Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Tracking Climate-Driven Changes in Neandertal Subsistence Behaviors and Prey Migration Patterns

尼安德特人是远古人类的一种，在上一个冰河时代占领了欧洲。到大约3万年前，他们被从非洲移民过来的现代人完全取代，但他们消失的最终原因仍然存在争议。尼安德特人在欧洲的灭绝过程仍然是一个人类学上具有相当大科学兴趣的悬而未决的话题。这项拟议的项目通过测试“气候压力模型”做出了贡献，该模型认为，在现代人进入欧洲之前，连续的寒冷阶段注定了尼安德特人的灭绝。具体地说，这个项目测试了这样的模型假设：1)寒冷气候给尼安德特人带来压力，2)全球气候变化影响当地尼安德特人的栖息地。如果寒冷的气候给尼安德特人带来压力，他们的生存行为可能已经改变，需要加强对猎物的使用。此外，如果全球气候扰乱了当地尼安德特人的栖息地，它们应该已经影响了当地哺乳动物的迁徙。为了验证尼安德特人受到寒冷气候压力的假设，将对在全球暖期和冷期从法国的Roc de Marsal(RDM)遗址储存的马鹿和驯鹿的骨骼材料进行尼安德特人屠宰的分析。比较不同气候下的屠宰策略将解决寒冷气候是否会导致骨骼过度加工的问题。由于哺乳动物在温暖、植被良好的环境中迁徙较少，而在寒冷、开阔和资源贫乏的环境中迁徙较多，因此可以通过对大型哺乳动物(如马、马鹿、驯鹿和野牛)迁徙模式的同位素重建来检验全球气候影响当地栖息地的假设。这些重建是基于这样的原理，即活组织吸收水中的化学同位素和消费它们的地区独有的营养物质。识别哺乳动物化石中的同位素变化使人们能够推断家园的大小和迁徙距离，从而提供了PECH和RDM的环境是否跟踪全球气候的指示。该项目使用独立的、多代理的方法来解决气候压力假说。了解尼安德特人及其猎物的气候中介行为将有助于解释气候波动如何影响尼安德特人的灭绝和现代人对他们栖息地的殖民。这个跨学科的项目将结合动物考古学、同位素和古生态研究，以生成一个易于访问的关系数据库(Microsoft Access)。此外，还将开发法国的锶同位素比值图，作为追踪更新世哺乳动物迁徙路线和推断欧洲原始人迁徙模式的关键辅助。

The Neandertals were a species of ancient human that occupied Europe during the last ice age. By ~30,000 years ago, they were fully replaced by modern humans who emigrated from Africa, but the ultimate reason for their disappearance remains controversial. The process of the extinction of Neandertals in Europe remains an unanswered anthropological topic of considerable scientific interest. The proposed project contributes by testing the "Climatic Stress Model", which holds that successive cold phases doomed Neandertals to extinction before modern humans entered Europe. Specifically, this project tests the models assumptions that 1) cold climates stressed Neandertal populations, and 2) global climate changes affected local Neandertal habitats. If cold climates stressed Neandertals, their subsistence behaviors may have changed, requiring intensified use of prey. Additionally, if global climates disrupted local Neandertal habitats, they should have affected local mammal migrations. To test the hypothesis that Neandertals were stressed by cold climates, an analysis of Neandertal butchering will be completed on red deer and reindeer skeletal material deposited during global warm and cold phases from the French site of Roc de Marsal (RDM)). Comparing butchering strategies during different climates will address whether cold climates induced hyper-processing of bones. Because mammals migrate less in warm, well vegetated environments, but more in cold, open, and resource-poor environments, the hypothesis that global climates affected local habitats may be tested through isotopic reconstruction of large mammal (e.g. horse, red deer, reindeer and bison) migration patterns. These reconstructions are based on the principle that living tissues absorb chemical isotopes in the water and nutrients that are unique to the region in which they are consumed. Identifying isotopic variation in mammalian fossils enables home range size and migration distance to be inferred, providing an indication of whether environments at Pech and RDM tracked global climates. This project uses independent, multi-proxy methods to address the climate stress hypothesis.Understanding climate-mediated behaviors of Neandertals and their prey will help to explain how climatic fluctuations influenced Neandertal extinction and the colonization of their habitats by modern humans. This interdisciplinary project will incorporate zooarchaeological, isotopic, and paleoecological research to generate an easily accessible relational database (Microsoft Access). In addition, a strontium isotope ratio map of France will be developed as a critical aide for tracking the migration routes of Pleistocene mammals and inferring the mobility patterns of European hominids.