Evaluating SW Ethiopia as a Late Quaternary Refugium: Archaeology and Paleoenvironment

在更新世晚期（约125-10,000年前），非洲大陆经历了气候的重大波动，从温暖潮湿到非常干燥和寒冷。从解剖学上讲，现代人如何从生物学和文化上适应这些变化一直是一个非常有趣和有意义的主题。例如，一些学者认为，70-60 ka的寒冷干燥条件可能是后期石器时代早期/旧石器时代晚期技术和社会创新的背景，使智人能够在随后的温暖时期离开非洲，居住在欧亚大陆，并最终居住在美洲。另一些人认为，在20- 11000年前的最后一次冰期高峰时期，类似的寒冷和干旱条件使非洲北部和东部的大部分地区人口减少，直到全新世早期更加温暖和湿润的条件允许狩猎采集者快速迁移到以前的沙漠和其他不同的环境中。他们的行为是如何改变的？与对温暖湿润时期主要人口分散的研究相比，很少有人关注识别潜在的避难所，重建其史前环境，检查史前干旱时期是否有人居住在那里，以及检查他们如何利用当地资源。现代和古代的气候和环流数据表明，埃塞俄比亚西南部在干旱时期获得了大量降雨，而北非和东非的大部分地区都是沙漠条件。埃塞俄比亚西南部拥有非洲之角其他地方所没有的森林斑块和资源，可能构成了北非和东非70-60 ka和20-11 ka人口的避难所。为了评估这一假设，研究人员建议收集末次盛冰期（30- 5ka）期间的考古和古气候数据，以测试埃塞俄比亚西南部在这一极度干旱时期是否是一个避难所，并提供类似信息，以指导未来对早期干旱时期的研究。该小组将使用多个独立的证据线，为一个对晚第四纪非洲人口生存可能具有重要意义的研究较少的地区创建环境变化和人类行为的年代安全序列。这项研究也将与其他考古/人类学问题相关：例如：1)非洲干旱前后的环境和人类行为，2)更新世难民的全球比较，3)植物驯化之前生存变化的环境和社会背景，以及4)今天非洲之角人民巨大的遗传，语言和文化多样性的起源。该项目还将促进美国、欧洲和埃塞俄比亚学者之间的国际合作，并将通过埃塞俄比亚高级学者和研究生的参与，刺激埃塞俄比亚研究和教育的发展。该研究小组将与当地人合作，在3个农村博物馆举办考古展览，并加强其他展览，提高当地埃塞俄比亚人对史前和文化遗产信息的贡献和获取能力。建议对受威胁的自然地区进行生态研究，亦有助保育这些地区。最后，该项目将提高埃塞俄比亚南部地区的文化、历史和史前史的知名度，该地区在埃塞俄比亚历史上长期处于边缘地位。最后，这项研究将有助于全球讨论突发性气候变化和人类过去和现在的反应，这是一个对世界各地的粮食安全和政治稳定至关重要的话题。

During the late Pleistocene (~125-10,000 years ago), the African continent experienced major fluctuations in climate, from warm and humid to very dry and cold conditions. How anatomically modern humans adapted biologically and culturally to these changes has been a subject of considerable interest and significance. For example, some scholars argue that the cold, dry conditions of 70-60 ka may have been the context of early Later Stone Age/Upper Paleolithic technological and social innovations that allowed Homo sapiens to leave Africa during subsequent warm periods to populate Eurasia and eventually the Americas. Others suggest similar cold and arid conditions during the last glacial maximum ~ 20-11,000 years ago depopulated much of Northern and Eastern Africa until warmer and wetter conditions of the early Holocene allowed for the rapid migration of hunter-gatherers into former deserts and other diverse environments..During cold, dry periods, where did people live? How did their behavior change? In comparison to research on major population dispersals during warm and humid periods, little attention has been directed at identifying potential refugia, reconstructing their prehistoric environments, checking whether people lived there during prehistoric arid periods, and examining how they used local resources. Modern and ancient climate and circulation data suggest that Southwestern Ethiopia captured significant rainfall during arid periods when much of Northern and Eastern Africa had desert conditions. SW Ethiopia, with forest patches and resources absent elsewhere in the Horn, may have constituted a refugium for Northern and Eastern African human populations 70-60 ka and 20-11 ka. To evaluate this hypothesis, the researchers propose to gather archaeological and paleoclimatic data for the period bracketing the Last Glacial Maximum (30-5 ka), to test whether Southwestern Ethiopia was a refugium during this hyperarid period, and provide analogical information to guide future research on earlier arid periods.The group will use multiple, independent lines of evidence to create chronologically secure sequences of environmental change and human behavior for a little-studied region of potentially major significance to the survival of African human populations of the late Quaternary. The research will also be relevant to other archaeological/anthropological issues: such as: 1) environments and human behaviors in previous and subsequent arid periods in Africa, 2) global comparisons of Pleistocene refugia, 3) environmental and social contexts of subsistence change prior to plant domestication, and 4) the origins of the enormous genetic, linguistic, and cultural diversity of today's peoples of the Horn of Africa.This project will also promote international collaboration between American, European, and Ethiopian scholars, and will stimulate the development of Ethiopian research and education by involving senior Ethiopian scholars and graduate students. The research group will work with local people to create archaeology exhibits and enhance other displays in 3 rural museums, improving local Ethiopians' ability to contribute to and access information about prehistory and cultural heritage. Proposed ecological studies of threatened natural areas may also contribute to their conservation. Finally, this project will raise the profile of the cultures, history, and prehistory of southern Ethiopia, a region long marginalized in Ethiopian history. Finally, this research will contribute to global discussions of sudden climatic change and human responses past and present, a topic vital to food security and political stability around the world.