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

在约翰·D博士的指导下。斯佩思，杰米克拉克将分析化石骨骼组合在中石器时代（MSA）的Sibudu洞穴（夸祖鲁纳塔尔，南非）遗址考古发掘收集。 MSA的历史可以追溯到大约250，000年到30，000年前，是人类进化的关键时期，为解剖学上的现代人类和现代行为提供了最早的证据（如艺术品，珠宝和先进的石器技术）。 关于这一时期从古代行为向现代行为过渡的性质，存在着很大的分歧。 一些学者认为，现代行为是在5万年前突然出现的，可能是由于大脑中的基因突变给现代认知能力带来了风险。 另一些人则倾向于认为现代行为特征是逐渐积累的，这意味着现代行为的认知能力早在这些特征出现在记录中之前就已经存在了。 它包含了广泛的，保存完好的存款从一个独特的子阶段的MSA被称为Howiesons Poort（HP）。 距今约75，000 - 56，000年前，HP与先进的石器技术、加工过的骨头和装饰过的鸵鸟蛋壳有关。 HP不仅早于所提出的大脑中的基因突变，而且随后又回到了更典型的MSA模式，其中不存在这些现代行为的特征。 因此，HP-MSA转变对将现代行为视为遗传或生物适应的模型构成了重大挑战，并建议考虑其他因素（即，特别是，克拉克的研究探讨了在锡比都遗迹中有详细记载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阶段之间的变化。 分析将首先侧重于动物遗骸的鉴定，然后转向研究食物选择随时间的变化，加工和食品制备技术的证据将提供对生存选择随时间的变化和资源集约化的见解。 这些数据将被用来测试的现代行为特征的出现，资源压力的假设连接，与预期的迹象，资源集约化应该是更常见的HP（当看似现代的行为是存在的）比后HP MSA（当这些行为是缺席）。 通过明确测试现代行为的本质假设，克拉克的研究为现代人类起源的更大辩论做出了重要贡献。作为HP中唯一保存完好的动物群组合之一，Sibudu的研究也将为全面分析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向一般科学界传播研究结果外，还将通过制作一本关于动物考古研究的双语小册子，向南非教育界传播这项工作，该小册子将分发给西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.