Luminescence Sediment Dating of Pleistocene Hominin and Tool Sites at Atapuerca, Spain

西班牙阿塔普尔卡更新世人类和工具遗址的发光沉积物测年

• 批准号: 0841059
• 负责人: Glenn Berger
• 金额: $ 12.9万
• 依托单位: Nevada System of Higher Education, Desert Research Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-06-01 至 2013-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0841059&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Luminescence; Sediment; Dating; Pleistocene; Hominin

Supported by the National Science Foundation, Dr. Glenn Berger will conduct 2 weeks of field work in northern Spain with Spanish colleagues at the UNESCO World Heritage Archeological Site of Atapuerca, near Burgos. For the last 1-million-year period, this is one of the world's most important site for fossils, tools and faunal finds related to the presence of ancestors to modern humans, yet much of the timing for the deposition of the various finds at the 3-4 related sites at Atapuerca is uncertain. Understanding when human ancestors arrived in Europe and how they evolved thereafter requires knowing the ages of the fossil and stone-tool finds. Absent evidence for use of fire and pottery (none yet found at Atapuerca before the last 50,000 yrs), such stone tools are the main preserved representations of the cultural behaviors of human ancestors of such antiquity. Furthering an international collaboration begun in 1997, Berger and Spanish colleagues will collect sediment samples throughout 3 of the cave sites (Gran Dolina, Galería, Elefante) at Atapuerca. In his laboratory in Reno, Nevada, Berger will apply several variations of a sediment-dating technique that measures luminescence to be stimulated artificially from unheated mineral grains. His 2008 published report (Journal of Human Evolution) demonstrated for the first time that luminescence techniques could date sediments from 2 (Gran Dolina and Galería) of the Atapuerca cave deposits, back to about 1 million years. The current project not only will attempt to provide a better age for the old skull at Gran Dolina, but will provide the first numeric ages for stone tools from a relatively new cave site (Elefante), and more precise and accurate ages for tools from the 2 other mentioned cave sites. In a broader context, these ages will place the development of the tool styles into a numeric time series and thus permit relating these developments in the technologies of human ancestors to those from other sites around the world. Knowledge of the sequence of development of tool styles in different areas of the world is an important key to understanding human evolution. As well, such numeric time scales are essential for relating the migration and evolution of human ancestors in Europe to their likely connections to Asian-African forebears. Numeric time scales are critical for the search for causes of and effects on the evolutionary changes in regional fossil plants and animals, such as climatic changes. This project also will develop a cross-comparison of luminescence ages with the few available numeric ages from two other dating techniques (ESR and cosmogenic-nuclide dating). Such comparisons are rare in archeological studies beyond the age range of radiocarbon dating (about 35,000 yrs) in areas lacking volcanic deposits (such as much of Europe). Moreover, this project will permit undergraduate students in Reno to participate in cutting-edge laboratory research.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Glenn Berger博士将与西班牙同事在布尔戈斯附近的联合国教科文组织世界遗产Atapuerca考古遗址进行为期2周的实地考察。在过去的100万年里，这是世界上最重要的化石、工具和动物群发现地之一，与现代人类祖先的存在有关，但阿塔普埃尔卡3-4个相关地点的各种发现的沉积时间尚不确定。要了解人类祖先何时到达欧洲，以及他们此后如何进化，就需要知道化石和石器的年代。由于没有使用火和陶器的证据（在过去的50，000年之前，阿塔普埃尔卡还没有发现），这些石器是这种古代人类祖先文化行为的主要保存代表。为了推进1997年开始的国际合作，Berger和西班牙同事将在阿塔普埃尔卡的三个洞穴遗址（Gran多利纳、Galería、Elefante）收集沉积物样本。在他位于内华达州里诺的实验室里，伯杰将应用一种沉积物定年技术的几种变体，该技术测量未加热的矿物颗粒人工激发的发光。他2008年发表的报告（《人类进化杂志》）首次证明，发光技术可以将阿塔普埃尔卡洞穴沉积物中的2个（格兰多利纳和加莱里亚）沉积物的年代追溯到大约100万年前。目前的项目不仅将试图为格兰多利纳的旧头骨提供更好的年龄，而且将提供来自一个相对较新的洞穴遗址（Elefante）的石器工具的第一个数字年龄，以及来自其他两个提到的洞穴遗址的工具的更精确和准确的年龄。在更广泛的背景下，这些年龄将把工具风格的发展纳入一个数字时间序列，从而允许将人类祖先的技术发展与世界各地其他地点的技术发展联系起来。了解世界不同地区工具风格的发展顺序是理解人类进化的重要关键。同样，这种数字时间尺度对于将欧洲人类祖先的迁移和进化与他们与亚非祖先的可能联系联系起来至关重要。数值时间尺度对于研究区域性化石动植物演化变化的原因和影响（如气候变化）至关重要。该项目还将对发光年龄与其他两种测年技术（ESR和宇宙成因核素测年）提供的少数数字年龄进行交叉比较。在没有火山沉积物的地区（如欧洲大部分地区），这种比较在放射性碳测年（约35，000年）的年龄范围之外的考古研究中是罕见的。此外，该项目将允许里诺的本科生参与尖端实验室研究。