Descrizione del progetto
Materiali adesivi nella tecnologia preistorica complessa
La comprensione della complessità comportamentale e cognitiva è un aspetto essenziale dell’archeologia del Paleolitico, in modo specifico per quanto concerne le differenze e le somiglianze tra i Neanderthal e gli esseri umani moderni. I materiali adesivi sono uno dei migliori rappresentanti di una complessa tecnologia preistorica e sono particolarmente adatti allo studio del comportamento dell’uomo di Neanderthal e quello dell’uomo moderno. Il progetto AncientAdhesives, finanziato dall’UE, si propone di creare il primo metodo affidabile per mettere a confronto antichi sviluppi tecnologici e per studiare le differenze e le somiglianze tra l’uomo di Neanderthal e l’uomo moderno per quanto riguarda tecnologia impiegata e complessità comportamentale. Il progetto stabilirà la prima banca dati completa sui materiali adesivi, svilupperà una nuova metodologia archeologica e valuterà il processo di complessità tecnologica dell’adesivo nel corso del tempo nelle due specie.
Obiettivo
AncientAdhesives addresses the most crucial problem in Palaeolithic archaeology: How to reliably infer cognitively complex behaviour in the deep past. To study the evolution of Neandertal and modern human cognitive capacities, certain find categories are taken to reflect behavioural and thus cognitive complexitye.g. Among these are art objects, personal ornaments and complex technology. Of these technology is best-suited to trace changing behavioural complexity, because 1) it is the least vulnerable to differential preservation, and 2) technological behaviours are present throughout the history of our genus. Adhesives are the oldest examples of highly complex technology. They are also known earlier from Neandertal than from modern human contexts. Understanding their technological complexity is thus essential to resolve debates on differences in cognitive complexity of both species. However, currently, there is no agreed-upon method to measure technological complexity.
The aim of AncientAdhesives is to create the first reliable method to compare the complexity of Neandertal and modern human technologies. This is achieved through three main objectives:
1. Collate the first comprehensive body of knowledge on adhesives, including ethnography, archaeology and (experimental) material properties (e.g. preservation, production).
2. Develop a new archaeological methodology by modifying industrial process modelling for archaeological applications.
3. Evaluate the development of adhesive technological complexity through time and across species using a range of explicit complexity measures.
By analysing adhesives, it is possible to measure technological complexity, to identify idiosyncratic behaviours and to track adoption and loss of complex technological know-how. This represents a step-change in debates about the development of behavioural complexity and differences/similarities between Neanderthals and modern humans.
Campo scientifico
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Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
2628 CN Delft
Paesi Bassi