Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: The Origins of Modern Human Behavior

在Sally McBrearty博士的指导下，Nicholas Blegen先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。该项目通过对撒哈拉以南非洲中更新世晚期（约30 -13万年前）出现的技术、生存策略和环境的考古研究，探索现代人类行为的起源，这是智人起源的时间和地点。国家科学基金会的支持将用于肯尼亚巴林戈Sibilo学校路遗址（SSRS）的考古发掘。这个遗址保存了距今28.4万年前的石器和骨骼化石，大约比智人首次出现早9万年。在SSRS中，石器和骨骼的罕见关联在一个年代确定的背景下，适合回答这一重要时期人类行为进化的三个重要问题：1)什么类型的石器出现在中更新世晚期的东非？来自SSRS的石器有可能表征非洲中更新世晚期的工具类型，以及它们是如何制造和使用的。这可以揭示先进的复合技术，如长矛或投射物，是否已经在智人的起源周围使用，或者更古老的技术，如大型手持技术是否仍然存在。2)中更新世晚期有哪些动物群类型？SSRS有可能在一个年代确定的背景下产生具有生态信息的化石动物群，并提供对这一时期人类所处环境的深入了解。3)东非中更新世晚期的人类生存策略是怎样的？SSRS有可能通过原位考古动物群的恢复，产生东非中更新世晚期生存行为的罕见记录。考古动物群可以让我们深入了解这一时期猎人捕捉大型危险猎物的能力，以及选择运送猎物身体的哪个部位和运送猎物的距离。所有这些对于证明中更新世晚期人类与现代狩猎采集人类之间的异同都很重要。非洲中更新世晚期包含了人类进化中重要的行为和生物适应。该领域的许多研究人员都认为，智人独有的所有行为特征并不是同时出现的。然而，在这一时期，相关石器和化石骨骼的罕见性给确定现代行为获得的顺序、它们出现的时间与环境变化和人类物种的生物起源之间的关系带来了挑战。该项目的结果将：1)在东非一个年代确定的背景下产生一个新的中更新世晚期石器组合。2)为中更新世晚期数据集产生一个新的动物组合。两者都对理解智人的起源做出了宝贵的贡献。将多种行为特征结合在一起，提供了难得的机会，将我们物种起源时期的技术、生存行为和栖息地偏好等行为联系起来。数据收集将与肯尼亚国家博物馆和肯尼亚巴林戈当地社区的肯尼亚研究人员合作进行。由该提案资助的研究将有助于联合项目负责人Nick Blegen的博士培训，并使肯尼亚国家博物馆和当地社区受益。

Under the direction of Dr. Sally McBrearty, Mr. Nicholas Blegen will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. The project explores the origin of modern human behavior through archaeological research into the technologies, subsistence strategies and environments present in the later middle Pleistocene (~300-130 thousand years ago) of Sub-saharan Africa, the time and place that Homo sapiens originated. National Science Foundation support will be used for archaeological excavation of the Sibilo School Road Site (SSRS) in Baringo, Kenya. This site preserves stone tools and fossil bones in sediments recently dated to 284 thousand years before present, roughly 90 thousand years before the first appearance of Homo sapiens. The rare associations of stone tools and bones in a well-dated context at the SSRS suit it to answer three important questions about hominin behavioral evolution in this important time period: 1) What types of stone tools were present in the East African later middle Pleistocene? Stone tools from SSRS have the potential to characterize the types of tools present in African later middle Pleistocene as well as how they were made and used. This can reveal if advanced composite technologies such as spears or projectiles were already in use around the origin of Homo sapiens or whether older technologies such as large hand-held technologies persisted. 2) What types of fauna were present in the later middle Pleistocene? The SSRS has the potential to produce an ecologically informative fossil fauna in a well-dated context, and provide insight into the environments that hominins of this time period occupied. 3) What were hominin subsistence strategies like in the later middle Pleistocene of East Africa? The SSRS has the potential to produce a rare record of subsistence behavior in the later middle Pleistocene of East Africa through recovery of an in situ archaeological fauna. An archaeological fauna would provide insight into the abilities of hunters in this period to take large and dangerous prey, choices of which prey body parts to transport and the distance this prey is transported. All of these are important to demonstrating similarities and differences between later middle Pleistocene hominins and modern hunter-gathers.The later middle Pleistocene of Africa encompasses significant behavioral and biological adaptations in human evolution. Many researchers in the field agree that all behavioral characteristics unique to Homo sapiens did not appear simultaneously. However, the rarity of associated stone tools and fossil bones in well-dated contexts for this time period poses challenges for establishing the order in which modern behaviors were acquired as well as the timing their appearance relative to environmental changes and the biological origin of the human species. Results of this project will: 1) Produce a new later middle Pleistocene stone tool assemblage in a well-dated context from East Africa. 2) Produce a new faunal assemblage to the small but growing later middle Pleistocene data set. Individually both are valuable contributions to the understanding the origin of Homo sapiens. Take together the presence of multiple behavioral characteristics in association offer the rare opportunity to relate behaviors like technology, subsistence behavior and habitat preference around the time of our species originData collection will be conducted in collaboration with Kenyan researchers in the National Museums of Kenya and local communities of Baringo, Kenya. Research funded by this proposal will assist in the doctoral training of the Co-PI, Nick Blegen, and benefit the National Museums of Kenya and local community.