Zooarchaeological and Taphonomic Analysis of the Die Kelders Cave 1 (South Africa) Middle Stone Age Fauna

在国家科学基金会的支持下，柯蒂斯·马雷恩博士和他的学生将分析从Die Kelders考古遗址发现的动物遗骸。它位于南非南部海岸，在开普敦东南约120公里处，包括两个毗邻的洞穴，其中包含的层状沉积物记录了长达25万年的人类活动。Marean博士和他的合作者通过NSF资助的研究发现了包括石器和原始人牙齿在内的材料，以及大量的动物遗骸。后一组材料构成了本研究的重点。该小组将分析该遗址早期中期石器时代(MSA)水平的哺乳动物骨骼--大多数是通过人类狩猎引入洞穴的。这项工作的目标不仅是检查饮食，而且要重建用来获取猎物的技术。通过对身体部位分布的检查，可以确定所食用的动物身体是出于有目的的狩猎，还是出于对食肉动物猎物的搜寻。一份被猎杀和吃掉的物种清单也提供了对狩猎能力的洞察。这类研究很耗时，因为马雷恩博士之前的工作已经证实，有必要不仅关注容易识别的大型骨骼碎片，而且还要关注较小的长骨骨干碎片，考古学家通常将其归类为无法识别。因此，大规模改装是必要的。考古学家认为，非洲石器时代中期的人民要么是行为现代人的直系祖先，要么是行为现代人的最早代表，通过对他们行为的分析，将有可能洞察现代人的起源。对于这些群体表现出的文化能力水平，人们存在着广泛的分歧，其中很大一部分集中在生存能力上。一些考古学家认为，MSA组织缺乏狩猎大型动物的能力，这些遗骸是在拾荒者发现的地点发现的。其他人则认为情况恰恰相反。有了Die Kelders精心挖掘的材料，以及Marean博士和同事开发的分析技术，应该可以在这些和其他几种选择中进行选择。这项研究很重要，因为它将为现代人类行为的出现提供新的线索。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，并帮助培训和促进几名研究生的学术生涯。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Curtis Marean and his students will analyze faunal remains recovered from the archaeological site of Die Kelders. Located on the southern coast of South Africa, approximately 120 km SE of Cape town, it includes two adjoining caves and the stratified deposits contained therein document human activity for possibly as much as a quarter million years. The materials recovered by Dr. Marean and collaborators through NSF supported research include stone tools and hominid teeth as well as abundant faunal remains. This latter body of material constitutes the focus for the current study. The group will analyze mammal bones - most introduced to the caves through human hunting - from the earlier Middle Stone Age (MSA) levels of the site. The goal of the work is to examine not only diet but to reconstruct the techniques employed to obtain prey. It is possible through the examination of body part distributions to determine whether the animal carcasses consumed resulted from purposeful hunting or from scavenging of carnivore kills. A list of species which were hunted and eaten also provides insight into hunting capabilities. A study of this kind is time consuming because prior work by Dr. Marean has confirmed the necessity to focus not only on large and easily identifiable bone fragments but also on smaller splinters of longbone shaft which archaeologists normally categorize as `unidentifiable.` Thus extensive refitting is necessary. Archaeologists believe that the Middle Stone Age peoples of Africa were either the immediate ancestors or first representatives of behaviorally modern humans and through analysis of their behavior it will be possible to gain insight into modern human origins. There has been extensive disagreement about the level of cultural competence exhibited by such groups and much of this has centered on subsistence competence. Some archaeologists have argued that MSA groups lacked the ability to hunt large animals and that such remains recovered in sites resulted from scavenging. Others believe exactly the opposite is the case. With the carefully excavated materials from Die Kelders and the analytic techniques Dr. Marean and colleagues have developed, it should be possible to select among these, and several other alternatives. This research is important because it will shed new light on the emergence of modern human behavior. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists and assist in training and furthering the academic careers of several graduate students.