有这些都可以与人类活动有关。这种对相同样本进行的多方面方法以前从未进行过，将提供对旧石器时代行为的新的、更准确的看法，特别是对尼安德特人和现代人类如何建造和使用壁炉的更深入的了解。这项研究的广泛影响是多重的。这种类型的详细分析有可能揭示H。智人和尼安德特人，提供了一个更完整的人类进化，适应和生活方式的图片。这里开发的结果和协议可以扩展到燃烧功能，从其他中，上旧石器时代的网站和那些从旧石器时代早期的网站。该战略将能够详细比较整个旧石器时代的个别事件和短期活动，其中保存了火灾的证据，从而可以监测人类历史上重要部分的原始人行为。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Paul Goldberg and an international team of colleagues will investigate undisturbed combustion features from Middle Palaeolithic and some Upper Palaeolithic deposits from caves in Israel (Kebara, Hayonim) and France (Pech de l'Aze IV) The team brings together U.S., Italian, German and Spanish specialists in archaeology, geology, mineralogy, and paleobotany to examine how Neanderthals and modern humans constructed and used fireplaces.The use of fire is an important, and sometimes controversial, aspect of human behavior. A number of approaches have been used to evaluate the effects of burning (e.g., thermoluminescent, and magnetic properties, such as magnetic susceptibility, thermal alteration of stones, and oxidation features) in attempting to determine whether burning took place at all, and whether burning was a natural or human-related phenomenon. More recently, other techniques have been used to provide detailed characteristics of human-made combustion features, such as temperature and conditions of burning. These analytical studies have made use of bulk samples that have provided average values for the sediment as a whole. Other studies of combustion features and pyrotechnology have emphasized the spatial placement of fireplaces within a living space. Structural and micromorphological study of combustion and ashy features from Kebara Cave showed that they are products of discernible individual and repeated burning events that took place in the same place. As such, they represent discrete activity episodes, rather than several events that took place over years, or decades. The first aim of this project is to assess the technological aspects of fire use as a means to appraise the behavioral significance of short-term burning events principally during the Middle and the Upper Palaeolithic. The second aim of this study is to develop and refine appropriate analytical strategies in order to maximize the information related to pyrotechnology in both periods.The intellectual merit of this study is revealed by the detailed examination of combustion features with a high degree of temporal and spatial resolution. All researchers will analyze the identical thin sections prepared by impregnating intact, undisturbed features. This approach maintains the contextual integrity of combusted and non-combusted material within the true space of the deposits. It provides detailed, in situ analytical data and allows for direct comparisons among all the combustion features analyzed. The use of soil micromorphology, scanning electron microscopy, Infrared Micro-Spectrometry, organic petrology, and phytolith analysis of the combustion feature will provide information on the temperature reached, the combustion conditions, and the nature of the fuel used including its state of preservation and season of collection; all can be related to aspects of human activity. Such a multifaceted approach performed on the same samples has not been undertaken previously and will provide new and more accurate views of Palaeolithic behavior, specifically, greater insight on how Neanderthals and modern humans constructed and used fireplaces. The broad impacts of this study are several fold. This type of detailed analysis has the potential to reveal differences in activities and behavior between H. sapiens and Neandertals, providing a more complete picture of human evolution, adaptations, and lifestyles. The results and protocols developed here can be expanded to combustion features from other Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites and to those from Lower Palaeolithic sites. The strategy will enable detailed comparisons of individual events and short-term activities throughout the Palaeolithic where evidence of fires is preserved, thus permitting the monitoring of hominid behavior over significant portions of human history.