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）的技术，生存策略和环境进行考古研究，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Baringo的Sibilo学校道路遗址（SSRS）的考古挖掘。该遗址在距今28.4万年前的沉积物中保存了石器和骨骼化石，大约比智人的首次出现早9万年。在SSRS中，石器和骨骼在一个年代久远的环境中的罕见组合适合回答关于这个重要时期人类行为进化的三个重要问题：1）东非中更新世晚期出现了什么类型的石器？来自SSRS的石器有可能描述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，在智人起源时，先进的复合材料技术，如长矛或射弹是否已经在使用，或者更古老的技术，如大型手持技术是否仍然存在。2)中更新世晚期的动物群有哪些类型？SSRS有可能在一个年代久远的背景下产生一个生态信息丰富的化石动物群，并提供对这一时期人类所处环境的深入了解。3)在东非中更新世晚期，人类的生存策略是什么？SSRS有可能通过恢复原位考古动物群来记录东非中更新世晚期的生存行为。考古动物群将提供洞察能力的猎人在这一时期采取大型和危险的猎物，选择猎物的身体部位运输和距离，这猎物是运输。所有这些都是很重要的，以证明中更新世晚期人类和现代狩猎采集之间的相似性和差异。非洲的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，智人特有的所有行为特征并不是同时出现的。然而，在这一时期，相关的石器工具和化石骨骼的稀有性对建立现代行为获得的顺序以及它们相对于环境变化和人类物种的生物起源的出现时间提出了挑战。该项目的成果将：1）在东非产生一个新的中更新世晚期石器组合。2)产生一个新的动物群组合的小，但不断增长的晚中更新世数据集。这两个人都对理解智人的起源做出了有价值的贡献。结合多种行为特征的存在，提供了难得的机会，将技术，生存行为和栖息地偏好等行为与我们物种起源的时间联系起来。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PI 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.