Early Epipaleolithic in the Western Highlands of Jordan

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下。Deborah I. Olszewski和Maysoon al-Nahar将带领一个国际小组进行一个为期三年的项目，调查约旦西部高地（跨约旦高原）晚更新世狩猎采集者的适应性。在此期间，用于开发景观资源的行为策略的变化导致了一个长期的过程，导致了史前时期重要的经济转型之一，即农业的起源，这反过来又推动了文明和国家社会的发展。这个西部高地项目的重点是在主要气候变化时期（包括末次盛冰期和气候改善时期）早期的上石器时代（约25000至18000校准年）狩猎采集者策略，所有这些都影响了植物和动物群落。先前在加利利海Ohalo II的研究可以追溯到末次冰期，记录了野生谷物（大麦）的广泛使用。然而，目前尚不清楚的是，野生谷物的集约利用在多大程度上是该地区这些群体的一种战略经济模式，以及这种战略是一直持续下去，还是在粮食生产经济开始之前重新引入。从这个角度来看，约旦的大部分地区目前都没有得到充分的探索。为此，西部高地项目将调查位于不同生态区的三个地点——地中海森林、伊朗-图拉尼亚草原和开放的公园绿地——覆盖晚冰期高峰和随后的气候反弹。具体任务包括：1)用全站仪绘制站点地图；2)与全站站一起对挖掘过程中发现的所有文化材料（石器、动物、贝壳等）和样本进行点源，以确定准确位置并检查遗址的分类；3)对动物和花粉、植物岩、大型植物遗迹、放射性碳定年和地质考古样本进行专家分析，这将产生关于生存、年代学和景观利用的数据；4)现场分析石器文物，了解遗址活动和流动性；5)对所有文化资料进行标识和妥善保管；6)将包括图像在内的所有项目数据存储在数据库中，并在项目网站上提供这些信息，该网站将包括面向公众的部分（包括阿拉伯语部分）。了解不同栖息地中关于食物资源使用的早期旧石器时代决策和策略选择是该项目的主要智力价值，也是关键的一步，它将提供与狩猎采集者定居和生存策略如何在气候和古环境变化面前被修改相关的新的重要数据，从而对驯化经济的起源有更深入的了解。就其更广泛的影响而言，西部高地项目被设计为约旦和非约旦（美国、法国、克罗地亚、英国）参与者之间的国际伙伴关系，从主要调查员到学生成员。特别是，每个约旦学生将与一名非约旦学生配对；这将有助于相互学习不同的考古方法，并增进文化理解。所有学生都将接受全站仪使用、石器分析、挖掘技术和农业出现前的约旦史前史方面的培训。此外，pi和专家将为学生提供使用项目材料撰写论文的机会，并鼓励学生作为项目出版物的共同作者进行合作。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Deborah I. Olszewski and Maysoon al-Nahar will lead an international team on a three-year project investigating late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer adaptations in the Jordanian Western Highlands (Transjordanian Plateau). During this period, changes in behavioral strategies used to exploit landscape resources led to long-term processes that resulted in one of the key economic transitions in prehistory, the origins of agriculture, which in turn fueled the development of civilizations and state-based societies. This Western Highlands project focuses on Early Epipaleolithic (ca. 25,000 to 18,000 calibrated years BP) hunter-gatherer strategies during a period of major climatic change, including the Last Glacial Maximum and a climatic amelioration, all of which impacted plant and animal communities. Previous research at Ohalo II, Sea of Galilee, which dates to the Last Glacial Maximum, documented extensive use of wild cereals (barley). What is not clear, however, is the extent to which intensive use of wild cereals was a strategic economic pattern for these groups across the region and whether this strategy persisted through time or was reintroduced just prior to the onset of food production economies.Much of the Jordanian landscape is currently under-explored from this perspective. To this end, the Western Highlands project will investigate three sites that are situated in different ecological zones - Mediterranean forest, Irano-Turanian steppe, and open parkland - covering the Late Glacial Maximum and the succeeding climatic rebound. Specific tasks include 1) mapping sites with a Total Station; 2) point proveniencing all cultural materials (stone artifacts, fauna, shell, etc.) and samples recovered during excavations with the Total Station for accurate locations and to examine site taphonomy; 3) specialist analysis of fauna and samples for pollen, phytoliths, macrobotanical remains, radiocarbon dating, and geoarchaeology, which will yield data on subsistence, chronology, and landscape use; 4) field analyzing stone artifacts which will inform about site activities and mobility; 5) labeling and properly curating all cultural materials; and, 6) storing all project data, including images, in databases, as well as making this information available on a project website which will include a public-oriented component (including a section in Arabic). Understanding Early Epipaleolithic decisions and strategy options regarding food resource use in different habitats is the primary intellectual merit of this project and a crucial step that will provide new and important data relevant to how hunter-gatherer settlement and subsistence strategies are modified in the face of climatic and paleoenvironmental changes, leading to more informed insight into how domestication economies may have originated.In terms of its broader impacts, the Western Highlands project is designed as an international partnership between Jordanian and non-Jordanian (U.S., France, Croatia, U.K.) participants at all levels from the Principal Investigators to the student members. In particular, each Jordanian student will be paired with a non-Jordanian student; this will facilitate learning different archaeological methods from each other, as well as result in enhanced cultural understanding. All student participants will be trained in Total Station use, lithic analysis, excavation techniques, and Jordanian prehistory prior to the advent of agriculture. Additionally, the PIs and specialists will offer opportunities for students to use the project materials for theses, and encourage the students to collaborate as co-authors on project publications.