Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Ecological & Behavioral Implications of New Archaeological Occurrences from Upper Burgi Exposures at Koobi Fora, Kenya

在J.W.K.博士的指导下哈里斯，杰克麦考伊将进行广泛的实地调查和挖掘200万年前的沉积物沉积在北方肯尼亚Koobi Fora。 这个博士论文项目的目的是识别，表征和描述考古学事件主要通过原始人（早期人类）的代理修改化石骨展示肉类消费和石器使用的证据。 使用石器加工尸体的肉和骨髓会在新鲜的骨头上产生明显的修改痕迹（切割痕迹，敲击痕迹）。 这些痕迹通常在骨头变硬时保留下来。 在230万年前，这种新的肉类消费行为的既定模式的证据（石器工具和有切割痕迹的化石）已经在埃塞俄比亚北部发现，而在肯尼亚的Lokalalei西部不远处。 然而，在库比福拉，从上伯吉（220 ~ 190万年前）暴露的地方发现了30多个原始人（南方古猿属）的化石遗骸，但对这一时期原始人的行为、生态或物质文化几乎一无所知。 Koobi Fora以前进行的广泛的古生物学和考古学研究并没有集中在上伯吉时期的考古遗迹上;这是原始人类进化的关键时期。Koobi Fora占地面积超过3,000平方公里。 大约1,000平方公里的土地上有过去400万年的古代沉积物。 由于暴露的独特性质和巨大的横向范围，可以在沉积物中识别出各种各样的古代景观和栖息地。 选择分布广泛的调查区域，利用改良的骨和石器作为景观标记，可以对这一时期的原始人类活动和运动进行区域性观察。 认识到这些标志物在广泛不同的地理位置和古环境中的分布模式，将使人们能够解决原始人类栖息地偏好的理论问题，以及在人类进化的早期阶段尚未解决的饮食和行为的变化。 值得注意的是，这项研究超越了对考古痕迹的发现和初步描述，并考察了在一种新的原始人类行为（食肉）开始时使石器适应的环境，这种行为最终将成为习惯。 预计这项研究将成为一个长期的流域范围内的比较研究，将解决在图尔卡纳盆地最早的考古记录随着时间的推移不断变化的性质的一部分。从更广泛的角度来看，这个项目有可能确认修改后的化石骨作为一个明确的代理石器使用的有用性。 如果具有指示原始人类活动的修改签名的骨化石碎片在地质记录中具有可见性，那么在已知不存在石器工具证据（传统考古记录）的情况下，将有可能识别原始人类的存在和行为模式。 来自埃塞俄比亚戈纳的石器，可追溯到260万年前，目前定义了考古记录的开始。 关于260万年前的原始人行为的可验证的假设只有在原始人可以在古代景观中找到的情况下才能形成。 切割标记的骨头和撞击骨折的轴碎片可能提供了这种机会，并可能成为一个新的范式的基础，从这个范式中调查考古记录的真正开始。

Under the direction of Dr. J.W.K. Harris, Jack McCoy will conduct extensive field survey and excavation of 2 million year old sediment deposits at Koobi Fora in Northern Kenya. This doctoral dissertation project is designed to identify, characterize and describe archaeological occurrences principally through the proxy of hominid (early human) modified fossil bone exhibiting evidence of meat consumption and stone tool use. Using stone tools to process a carcass for meat and marrow produces distinctive modification marks (cut marks, percussion marks) on fresh bone. These marks are often preserved on the bone as it becomes fossilized. Evidence (stone tools and cut marked fossil bone) of an established pattern of this novel new meat consumption behavior prior to 2.3 million years ago has been discovered to the north in Ethiopia and only a short distance to the west at Lokalalei in Kenya. And yet, at Koobi Fora, where the fossil remains of over three dozen hominids (genera: Australopithecus & Homo) have been recovered from Upper Burgi (2.2-1.9 million years old) exposures virtually nothing is known of hominid behavior, ecology, or material culture during this period. Extensive paleontological and archaeological research previously conducted at Koobi Fora did not focus on archaeological traces from the Upper Burgi period; a pivotal time in hominid evolution.Koobi Fora encompasses an area of over 3,000 square kilometers. Approximately 1,000 square kilometers are exposed ancient deposits spanning the last 4 million years. Because of the unique nature and vast lateral extent of the exposures, a large variety of ancient landscapes and habitats can be identified in the sediments. The selection of widely separated areas of investigation makes it possible, utilizing modified bone and stone tools as markers on the landscape, to develop a regional view of hominid activities and movements during this time period. Recognition of the distribution patterns of these markers across widely different geographic locations and paleoenvironments will allow one to address theoretical questions of hominid habitat preference, as well as changes in diet and behavior which have not been addressed elsewhere at this early stage of human evolution. Significantly, this research goes beyond the discovery and initial description of the archaeological traces and examines the circumstances that made stone tools adaptive at the onset of a novel new hominid behavior (carnivory) that would eventually become habitual. It is expected that this research will become part of a long term basin-wide comparative study that will address the changing nature of the earliest archaeological record in the Turkana Basin over time.On a broader perspective, this project has the potential to confirm the usefulness of modified fossil bone as an unequivocal proxy for stone tool use. If fossil bone fragments with a modification signature indicative of hominid activity have visibility in the geological record then it will become possible to identify hominid presence and behavior patterns where no stone tool evidence (traditional archaeological record) is known to exist. Stone tools from Gona in Ethiopia, dated at 2.6 million years old, presently define the onset of the archaeological record. Testable hypotheses about hominid behavior prior to 2.6 million years ago can only be formulated if the hominids can be located on the ancient landscape. Cut marked bone and percussion fractured shaft fragments may provide that opportunity and could become the basis of a new paradigm from which to investigate the true onset of the archaeological record.