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·马里恩博士和他的学生们将分析从Die Kelders考古遗址中发现的动物遗骸。它位于南非南部海岸，开普敦东南约120公里处，包括两个相邻的洞穴，其中的分层沉积物记录了可能长达25万年的人类活动。马里恩博士及其合作者通过美国国家科学基金会支持的研究发现的材料包括石器工具、原始人牙齿以及大量的动物遗骸。后一组材料构成了当前研究的重点。该小组将分析该遗址中石器时代早期（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。这项工作的目的不仅是研究饮食，而且是重建用于获取猎物的技术。通过对身体部位分布的检查，有可能确定被吃掉的动物尸体是有目的的狩猎还是食肉动物的腐食。一份被猎杀和食用的物种清单也提供了对狩猎能力的深入了解。这类研究非常耗时，因为马里恩博士之前的工作已经证实，不仅需要关注容易辨认的大块骨头碎片，还需要关注考古学家通常归类为“无法辨认”的长骨轴的小碎片。因此，大规模的改装是必要的。考古学家认为，石器时代中期的非洲人要么是现代人的直系祖先，要么是行为现代人的第一批代表，通过分析他们的行为，将有可能深入了解现代人的起源。关于这些群体所表现出的文化能力水平存在着广泛的分歧，其中大部分分歧集中在生存能力上。一些考古学家认为，MSA群体缺乏捕猎大型动物的能力，在遗址中发现的这些遗骸是食腐的结果。另一些人则认为情况正好相反。有了从Die Kelders精心挖掘的材料，以及马里恩博士及其同事开发的分析技术，应该有可能在这些和其他几种选择中做出选择。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。它将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据，并协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.