Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Zooarchaeological tests for modern human behavior at Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, Southwestern Cape, South Africa

在Curtis Marean教授的指导下，Jessica Thompson将收集和分析南非西南开普省两个考古遗址的数据：Blombos洞穴和Pinnacle Point洞穴13B （PP 13B）。该数据集将包括超过40,000块动物骨骼化石，可追溯到7万年前（Blombos）和18.1万年前（PP 13B）。汤普森的研究将确定这些收藏品中有多大比例是人类居民的食物残留物，而不是其他骨骼积聚动物（如食肉动物、啮齿动物和猛禽）的残留物。一旦确定了这一点，这些人的狩猎和屠宰策略就可以从骨头上留下的痕迹推断出来：切肉留下的痕迹和取骨髓留下的敲击痕迹。这两个遗址都可以追溯到中石器时代（MSA），大约25万年到3万年前（ka）。这是人类进化的一个关键时期，因为尽管这一时期的骨骼遗骸在身体上是现代人，但尚不清楚这些人是否像现代人一样行事。最近在布隆伯斯发现的雕刻颜料和个人装饰品表明，至少7万年前的人类就有创造力和象征性行为，但这些因素与饮食之间的关系尚不清楚。关于这一问题的工作由于缺乏经验数据而受到严重阻碍：在整个南部非洲，只有这一时期的另一组资料得到了全面分析和出版。汤普森的研究将创建两个新的数据集，可以直接与这个数据集（DK 1）进行比较，从而有效地将动物收集的完整和充分分析的经验记录增加了三倍。第一次，行为比较可以在具有丰富的象征行为证据的地点（Blombos）和较少的证据（PP 13B和DK 1）之间进行。该方法非常强调对动物遗骸的适当管理，以便未来的研究人员可以轻松地定位和检查组合的任何部分，包括本项目未使用的材料（爬行动物，鸟类，鱼类等）。每个可识别元素的标本将被纳入地理信息系统（GIS）数据库，创建一个永久的数字记录，可以由世界各地的研究人员即时共享。根据南非遗产法，这些数据必须在开普敦收集。这为向发现这些材料的国家的科学界和当地社区提供信息提供了机会。对这一关键时期人类行为的考古研究有可能识别和说明所有现代人共有的行为方面。这对象南非这样一个新一体化的多种族和多民族国家具有特别重大的影响。随着研究的进行，汤普森将通过参加南非博物馆的一位同事组织的外展项目，向初高中学生介绍信息。该计划旨在告知和激励，以及促进考古保护这些不可替代的资源的未来守护者。

Under the supervision of Prof. Curtis Marean, Jessica Thompson will collect and analyze data from two archaeological sites in the southwestern Cape, South Africa: Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (PP 13B). The dataset will consist of over 40,000 fossil animal bones that date to 70,000 (Blombos), and 181,000 (PP 13B). Thompson's study will determine what proportions of the collections represent the food remains from human inhabitants rather than residue from other bone accumulators such as carnivores, rodents, and raptors. Once this is determined, the hunting and butchering strategies of these people can be inferred from marks left on the bones: cut marks from removing meat and percussion marks from extracting marrow. Both sites date to a time known as the Middle Stone Age (MSA), from ca. 250 to ca. 30 thousand years ago (ka). This is a critical period in human evolution because, although the skeletal remains dating to this time are physically modern, it is not clear if these humans behaved as modern people do. Recent discoveries of carved pigments and personal ornaments from Blombos have shown that creativity and symbolic behavior was present in our species at least 70,000, but the relationship between these factors and diet remains unknown. Work on this problem has been seriously hindered by a lack of empirical data: in all of Southern Africa only one other collection from this time period has been comprehensively analyzed and published. Thompson's study will create two new datasets that can be directly compared to this one (DK 1), thus effectively tripling the empirical record for faunal collections that are complete and have been fully analyzed. For the first time, behavioral comparisons can be made between sites with abundant evidence for symbolic behavior (Blombos) and with less such evidence (PP 13B and DK 1).The methodology contains a heavy emphasis on proper curation of the faunal remains, so that future researchers can easily locate and examine any portion of the assemblages, including materials not used in this project (reptiles, birds, fish, etc.). Each specimen identifiable to element will be drawn into a Geographical Information System (GIS) database, creating a permanent digital record that can be shared instantaneously by researchers around the world.Because of South African heritage laws, the data must be collected in Cape Town. This provides an opportunity for information be provided to the scientific and local communities in the country where the materials were discovered. Archaeological research into human behavior during this critical time period has the potential to identify and illustrate which behavioral aspects all modern humans share. This has particularly significant implications for a newly integrated multiracial and multiethnic country such as South Africa. As the study proceeds, Thompson will present information to middle and high school-aged students by participating in an outreach program organized by a colleague at the South African Museum. The program is designed to inform and excite, as well as to promote archaeological conservation to the future guardians of these irreplaceable resources.