Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Uluzzian and the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition in the Italian Mezzogiorno

在NSF的资助下，在C.Michael Barton博士和Geoffrey A.Clark博士的监督下，Julien Riel-Salatore将研究意大利南部最后一批尼安德特人和第一批现代人的考古学。这一地区被称为Mezzogiorno，在晚更新世时期构成了一个稳定的、相对孤立的地理区域，并产生了包含穆斯特式、乌鲁兹式和奥里尼奥式考古组合的洞穴遗址。前两个行业被认为是尼安德特人的手工，而Aurignacian人则是最近的，通常被认为是意大利半岛上的第一批现代人。考古调查将重点放在石器技术和经济行为上，以检验奥里尼阿斯人代表了与早期任何一个行业根本不同的适应，并突出由一些最后的尼安德特人制造的乌卢兹人的独特特征。将研究考古记录中最持久和最丰富的方面-石器，以重建土地利用模式和石材资源利用，并将研究特定岩石露头的利用模式，以重建三大产业的地理和社会景观。一项全面的放射性碳测年计划将提供奥里尼昂人到达该地区的时间表，并测量这段时间内文化变化的速度，而基于磁化率的古环境重建将测试这种到达与一次气候恶化事件的潜在相关性。拟议中的研究重点是行为差异，这些差异可能使现代人在大约40-30,000年前位于地理死胡同的生态保护区相对于尼安德特人具有适应优势。这项工作将提供关于这两个原始人是否在尼安德特人消失之前的任何时候在Mezzogiorno共存的精细信息，如果是这样的话，将突出所产生的相互作用的决定性特征。通过在更大的生态背景下研究觅食行为，这项研究将导致更好地理解那个时期的人与环境的相互作用，并使来自Mezzogiorno的数据与来自邻近地区的数据相结合。这些洞察力最终将有助于澄清，作为一个完全的人类意味着什么，以及被审视的这段时期是否证明，非洲以外的行为现代性指标正在逐渐和零碎，或者相对快速和决定性地显现出来。更广泛地说，该项目将培训作者使用创新的分析方法，直接将晚更新世狩猎采集适应与其人种学记录的对应适应进行比较，并潜在地识别已灭绝的、从现存觅食者那里未知的特殊行为模式。通过促进意大利和美国研究人员之间的合作，该项目还将鼓励跨越不同研究传统的科学对话，并促进国际合作的发展。在意大利和英美同行评议的期刊上发表文章将确保将研究成果传播给国际科学受众，而在美国和意大利的公开讲座将促进对生物和行为进化原理以及广大公众对科学研究过程的更好理解。

With NSF funding and under the supervision of Dr. C. Michael Barton and Dr. Geoffrey A. Clark, Julien Riel-Salvatore will investigate the archeology of the last Neanderthals and the first modern humans in southern Italy. This region, known as the Mezzogiorno, constituted a stable, relatively isolated geographical area during the Late Pleistocene, and has yielded cave sites containing Mousterian, Uluzzian, and Aurignacian archaeological assemblages. The first two industries are thought to have been the handiwork of Neanderthals, while the Aurignacian is more recent and usually attributed to the first modern humans of the Italian peninsula. The archaeological investigation will focus on stone tool technology and economic behavior to test the proposition that the Aurignacian represented a fundamentally different adaptation than either of the earlier industries, and to highlight the unique features of the Uluzzian which was made by some of the last Neanderthals. Stone tools, the most durable and abundant facet of the archaeological record, will be studied to reconstruct land-use patterns and lithic resource utilization, and a study of the patterns of utilization of given rock outcrops will be undertaken to reconstruct the three industries' geographical and social landscapes. A comprehensive radiocarbon dating program will furnish a timeline for the arrival of the Aurignacian in the area and gauge the pace of cultural change during that period, while paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on magnetic susceptibility will test the potential correlation of this arrival with an episode of climatic deterioration.The proposed research focuses on the behavioral differences that might have given modern humans an adaptive edge over Neanderthals in an ecological refugium located in a geographical cul-de-sac between roughly 40-30,000 years ago. This work will provide fine-grained information on whether the two hominids coexisted in the Mezzogiorno at any point before the disappearance of Neanderthals and, if so, highlight the defining characteristics of the resulting interactions. By framing forager behavior in its larger ecological context, the research will lead to a better understanding of human-environment interactions during that period as well as enable the integration of data from the Mezzogiorno with those from neighboring regions. These insights will ultimately help clarify what it means to be fully human and whether the period under scrutiny attests to the gradual and piecemeal, or relatively rapid and conclusive, apparition of the indicators of behavioral modernity outside of Africa. More broadly, the project will train the author in the use of innovative analytical methods to directly compare Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer adaptations with those of their ethnographically-documented counterparts, and potentially identify extinct idiosyncratic behavioral modes not known from extant foragers. By fostering collaboration between Italian and US-based researchers, this project will also encourage scientific dialogue across different research traditions and spur the development of international collaborations. Publication in Italian and Anglo-American peer-reviewed journals will ensure diffusion of the research results to an international scientific audience, while public lectures in the US and Italy will foster an enhanced understanding of the principles of biological and behavioral evolution and of the process of scientific research in the public at large.