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 Tactikos女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将在坦桑尼亚的奥杜瓦伊峡谷分析两个时间范围内的大量石块样本(石器及其制造副产品)。在美国国家科学基金会多年支持的项目中，布鲁门斯钦博士专注于大约1.83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，因此有可能跟踪它们超过数千公里的沉积物，并系统地对它们进行采样，以寻找人类形状的岩屑和动物群遗骸。根据动物群和沉积学特征，重建了古地理，原则上有可能绘制生态背景下的类人活动图。虽然考古学家传统上关注的是“遗址”、密集的石块和动物遗骸，但布鲁门斯钦博士的团队已经认识到，许多原始人活动发生在非遗址的背景下，只在地貌上留下了少量的印记。因此，他的研究同时包含了密集和较稀疏的物质散射体。Tactikos女士将通过对石块遗骸的系统分析为这一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级别进行分类。然后，她将收集制造过程中使用的原材料，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。在所获得的知识的基础上，将有可能改进和修改原始的类型学。有了这些信息，她就可以研究重建的奥杜瓦伊景观上的类型分布，以洞察早期原始人的土地使用模式。虽然早期奥杜瓦伊原始人与今天的同龄人有许多共同的特征，如直立的姿势和工具的使用，但他们在许多方面行为上都不同。由于现代人就是在这样的基础上发展起来的，科学家们希望了解早期原始人生活方式的基本特征，而像Tactikos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一位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.