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  • 标题:The Earliest Occupation of Europe: Proceedings of the European Science Foundation Workshop at Tautavel (France), 1993.
  • 作者:Ashton, Nick
  • 期刊名称:Antiquity
  • 印刷版ISSN:0003-598X
  • 出版年度:1996
  • 期号:December
  • 语种:English
  • 出版社:Cambridge University Press
  • 摘要:The book is the result of a workshop held at Tautavel (France) in November 1993, to discuss this issue. Battle-lines had long been drawn, with one camp (the long chronologists represented by the 'old guard') arguing that the earliest industries could be dated to within the Early Pleistocene (anything from two million to 900,000 years ago), with the opposing camp (short chronologists) pushing for a much later arrival at around 500,000 years ago.
  • 关键词:Book reviews;Books

The Earliest Occupation of Europe: Proceedings of the European Science Foundation Workshop at Tautavel (France), 1993.


Ashton, Nick


Consensus is a rarity in archaeology, and in the past none more so than in the Palaeolithic. Debates have fuelled research and vice versa in a way that at times has appeared somewhat circular. Did the subject progress, or was it merely creating its own agenda? One debate where the question is clear, but the debate is not, is the problem of 'earliest'. This is surely what many see the subject as about - the origins of humans. This has led to controversy from the 'Antiquity of Man' debate in the early 1860s, to the eolith problem at the turn of the century, and even today about the earliest occupation of Europe, the subject of the present book.

The book is the result of a workshop held at Tautavel (France) in November 1993, to discuss this issue. Battle-lines had long been drawn, with one camp (the long chronologists represented by the 'old guard') arguing that the earliest industries could be dated to within the Early Pleistocene (anything from two million to 900,000 years ago), with the opposing camp (short chronologists) pushing for a much later arrival at around 500,000 years ago.

The book, I am sure, is a sanitized version of the workshop, caused in part I suspect by the reluctance of some members of the 'old guard' to contribute. The editors (Roebroeks & van Kolfschoten) are both avowed short chronologists, and although this is supported by the majority of the contributors, notable exceptions (Valoch, chapter 5, and Bosinski, chapters 7 & 14) provide an opposing view.

The issues at stake are clearly laid down by Roebroeks & van Kolfschoten (chapter 17). First, what type of evidence provides the clearest chronological framework, applicable on a European-wide scale? They argue that regional lithostratigraphic schemes have proved difficult to correlate across the continent, absolute dating methods currently lack the desired resolution (despite Aitken's optimism for the future, chapter 15), while evolutionary change is absent in the palynological record. Mammals, on the other hand, in terms of extinction and morphological change provide the best scheme, measured particularly by the now famous 'vole-clock'. This is not without its detractors or its problems. Synchronic variations certainly exist; endemic populations probably survived in Iberia (Raposo & Santonja, chapter 1) and in the Caucasus (Ljubin & Bosinski, chapter 12). Despite these problems, Roebroeks & van Kolfschoten are probably right to take this as their chosen yardstick, against which the competing claims can be compared.

The second issue is what constitutes an incontrovertible stone tool assemblage. Small collections of pebbles with occasional flake scars and cortical flakes, extracted from large gravel beds, do not. Acceptable assemblages are argued to be those from well-dated, fine-grained contexts with clear knapping scatters, preferably with refitting. This is supported by Raynal et al. (chapter 8) in a lithological and technological study of both natural and archaeological assemblages from the Massif Central. The natural 'tephrofacts' are dominated by granites and gneiss, as are the more controversial assemblages, whereas the artefacts from undisputed assemblages are mainly made from quartz, basalt and flint. Such a strict approach to dating and human evidence may appear harsh, but as Roebroeks & van Kolfschoten point out, if early evidence does exist it should be 'easy to falsify'.

The results are presented as a series of chapters covering the geographical extent of Europe. The assemblages clearly divide into two types - those where controversy surrounds the human nature of the artefacts, the context or the dating, and those where large assemblages come from well-dated contexts in association with rich mammalian faunas. Lying on the sick-bed are the allegedly early sites such as Beroun and Prezletice in the Czech Republic (Valoch, chapter 5), Karlich A, Ba and Bb in Germany (Bosinski, chapter 7), Atapuerca TD4 in Spain (Raposo & Santonja, chapter 1), together with Monte Poggiolo and Monte Peglia in Italy (Mussi, chapter 2) and Le Vallonet and Chilhac III in France (Roebroeks & van Kolfschoten, chapter 17; Raynal et al., chapter 8 respectively).

