The Paleolithic Faunas of Hayonim Cave (Israel): An Integrated Plan for Research and Education on Hominid Ecology

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Stiner This award under the NSF Faculty Early Career Development competition will provide five years of support to Dr. Mary Stiner to further her paleoanthropological research in Israel, to permit her to develop a laboratory at the University of Arizona and to allow the incorporation students into her project. The funding will permit her and a student to travel to Israel each year to conduct preliminary analyses of faunal materials recovered through archaeological excavation. A sample will be shipped to the Arizona facility where they will be subjected to extensive examination. Funds will also permit the purchase of necessary research and training equipment and laboratory supplies and will provide student support. Dr. Stiner's study centers on the analysis of recently excavated faunas from Hayonim Cave in Israel. The work investigates the human foraging niche in the Near East during the late Middle through early Upper Pleistocene geologic periods, a question fundamental to understanding the origins of modern humans in this region. The long faunal sequence at Hayonim is important because it fills a unique and crucial gap in our knowledge about the emergence of anatomically modern humans. During this period between ca. 200,000 to 50,000 years ago two different kinds of humans were present in the Near East. One of these was directly ancestral to modern day peoples and archaeologists wish to understand their behavior and how they adapted to their changing environment. Through the analysis of faunal remains, it will be possible to reconstruct environmental change over time and to gain insight into the ways in which people utilized the range of animal resources available to them. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on human-environment interactions. It will provide insight into the emergence of modern behaviors, support the research and teaching career of a promising young scientist and assist in student training.