Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Resource Stress and the Emergence of Modern Behavior: MSA Fauna from Sibudu Cave, South Africa

在John D.Speth博士的监督下，Jamie Clark将分析在西布杜洞穴(南非夸祖鲁纳塔尔)中石器时代(MSA)遗址进行考古发掘时收集的化石骨骼组合。MSA可以追溯到大约25万到3万年前，是人类进化的关键时期，为解剖学上的现代人和现代行为提供了最早的证据(艺术品、珠宝和先进的石器技术证明了这一点)。在这一时期，人们对从古代行为向现代行为的转变的性质存在很大分歧。一些学者认为，现代行为在5万年前突然出现，可能是因为大脑中的一种基因突变给现代认知能力带来了风险。其他人倾向于更渐进地积累现代行为特征，这意味着对现代行为的认知能力在这些特征出现在记录之前很久就已经存在。Sibuu为研究人类在MSA期间的行为变化提供了一个独特的机会。它包含了广泛的、保存完好的矿藏，来自MSA的一个独特的子阶段，被称为Howiesons Poort(HP)。惠普的历史可以追溯到大约75,000-56,000年前，它与先进的石器技术、加工的骨骼和装饰的鸵鸟蛋壳有关。HP不仅先于大脑中所提出的基因突变，而且紧随其后的是回归到更典型的MSA模式，在这种模式中，这些现代行为的特征是缺失的。因此，HP-MSA的转变对假设现代行为是遗传或生物适应的模型构成了重大挑战，并表明有必要考虑可能影响现代行为出现的其他因素(即经济、人口统计)。特别是，Clark的研究探索了西比都遗骸中记录的经济行为的一个特定子集-狩猎和肉类消费-以考虑这些行为在HP和随后的MSA阶段之间是如何变化的。分析将首先集中于动物遗骸的鉴定，然后转向对食物选择随时间的变化的研究。加工和食物制备技术的证据将提供对生存选择和资源集约化随时间的变化的洞察。这些数据将被用来检验将现代行为特征的出现与资源压力联系起来的假说，期望资源集约化的迹象在HP期间(当看似现代行为存在时)比在HP MSA之后(当这种行为不存在时)更常见。通过明确测试关于现代行为本质的假设，克拉克的研究为更广泛的关于现代人类起源的争论做出了重要贡献。作为惠普仅有的保存完好的动物组合之一，西布杜的研究也将对综合分析MSA动物群的小型但不断增长的数据库做出重大贡献。此外，除了通过在学术期刊上发表成果向普通科学界分发成果外，还将通过编制一本关于动物考古研究的英语-祖鲁语双语小册子向南非教育界传播这项工作，该小册子将分发给锡布杜遗址附近的学校。

Under the supervision of Dr. John D. Speth, Jamie Clark will analyze fossil bone assemblages collected during archaeological excavations at the Middle Stone Age (MSA) site of Sibudu Cave (Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa). The MSA, dated from about 250,000 to 30,000 years ago, was a critical period in human evolution, providing the earliest evidence for both anatomically modern humans and modern behavior (evidenced by such artifacts as art, jewelry, and advanced stone-tool technology). There is much disagreement about the nature of the transition from archaic to modern behavior during this period. Some scholars argue that modern behavior arose suddenly after 50,000 years ago, perhaps due to a genetic mutation in the brain that gave risk to modern cognitive capacity. Others favor a more gradual accretion of modern behavioral traits, which would imply that the cognitive capacities for modern behavior were in place long before such traits appear in the record.Sibudu offers a unique opportunity to examine human behavioral change during the MSA. It contains extensive, well-preserved deposits from a distinctive sub-stage of the MSA known as the Howiesons Poort (HP). Dated to approximately 75,000 -56,000 years ago, the HP is associated with advanced stone tool technology, worked bone, and decorated ostrich eggshell. Not only does the HP predate the proposed genetic mutation in the brain, but it is followed by a return to the more typical MSA pattern in which these signatures of modern behavior are absent. The HP-MSA transition thus poses a major challenge to models that posit modern behaviors to be genetic or biological adaptations, and suggests that a consideration of other factors (i.e., economic, demographic) that may have influenced the emergence of modern behaviors is warranted.In particular, Clark's research explores a specific subset of economic behaviors well documented in the Sibidu remains - hunting and meat consumption - to consider how these varied between HP and subsequent MSA phases. Analysis will first focus on the identification of animal remains and then turn to a study of variation in food choice over time.Evidence for processing and food preparation technologies will provide insights into changes in subsistence choices and resource intensification over time. These data will be employed to test hypotheses linking the emergence of modern behavioral traits to resource stress, with the expectation that signs of resource intensification should be more common during the HP (when seemingly modern behaviors are present) than in the post-HP MSA (when such behaviors are absent). By explicitly testing hypotheses about the nature of modern behaviors, Clark's research makes an important contribution to larger debates about modern human origins.As one of the only well-preserved faunal assemblages from the HP, the research at Sibudu will also make a significant contribution to the small but growing database of comprehensively analyzed MSA fauna. Further, beyond distribution of results to the general scientific community through publication in academic journals, the work will be disseminated to educational communities in South Africa through the production of a bilingual English-Zulu pamphlet on zooarchaeological research that will be distributed to schools near the site of Sibudu.