Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Accessing Social Geographies in Late Glacial Franco-Cantabria

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Randall White and John O'Hara of New York University will advance understanding of the social behavior and inter-relationships of the hunter-gatherer groups which recolonized Northern Europe towards the end of the last Ice Age. The peak of the last glacial period, known as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), occured approximately 26,500-19,000 years ago (26.5-19ka BP). At this time, most of Europe was depopulated save for sheltered parts of southern Europe known as refugia, where the sheltered local environment made survival possible. The subsequent period from 19-11.5ka BP was characterized by severe climatic oscillation before ultimately ameliorating to near present conditions. This period also witnessed the expansion of human populations, with large swathes of Europe recolonized by a cultural complex known as the Magdalenian. Although a gradually ameliorating climate undoubtedly played a role, the rapid expansion rates of these societies, particularly in the period 18-16ka BP, indicates highly mobile groups actively moving into unfamiliar landscapes while contending with severe climatic instability. Despite the apparent adversity, these small groups of Late Glacial hunter-gatherers established the demographic base for all successive populations across huge swathes of Northern Europe: the Late Glacial recolonization is therefore a process of importance in the demographic history of modern European and European-descent populations. This project examines the personal ornaments recovered from this period to gain insight into the social geographies, exchange networks and mobility strategies of hunter gatherers in the Franco-Cantabrian refugium - a demographic source region comprising south-western France and northern Spain - prior to and during the period of recolonization. Analysis of Magdalenian social networks will enhance understanding of how these prehistoric societies managed erratic environmental flux, suggest the potential implications of climate change on the social organization - or reorganization - of small-scale, non-industrialized societies, and add an archaeological dimension to contemporary scholarship on climate science. This project will construct a typological synthesis of all ornaments recovered from Magdalenian sites in Franco-Cantabria, with the resulting database interrogated for regional or chronological patterning in ornament preference. This will be followed by direct, in depth technological analysis of techniques of modification, decoration and use of a number of ornaments from twenty Magdalenian sites, housed at institutions in the U.S., France and Spain. Finally, analysis of source of a number of decorative perforated teeth will be undertaken using stable isotope geochemistry. Background strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (ä18O) values will be established by analysis of modern geological samples and Magdalenian-period dietary faunal remains, after which analysis of Magdalenian perforated teeth will allow the identification of the geographic origin of these objects. The movement of ornaments across the landscape is closely tied to both personal mobility and to the down-the-line exchange of objects; contextualized analysis of ornament movement will allow these issues to be addressed, thereby advancing understanding of the social geographies of Magdalenian Franco-Cantabria, and the social structures which precipitated demographic expansion.