Preparation of Two Taphonomic Reference Collections for Deposit in the National Taphonomic Reference Collection, Smithsonian

埋藏学，研究生物如何进化，已经成为重建古代人类生活方式的关键，通过分析考古遗址的动物骨骼。利用埋藏学分析，古人类学家能够破译遗址中骨骼堆积的来源，并为评估早期人类的狩猎和清除活动、饮食以及他们从非洲迁移到欧亚大陆时对技能和技术的利用提供相关证据。埋藏学研究古代骨骼，以推断产生变化的过程，但是，如果没有记录良好的现代参考标本，将独特的骨骼变化与造成它们的特定因素明确联系起来，这一研究就永远无法进行。该项目将完成近4000个不可替代的埋藏标本的准备工作，以供史密森学会新的国家埋藏参考收藏（NTRC）。 这些收藏品是由在北美和非洲进行实验性、民族考古学和大规模埋藏学研究的先驱者积累起来的，鉴于当前的法律的、政治、经济和生态环境，这些收藏品是无法重建的。 来自三大洲的研究人员已经利用这些藏品来研究骨骼改造，这些藏品对研究和教学的价值将在史密森尼博物馆的策展后继续加强; NTRC是全球第一个埋藏学知识库，将成为美国和国际古人类学和古生物学研究人员的磁石。调查人员将在圣克鲁斯的加州大学符合联邦标准的设施中准备符合NTRC严格标准的文件和害虫预防。 通过大学的实习计划，本科生的密集参与将提供宝贵的培训和实践经验，为美国联邦研究基础设施的发展做出贡献。

Taphonomy, the study of how organisms fossilize, has emerged as pivotal to reconstructing ancient human lifeways, through analysis of animal bones from archaeological sites. Using taphonomic analysis, paleoanthropologists are able to decipher the source of bone accumulations at sites and provide evidence relevant to assessment of the hunting and scavenging activities of early hominins, their diet, and their utilization of skills and technologies when they migrated out of Africa and into Eurasia.Taphonomy studies ancient bones to infer the processes that produced modifications to them, but this could never proceed without well-documented, modern reference specimens that definitively link unique bone modifications to the specific agents inflicting them. This project will accomplish preparation of nearly 4000 irreplaceable taphonomic specimens for curation in the Smithsonian Institution's new National Taphonomic Reference Collection (NTRC). These collections, accumulated by investigators who pioneered experimental, ethno-archaeological, and landscape-scale taphonomic research in North America and Africa, cannot be reconstituted, given current legal, political, economic, and ecological circumstances. Researchers from three continents have already utilized the collections to study bone modifications, and the value of the collections to research and teaching will continue and strengthen following their curation at the Smithsonian; the NTRC is the first taphonomy repository globally and will be a magnet for US and international paleoanthropological and paleontological researchers. The investigators will prepare the collections to meet the NTRC's strict standards for documentation and pest prophylaxis at the federally-compliant facilities at University of California, Santa Cruz. Intensive involvement of undergraduate students through the university's internship program will provide invaluable training and hands-on experience with essential biological collections in contributing to US federal research infrastructure development.