Paleolithic Portuguese Landscapes

University Of Louisville Research Foundation Inc, Louisville KY

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Jonathan Haws, along with American and European colleagues, will conduct a National Science Foundation-supported two-year archaeological survey along the coast of central Portugal to study flexibility in human adaptations to changing coastal and near-coastal landscapes and seascapes during the Paleolithic period. The goal is to test the idea that the intensity of human settlement corresponds with changes in ocean productivity, namely fluctuations in upwelling intensity over time. During the Paleolithic, the upwelling off the coast of Portugal was 3-7 times more intense than today. This would have created an even richer marine ecosystem would have made the coast an extremely attractive place to live. The project team has designed a survey and testing program to discover new sites, reconstruct the ancient landscapes and track changes through time. An initial survey supported by the National Science Foundation resulted in the discovery of 60 new sites in the research area. The survey area encompasses a 400 km2 region near the town of Nazare. Within this area the project identified three areas of particular importance for future intensive survey and testing. In the next two years, the team will conduct intensive survey of the coastal margin north of Nazare, where two Neandertal sites were found in ancient beach sediments that have been uplifted through tectonic processes. These sediments are exposed along a 2-km stretch of coast and will be systematically tested for additional sites. Slightly, inland the project team will survey an upland zone where flint outcrops from the bedrock limestone. Initial survey has identified many sites in a small area within this zone. The source may be the primary one utilized by people inhabiting the shore during the Paleolithic. In addition, a small cave was tested in this area in 2006. This site has Paleolithic artifacts and should yield direct evidence for the use of marine foods. A third area to the south of Nazare has caves and rockshelters within a short distance to the Paleolithic shore and these will be tested to find evidence for human consumption of marine resources. The proposed survey will enable an understanding of the relationship between coastal productivity and human adaptations. Variations in coastal productivity certainly affected resource availability through space and time and the survival of prehistoric populations would have necessitated flexible adaptations. The project has the potential to revolutionize the current knowledge of Paleolithic human lifeways by demonstrating the importance of a hitherto underappreciated focus of human settlement. The broader impacts of scientific endeavors like the one proposed crosscut national boundaries to unite people from different cultural backgrounds in the common pursuit of knowledge. This project will bring together Portuguese and American faculty and students to pursue important questions regarding the human past. The proposed research will shed light on fundamental issues in human evolution and human behavior. Given the expansion of the global community, it is especially important to build and maintain collaborative research between scholars from the United States and the rest of the world.