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。她将分析来自坦桑尼亚奥杜威峡谷两个时间范围内的大量石器（石器及其制造副产品）样本。在一个由美国国家科学基金会支持的多年项目中，Blumenschine博士集中研究了大约183万年前和175万年前的两个单位。由于这些古陆地表面在地质序列中有明确的定义，因此有可能在长达数公里的沉积物中跟踪它们，并对它们进行系统的采样，以获得人形岩石和动物遗迹。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人科动物活动图。虽然考古学家传统上关注的是“遗址”，即密集的石器和动物群遗迹，但Blumenschine博士的团队已经认识到，许多原始人类活动发生在非遗址环境中，只在景观上留下了适度的印记。因此，他的研究包括密集和更稀疏的物质散射。MS Tactikos将通过对石器遗迹的系统分析，为这一更大的奋进做出贡献。她将根据标准化的考古类型学对奥杜威石器的两个层次进行分类。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，如切割和刮削木材。在所获得的知识的基础上，将有可能改进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威景观上的类型分布，以深入了解早期原始人的土地使用模式。虽然早期奥杜威原始人与现在的同类有许多共同的属性，如直立的姿势和工具的使用，但他们在许多方面的行为截然不同。因为现代人类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类生活方式的基本特征，而Tactikos等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个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.