U.S.-Ethiopia Dissertation Enhancement: Investigation of Faunal Remains from Two Middle Stone Age Sites of Ethiopia: Garba III (Melka Konture) and Porc-epic

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9731228 Marean & Assefa This dissertation enhancement grants supports a graduate student, Mr. Zelalem Assefa, working under the guidance of Dr. Curtis Marean, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, to do field research in Ethiopia. East Africa is a region that contains significant information about the evolutionary history of the origin of modern humans. Biological and cultural evidence has shown that the Middle Stone Age (MSA) or Middle Paleolithic was an important period in the formative phase of modern behavior of early modern peoples. But examination of the subsistence models used by early modern humans in these periods has provided contradictory explanations about their resource exploitation behaviors. Mr. Assefa hypothesizes that the early appearance of the MSA in Africa is related to adaptive adjustments early modern humans made during the arid and cold phases of the Late Middle and Upper Pleistocene, and that they developed their seasonal exploitation of resources (vegetation and prey animals) into a subsistence strategy during the late MSA in East Africa. The role of hunting may have been one of the factors responsible for the observed technological shift in the MSA, and if so Mr. Assefa also hypothesizes that it will predict major changes in the taphonomic features of faunal remains between late Acheulean and early MSA assemblages. The results of this project will determine if the trajectory for behavioral evolution was the same in both Africa and Europe. This project will test subsistence models that are developed from analyses of faunal specimens from different parts of the Old World and Ethiopia with the MSA record, for the purpose of identifying and analyzing any contradictions among the models. The methodological approaches of GIS-based ecological analysis and taphonomic investigation will be used to collect data from fauna and ecological specimens from the Garba III and Porc-epic sites. Staff members at The National Museum of Ethiopia will collaborate with Mr. Assefa on this project. These results will provide important new information on the behavioral history of the early modern humans in East Africa. The new set of data will also provide a valuable reference resource for other archeological projects in East Africa. Additionally, the grant will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong, independent research career. The Division of International Programs and the Division of Social, Behavioral and Economic Research are jointly providing funding for this project.