Collaborative Research: Middle Pleistocene Hominin Behavior and Paleoecology at Farre, Chalbi Basin, Northern Kenya

非洲中更新世早期出现了古老的人，人类的大脑能力扩展到接近现代的维度，并首次出现了一系列尖端的新技术。然而，由于相对较少的非洲地区对这一重要的时间框架(即公元781年至500ka期间)进行了抽样，关于这些进展出现和早期演变的时间、背景和动态的具体细节仍然知之甚少。位于肯尼亚北部查尔比盆地的法雷露天遗址最近的古人类学发现，估计最小年龄为约600-500ka，可能会增加与这些问题相关的重要新数据。在这个项目中，一个跨学科的调查小组将进行为期两年的考古和地质年代学研究，以更好地了解法尔遗址的年代和内容。该项目的更广泛影响包括有机会在大学、博物馆和研究中心之间建立研究合作，为学生和初级教师提供研究和培训机会，以及在现场和美国进行公共教育和保护推广。在法尔进行的两个古人类学实地考察期间，调查人员将扩大初步发掘，以进一步证明现场考古材料的存在，增加诊断人工制品形式和化石分类群的样本大小，完善遗址的地质考古学和古环境背景；以及完善遗址的地质年代学。从初步发掘中发现的文物包括符合早期和中期石器时代技术的文物，以及表明年龄超过500ka的化石分类群。因此，FARRE可能有助于弥合这一古人类学重要区域记录中长期存在的差距，完善我们对重要技术能力的出现和早期进化的理解，并将推断的人类适应置于当地、区域和全球古环境背景下。

The African early Middle Pleistocene saw the emergence of archaic Homo, the expansion of hominin brain capacities to near-modern dimensions, and the first appearance of a battery of sophisticated new technologies. And yet, as relatively few African localities sample this important timeframe (i.e. the period from c.781-500ka), the specific details regarding the timing, setting, and dynamics that underlie the emergence and early evolution of these advances remain poorly understood. With an estimated minimum age of c.600-500ka, recent paleoanthropological discoveries at the open-air site of Farre, located in the Chalbi Basin of northern Kenya, may add important new data relevant to these issues. In this project, an interdisciplinary team of investigators will conduct a two-year archaeological and geochronological study to better understand the age and contents of the Farre site. Broader impacts of the project include the opportunity to build research collaborations across universities, museums, and research centers, research and training opportunities for students and junior faculty, and public education and conservation outreach at the field site and in the U.S. During two seasons of paleoanthropological fieldwork at Farre, the investigators will expand preliminary excavations to further document the presence of in situ archaeological materials, increase the sample size of diagnostic artifact forms and fossil taxa, refine the geoarchaeology and paleoenvironmental setting of the site; and refine the geochronology of site. Finds from preliminary excavations include artifacts consistent with both Early and Middle Stone Age technologies, coupled with fossil taxa suggesting an age in excess of 500ka. Farre may thus help bridge a long-standing gap in the record of this paleoanthropologically-important region, refine our understanding of the emergence and early evolution of important technological capacities, and place inferred hominin adaptations within local, regional, and global paleoenvironmental contexts.