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

在John D. Speth博士的指导下，Jamie Clark将分析在Sibudu洞穴（Kwa-Zulu Natal，南非）中石器时代（MSA）遗址考古发掘中收集的化石骨骼组合。MSA的历史可以追溯到大约25万到3万年前，是人类进化的一个关键时期，为解剖学上的现代人和现代行为提供了最早的证据（由艺术品、珠宝和先进的石器技术等人工制品证明）。关于这一时期从古代行为向现代行为转变的性质，存在很多分歧。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。另一些人则倾向于现代行为特征的逐渐增加，这意味着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了。西布杜提供了一个独特的机会来研究MSA期间人类行为的变化。它包含了大量保存完好的沉积物，这些沉积物来自MSA的一个独特的子阶段，即Howiesons Poort （HP）。HP可以追溯到大约75,000 -56,000年前，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不仅早于提出的大脑基因突变，而且随后又回到了更典型的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提出了重大挑战，并建议考虑可能影响现代行为出现的其他因素（即经济、人口）是有必要的。克拉克的研究特别探讨了在西比都遗址中记录良好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。分析将首先集中在动物遗骸的鉴定上，然后转向对食物选择随时间变化的研究。有关加工和食品制备技术的证据将有助于深入了解生存选择和资源集约化随时间的变化。这些数据将用于检验将现代行为特征的出现与资源压力联系起来的假设，并期望资源强化的迹象在HP期间（当看似现代的行为存在时）比在HP后MSA（当这些行为不存在时）更常见。通过明确地检验关于现代行为本质的假设，克拉克的研究为关于现代人类起源的更大争论做出了重要贡献。作为HP中唯一保存完好的动物群之一，在Sibudu的研究也将为小型但不断增长的综合分析MSA动物群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分发成果之外，这项工作还将通过编写英语-祖鲁语双语的动物考古研究小册子向南非教育界传播，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.