The Critical Role of Technological Analysis for Prehistoric Anthropological Inference
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THE CRITICAL ROLE OF TECHNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS FOR PREHISTORIC ANTHROPOLOGICAL INFERENCE GARY 0. ROLLEFSON Department of Anthropology, 92182
San Diego State University,
San Diego, CA
ABSTRACT Prehistoric archaeology has profited enormously from the expanding role of technological examination of artifactual materials, particularly in the past couple of decades. Indeed, the rapid growth of materials sciences studies has evidently begun to outpace the capacity of many prejistoric archaeologists to accomodate the results of technological analyses into anthropological models to explain perceived changes in the prehistoric archaeological record. The sheer numbers of published technological reports, which increasingly appear in a growing number of specialized journals and other publications, account for some of the communications lag among prehistorians and materials scientists. But long-held and persistent myths and "hearsay" evidence also contribute to a widening gap between relevant data and critical evaluation. The case study presented below compares scenarios that purport to explain striking contrasts in the northern and southern parts of the Levant during the middle part of the Neolithic period, particularly from ca. 6,500-5,000 b.c. One hypothesis (climatic change) is briefly dismissed; the other hinges principally on the environmental implications of plaster production that characterized the cultures of the region. The "collapse" of the southern Levantine settlements is understandable when the specific requirements of lime plaster manufacture are taken into account, while the conditions for the persistence of long-term site continuity in the northern Levant are clear under the less pressing environmental demands of gypsum plaster production.
INTRODUCTION The eastern Mediterranean region, encompassing portions of modern Anatolia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan, comprises a broad area of contrasting regional and local topography and consequent environmental zones. Despite this variety of local landscapes and resources, the Levant was characterized by a remarkably coherent cultural homogeneity, especially in the late 8th through 7th millennia b.c., commonly referred to as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period. An intriguing problem of Neolithic developments in the Near East centers on the general continuity of site habitation in the northern Levant (i.e., Syria north of Damascus), while the region to the south underwent profound changes in settlement history. Some prehistorians have taken the situation in the south to reflect circumstances of catastrophic proportions, arguing that the widespread abandonment of every known farming village by the end of the 7th millennium b.c. represented a virtual depopulation of the entire region, an example of a prehistoric diaspora to the north that lasted for up to a millennium [1]. The explanation for such a widespread calamity quickly fell to a regional "prime mover". Such a general and prolonged desertion was most easily explained in terms of the marginal clim
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