Sites with a clean bill of health and all dating to around 500,000 years ago include Karlich G and Misenheim I in Germany (Bosinski, chapter 7), St Acheul in France (Antoine & Tuffreau, chapter 9), Boxgrove in England (Roberts et al., chapter 10) and Veneso-Loreto in Italy (Mussi, chapter 2). Of more difficulty are the claimed early sites around Orce and level TD6 at Atapuerca (Spain), where more fieldwork and dating is required (Raposo & Santonja, chapter 1; Roebroeks & van Kolfschoten, chapter 17) and Isernia in Italy, which despite early absolute dates is still associated with a fauna normally attributed to 500,000 (Mussi, chapter 2). Petralona too has problems, lacking a context for the human skull, and a dearth of published details about the lithic industry (Darlas, chapter 3).

This book, however, is more than just a list of early sites. It is a well-documented catalogue, presenting both the controversial and less controversial assemblages earlier than 300,000 years ago. As such it is the most up-to-date and accessible review of its kind. The peripheries of Europe are also examined. The absence of a Palaeolithic in Scandinavia, often blamed on destructive ice-sheets, is optimistically dismissed by Holm & Larson (chapter 11), while the lack of sites on the Eurasian mammoth-steppe (Praslov, chapter 4) is attributed by Gamble to, among other things, extreme seasonality (chapter 16). This may also explain the later dates for sites in eastern Germany (Mania, chapter 6). More of this below. At the other end of the scale, the early sites in Morocco are reviewed by Raynal et al. (chapter 13), Casablanca dating back to 800,000, while Dmanisi in the Caucasus appears to date to at least one million years ago (Ljubin & Bosinski, chapter 12).

This immediately leads to a further question - if humans were clearly entering southern Asia from Africa, certainly over a million years ago, why was Europe not colonized for over half a million years? The ecological requirements for colonization in western and central Europe are discussed in detail by Gamble (chapter 16) in the most thought-provoking of the chapters. The oceanic effect in the west, and continentality in the east, caused animal migrations from the Russian mammoth-steppes during cold periods and migrations from Mediterranean refugias during warm periods. The blend of plains and uplands across the area also produced close-knit, resilient, mosaic environments. These, combined with the extinction of the large flesh-eaters (Turner 1992) and diversification of the herbivores (Cordy 1992) around 500,000 years ago, created the conditions that were suitable for human colonization. Were these the result of the intermittent migration of ever-maturing mammoth-steppe faunas, together with the increased length and amplitude of the interglacial-glacial cycle? Perhaps.

Through ecological approaches of this type, the book clearly shows that the original question - what are the earliest sites in Europe? - is a subject worthy of serious debate beyond the mere establishment of a starting point. It also highlights the different agendas of the short and long chronologists. The 'old guard' are still concerned by the question of earliest because it acts as a beginning for studying the progressive evolution of cultural groups. It is noted with interest that all the early, controversial assemblages consist of choppers and flakes. Is this merely a mirage of the Oldowan? In contrast, the short chronologists seek the reasons for, and behavioural responses to, colonization. Or, as put succinctly by Gamble, '. . . we can begin to examine the relationship between colonizing populations, habitat choice and population dynamics . . . Such a debate should now be based on the premise that the colonizing capabilities of these hominids was not limited solely by environmental conditions but rather by their own organizational responses to the structures of such environments.'

The editors should be congratulated for producing a book that not only draws together the available evidence, but begins to provide a consensus about the way we should study this problem. Of further relevance, it also puts into clear perspective one of the most important research agendas for the next decade.

NICK ASHTON Department of Prehistoric & Romano-British Antiquities British Museum, London

References

CORDY, J.M. 1992. Apport de la paleomammologie a la paleoanthropologie en Europe, in M. Toussaint (ed.), Cinq millions d'annees, l'aventure humaine: 77-94. Liege: ERAUL.

TURNER, A. 1992. Large carnivores and earliest European hominids: changing determinants of resource availability during the Lower and Middle Pleistocene, Journal of Human Evolution 22: 109-26.
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