Doctoral Dissertation Research: Regional Variation in Late Upper Paleolithic Human Postcrania

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Upper Paleolithic early modern humans from Europe exhibit chronological trends in postcranial biomechanical features. These trends include a modest increase in upper limb robusticity and a decrease in antero-posterior lower limb strength, despite stasis in femoral overall strength. This variation is seemingly related to behavioral changes that indicate resource intensification and decreased mobility. It is unknown whether these are regional or global trends due to a shortage of fossil material and the low level of paleobiological analysis of modern human remains from geographical areas outside of Europe. As such, the goal of this research is the analysis of postcranial robusticity, combining existing European data with that available for or to be generated from non-European Late Upper Paleolithic fossil material. The non-European samples at the focus of this analysis include Tam Hang, a previously unstudied population from southeast Asia; Wadi Halfa, Jebel Sahaba, Taforalt, Afalou, Tushka and Esna from north Africa; and Nahal Ein Gev, Neve David and Ohalo 2 from Israel. Robusticity will be analyzed for the upper and lower limbs of these samples using diaphyseal cross-sectional biomechanical properties. Additional information about the size and strength of the appendicular skeleton will supplement this robusticity data. Supplemental methods will include analysis of muscularity (muscular hypertrophy and levels of mechanical efficiency in bone-muscle lever systems) and articular robusticity (joint size and shape). These traits will be used to perform a functional and biomechanical analysis of the postcranial material from these non-European samples, in the context of other better known regional samples, in order to provide relative measures of robusticity and inferences regarding biobehavioral variation in the Late Upper Paleolithic.The intellectual significance of this research includes 1) biomechanical description and analysis of previously unstudied populations of the Late Upper Paleolithic and 2) the contribution of additional evidence of biobehavioral variation in late Pleistocene humans. Given that the terminal Pleistocene is a period of dramatic environmental changes associated with the Last Glacial Maximum (18 ky BP), current evidence suggests shifts in subsistence-related behavior as well. This research will expand the current perspective on modern humans of the Late Upper Paleolithic and further address Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer evolution and expand the background to the emergence of food producing societies and the profound cultural and biological changes associated with such changes in subsistence.The broader impacts of this study include international collaboration with researchers from Europe (London, UK, Paris, France, Rome, Italy), Africa (Cape Town, South Africa) and Asia (Tel Aviv, Israel, Kyoto, Japan). Additionally, it will address a region of the world that is underrepresented and poorly understood in the late Pleistocene and offer further information about human evolution in southeast Asia.