Doctoral Dissertation Research: Change in lithic technology organization during the Middle & Late Stone Ages in East Africa: Implications for the evolution of human behavior

东非中晚期石器时代时代，开始于30万年前（ka），跨越了现代人类行为进化的重要时期。化石、遗传学和考古学证据表明，解剖学上的现代人和许多用来定义他们的“现代”行为特征首先出现在非洲。向现代行为过渡的一个重要方面是规划能力的发展，对当前环境和资源开发机会进行更频繁的沟通，促进了石（石器）工具使用活动的战略规划，其中包括专门的，有效的工具。 加强的技术规划和远距离的群体间合作社交网络，显然在100 ka后得到加强，可能是现代人类从非洲扩散的关键，并导致非洲内外的尼安德特人和其他人类物种灭绝的因素。（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校），在斯坦利·安布罗斯博士的指导下，测试了一个假设，即石器时代中后期（约100 ka）的石器技术组织反映了更高水平的规划，中石器时代（100-300 ka）。 通过对肯尼亚三个考古遗址的石器工具进行分析，包括人工制品类型分类、尺寸和形状测量，并结合使用扫描电子显微镜对石器功能的微观痕迹进行鉴定，完成了对这一假设的检验，该项目的结果将促进人们对人类如何根据通过社交网络获得的信息做出技术规划方面的战略决策的理解。该研究对理解合作和信息共享的适应意义具有广泛的影响，包括对制定政策以减轻受全球社会，政治和气候变化影响的日益不确定的未来环境中的风险做出贡献。 此外，该研究将通过推进内罗毕大学学生志愿者，博物馆工作人员和当地居民在考古现场方法，文物策展和技术分析方面的教育和培训，以及通过促进对古人类学的理解，支持肯尼亚的国家科学举措。

The East African Middle and Late Stone Age eras, beginning 300 thousand years ago (ka), span an important period in the evolution of modern human behavior. Fossil, genetic and archaeological evidence show that anatomically modern humans and many of the characteristic "modern" behaviors that are used to define them appeared first in Africa. A significant dimension of the transition to modern behavior is the evolution of planning capacities, with more frequent communication about current environments and resource exploitation opportunities facilitating strategic planning of stone (lithic) tool-using activities with task-specific toolkits comprised of specialized, effective tools. Enhanced technological planning and long distance intergroup cooperative social networks, which apparently intensified after 100 ka, may have been crucial for the dispersal of modern humans from Africa and contributed to factors leading to the extinction of Neanderthals and other hominin species within and outside Africa.This dissertation research by doctoral student Philip Slater (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), under the mentorship of Dr. Stanley Ambrose, tests the hypothesis that later Middle and Late Stone Age (~100 ka) lithic technological organization reflects greater levels of planning, compared to the earlier Middle Stone Age (100-300 ka). Testing of this hypothesis is accomplished through analyses of stone tools from three archaeological sites in Kenya, including artifact type classification, size and shape measurements, combined with identification of microscopic traces of stone tool functions using Scanning Electron Microscopy.Results from this project will promote understanding of how humans make strategic decisions regarding planning of technology based on information acquired through social networks. The research has broad implications for understanding the adaptive significance of cooperation and information sharing, including contributions toward development of policies for mitigating risk in increasingly uncertain future environments impacted by global social, political, and climatic change. In addition, the research will support Kenya's national scientific initiatives by advancing the education and training of University of Nairobi student volunteers, museum staff, and local residents in archaeological field methods, artifact curation, and technological analysis, as well as through promoting understanding of paleoanthropology.