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

博士论文改进补助金：追踪气候驱动的尼安德特人生存行为和猎物迁徙模式的变化

• 批准号: 0924224
• 负责人: Curtis Marean
• 金额: $ 1.5万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 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: 2009-09-01 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0924224&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Tracking

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.

尼安德特人是上一个冰河时期居住在欧洲的一个古人类物种。大约3万年前，他们完全被从非洲移民过来的现代人所取代，但他们消失的最终原因仍然存在争议。尼安德特人在欧洲灭绝的过程仍然是一个没有答案的人类学话题，具有相当大的科学兴趣。该计划通过测试“气候压力模型”做出贡献，该模型认为，在现代人类进入欧洲之前，连续的寒冷阶段注定了尼安德特人的灭绝。具体来说，这个项目测试了模型的假设：1)寒冷气候给尼安德特人带来压力；2)全球气候变化影响了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会发生变化，需要加强对猎物的利用。此外，如果全球气候破坏了当地尼安德特人的栖息地，它们应该会影响当地哺乳动物的迁徙。为了验证尼安德特人受到寒冷气候影响的假设，将对在全球变暖和变冷期间从法国洛克马萨尔遗址（RDM）沉积的马鹿和驯鹿骨骼材料进行尼安德特人屠杀的分析。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头的过度加工。由于哺乳动物在温暖、植被良好的环境中迁移较少，而在寒冷、开放和资源贫乏的环境中迁移较多，因此可以通过对大型哺乳动物（如马、马鹿、驯鹿和野牛）迁移模式的同位素重建来验证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则：活组织吸收水中的化学同位素和营养物质，这些物质在它们被消耗的地区是独一无二的。确定哺乳动物化石的同位素变化可以推断出栖息地的大小和迁徙距离，从而表明peech和RDM的环境是否与全球气候有关。本项目采用独立的多代理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介导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类对其栖息地的殖民。这个跨学科的项目将结合动物考古学、同位素和古生态学的研究来生成一个易于访问的关系数据库（Microsoft Access）。此外，法国锶同位素比值图将作为追踪更新世哺乳动物迁徙路线和推断欧洲古人类迁徙模式的重要辅助工具。