Dissertation Research: Stable Isotope Analysis of Paleosols

在斯坦利·安布罗斯博士的指导下， 伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳分校人类学教授南希女士 赛克斯将开展一项实地和实验室相结合的项目 分析，为她的博士论文收集数据。 双 她的项目的目标是开发重建 过去的植被群落，然后将它们应用到重要的 东非的考古遗址 她将专注于 土壤有机质碳同位素分析 植物利用不同的代谢途径，因此， 含有不同比例的碳同位素 因为这种 植被提供了土壤中的主要有机成分， 土壤的同位素比例可能因植被而异， 反对有效 初步分析表明， 从土壤到植物群落。 赛克斯女士将研究东非的一些土壤。 以下 一个海拔梯度，她会注意到现代植被， 收集相关土壤。 在同位素分析后，她将尝试 确定不同类型的签名。 在此基础上，她将 然后研究两个重要考古遗址的样本： 坦桑尼亚的奥杜瓦伊峡谷和位于 肯尼亚中部。 在这两个地点的长期工作已经产生了 早期人类文化遗迹的大量样本 到 解释发生的活动，因此， 深入了解原始人的适应性，有必要建立 环境背景，赛克斯女士的分析应该提供 一个基础 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。 这将有助于 发展一种在广泛的考古学中使用的技术 situations. 它还将提供关于早期人类 居住 最后，它将进一步培训一个极端 有前途的年轻科学家

Under the direction of Dr. Stanley Ambrose, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana, Ms. Nancy Sikes will carry out a combined program of field and laboratory analysis to collect data for her doctoral dissertation. The twin goals of her project are to develop techniques for reconstructing past vegetation communities and then apply them to significant archaeological sites in East Africa. She will focus on the analysis of carbon isotopes in organic components of soil. Plants utilize different metabolic pathways and as a result, contain different ratios of carbon isotopes. Since such vegetation provides the main organic component in soil, different soils may vary in isotope ratio based on the vegetation they sustained. Preliminary analysis suggests it is possible to work backwards from soil to plant community. Ms. Sikes will study a number of soils in East Africa. Following an altitudinal gradient she will note modern plant cover and then collect associated soil. After isotope analysis she will try to determine different types of signatures. On this basis she will then study samples from two important archaeological sites: Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and Olorgessalie which is located in central Kenya. Long-term work at both sites has yielded extensive samples of early hominid cultural remains. To interpret the activities which took place and, therefore, gain insight into hominid adaptations, it is necessary to establish the environmental context, and Ms. Sikes analyses should provide a basis. This research is important for several reasons. It will help to develop a technique of use in a wide range of archaeological situations. It will also provide insight into how early humans lived. Finally, it will further the training of an extremely promising young scientist.