Microliths and Mortuary Practices: late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers and landscapes in the Azraq Basin, Jordan.

上新石器时代的研究通常将黎凡特的干旱地区视为边缘，而将地中海地区视为欧洲后期文化发展的中心。虽然EP遗址的分布对这一观点提出了质疑（例如Garrard等人1988年的研究和即将发表的研究），但Stock博士和Maher博士最近的研究表明，约旦早期和中期EP遗址被认为是由流动的狩猎采集者占据的，与后来定居的、社会复杂的群体（纳图夫人）的遗址非常相似。在乌云哈马姆（Maher 2005）发现的七具以上人类墓葬使这一时期的人类骨骼数量增加了一倍，并提供了有关健康、饮食、行为和生物亲和力的数据。我们的工作对第一个定居村庄的时间和性质、早期动物驯化、动物在社会生活中的作用、史前健康、殡葬实践和第一个墓地提供了重要的见解。这也提出了一个问题，即乌云·哈曼的特征是独特的，还是表明了EP行为的普遍趋势。拟议的研究旨在通过在Kharaneh IV和Ayn Qasiyah遗址进行的综合挖掘计划，以及对旧石器时代行为变化的考古证据进行分析，来测试这些问题。初步工作表明，这些遗址极有潜力解决我们之前研究中提出的问题，包括丰富的考古和环境记录，以及人类墓葬的存在。这两个地点都位于阿兹拉克盆地，这是一个曾经的湿地，提供了丰富的资源，是整个欧洲人民居住的一个有吸引力的地点。在Kharaneh IV （Muheisen, 1988）进行的测试挖掘揭示了从古埃及早期到中期（约公元前20000 - 15000 cal B.P.）的一长段人类定居序列，以及棚屋结构、壁炉和一些已知最早的约旦人类墓葬的证据。Kharaneh IV为该地区人类居住的长期历史提供了证据，现场埋葬的个人可能代表了在景观中“标记”特殊地点的过程。Ayn Qasiyah展示了早期EP（约21,000-17,000 cal B.P.）和晚期EP（约14,500-10,200 cal B.P.）的职业，以及早期EP视野中半关节的成人骨骼遗骸。该遗址对沼泽沉积物进行了极好的有机保存，这将使我们能够挖掘墓葬，并更详细地了解沼泽中空间组织、遗址使用和变化条件所反映的行为模式。在最近发现的背景下，这些遗址中人类墓葬的存在为研究这一时期的健康、饮食和殡葬习俗提供了第一次机会，并将这些数据与纳图夫墓葬的骨学分析相结合（Stock等人，2005年）。反过来，这些数据对于解决有关习惯行为和定居主义起源、向植物集约化的社会经济转变、与行为变化相关的饮食变化以及详细阐述埋葬习俗等更大规模问题是不可或缺的。我们的项目目标取决于三个申请人和相关专家的明确合作所带来的互补类型的数据。我们的研究将通过挖掘两个地点（根据其空间和时间背景战略性地选择）和重新评估现有证据，批判性地重新评估“农业起源”范式。这个项目将把这种转变置于一个更广泛的理论框架中，包括人类生物学、环境变化、景观利用、生态位建设和社会代理。这种综合方法强调了人类与物质和社会环境的知识接触，通过物质记录表达出来，并将测试农业的行为根源是否在纳图夫人之前被发现。

Studies of the Epipalaeolithic often regard the arid areas of the Levant as marginal, while considering the Mediterranean zone as the centre of cultural developments in the late EP. While EP site distributions have brought this view into question (e.g., Garrard et al. 1988 and forthcoming), recent research by Dr. Stock and Dr. Maher demonstrates that early and middle EP sites in Jordan assumed to have been occupied by mobile hunter-gatherers strongly resemble later sites of sedentary, socially-complex groups (Natufians). More than seven human burials from `Uyun al-Hammam (Maher 2005) doubles the number of human skeletons from this time period and provides data on health, diet, behaviour, and biological affinities. Our work presents critical insights into the timing and nature of the first sedentary villages, early animal domestication, the role of animals in social life, prehistoric health, mortuary practices, and the first cemeteries. It also raises questions as to whether the characteristics of `Uyun al-Hammam are unique, or indicative of broad trends in EP behaviour. The proposed research aims to test these questions through a combined programme of excavation, at the sites of Kharaneh IV and Ayn Qasiyah, and analysis of archaeological evidence for behavioural change in the Epipalaeolithic. Preliminary work demonstrates the excellent potential of these sites for addressing the questions raised by our previous research, both from their rich archaeological and environmental records, and the presence of human burials.Both of these sites fall within the Azraq Basin, a former wetland that provided abundant resources and was an attractive location for human settlement throughout the EP. Test excavations at Kharaneh IV (Muheisen, 1988) revealed a long sequence of human settlement, from the early to the middle EP (c. 20,000-15,000 cal B.P.), with evidence for hut structures, hearths, and some of the earliest known human burials in Jordan. Kharaneh IV provides evidence for a prolonged history of human settlement in the region, and the burial of individuals on-site may represent a process of 'marking out' special places in the landscape. Ayn Qasiyah exhibits both early EP (c. 21,000-17,000 cal B.P.) and late EP (c. 14,500-10,200 cal B.P.) occupations and the semi-articulated remains of an adult skeleton in the early EP horizons. Work at the site, which has excellent organic preservation of the marsh deposits, will enable us to excavate the burial and gain a more detailed understanding of behavioural patterns reflected by spatial organization, site use, and changing conditions within the marshland. The presence of human burials at these sites, in the context of recent discoveries, presents the first opportunity to study the health, diet, and mortuary practices of this period, and to integrate this data with the osteological analysis of Natufian burials (Stock et al., 2005). These data, in turn, are integral to address the larger-scale issues regarding habitual behaviour and the origins of sedentism, socio-economic shifts to plant intensification, dietary changes associated with behavioural change, and the elaboration of burial practices. Our project goals hinge on the complimentary types of data brought together by the explicit collaboration of the three applicants and related specialists.Our research will critically re-evaluate the 'origins of agriculture' paradigm through the excavation of two sites, strategically chosen for their spatial and temporal context, and re-evaluation of existing evidence. This project will place this transition within a broader theoretical framework that includes human biology, environmental change, landscape use, niche construction, and social agency. This integrated approach highlights humans' knowledgeable engagement with a physical and social environment, expressed through the material record, and will test whether the behaviourial roots of agriculture are found prior to the Natufian.