Dissertation: Landscape and Experimental Perspectives on the Technological Organization of Oldowan Hominids in the Paleo-Olduvai Basin

在Robert Blumenschine博士的指导下，Joanne tactical kos女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将分析来自坦桑尼亚奥杜瓦伊峡谷（Olduvai Gorge）两个时间跨度的大量石器（石器工具及其制造副产品）样本。在一个由美国国家科学基金会支持的多年项目中，Blumenschine博士专注于大约183万年和175万年前的两个单元。由于这些古陆地表面在地质序列中有明确的定义，因此有可能在许多公里的沉积物中跟踪它们，并对人类形状的岩石和动物遗骸进行系统的取样。根据动物群和沉积学特征重建了古地理，原则上可以在生态背景下绘制古人类活动图。虽然考古学家传统上关注的是“遗址”，即密集的石器和动物遗骸，但布鲁门斯钦博士的团队已经认识到，许多人类活动发生在非遗址环境中，只在景观上留下了不起眼的印记。因此，他的研究包含了密集和更稀疏的材料散射。MS tactical kos将通过对石器遗迹的系统分析为这项更大的努力做出贡献。她将根据标准化的考古类型学对奥杜瓦伊石器的两个层次进行分类。然后，她将收集用于制造的原材料，复制生产技术，然后使用复制品执行各种任务，如切割和刮木头。在获得知识的基础上，它将有可能完善和修改原来的类型学。有了这些信息，她就可以检查重建的奥杜瓦伊景观上的类型分布，从而深入了解早期人类的土地利用模式。虽然早期的奥杜瓦伊原始人与现在的同类有许多共同的特征，比如直立的姿势和使用工具，但他们在许多行为上都是不同的。因为现代人类就是在这样一个基础上发展起来的，科学家们希望了解早期原始人生活方式的基本特征，而像塔提科斯这样的大规模地理研究有可能帮助实现这一目标。这项研究也很重要，因为它将有助于培养有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Robert Blumenschine, MS. Joanne Tactikos will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will analyze a large sample of lithics (stone tools and their manufacturing byproducts) from two time horizons at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Over the course of a multiyear NSF supported project, Dr. Blumenschine has concentrated on two units approximately 1.83 and 1.75 million years ago. Because these paleo- land surfaces are clearly defined in the geological sequence, it has been possible to follow them over many kilometers of sediment and to sample them systematically for both human shaped lithics and for faunal remains. Based on the fauna and on sedimentological characteristics the paleogeography has been reconstructed and it is possible, in principle, to map hominid activities in ecological context. While archaeologists traditionally focus on "sites", dense concentrations of lithics and faunal remains, Dr. Blumenschine's team has recognized that many hominid activities occur in a non-site context and leave only a modest imprint on the landscape. Thus his study incorporates both dense and more sparse material scatters. MS Tactikos will contribute to this larger endeavor through the systematic analysis of the lithic remains. She will categorize the two levels of Olduvai lithics according to standardized archaeological typology. She will then collect raw materials employed in their manufacture, duplicate the production techniques and then use the replicas to perform a variety of tasks such as cutting and scraping wood. On the basis of knowledge gained it will then be possible to refine and modify the original typology. With this information she can then examine the distribution of types on the reconstructed Olduvai landscapes to gain insight into early hominid land use patterns.While early Olduvai hominids shared many attributes such as upright posture and tool use with their present day counterparts, they were in many ways behaviorally distinct. Because it is from such a base that modern humans developed, scientists wish to understand essential characteristics of early hominid lifestyle and large scale geographic studies such as Tactikos have the potential to help accomplish this. The research is also important because it will help to train a promising young scientist.