Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Relationship between Diet Variability and Population Spread

现代人起源于中石器时代(MSA)的非洲，在此期间发展了复杂的觅食行为，为他们后来迁出非洲和世界各地提供了便利。研究这些早期行为的全部范围，对于理解现代人如何适应多样化的环境，以及完善人类进化和迁徙的模型都是至关重要的。这项拟议的研究基于从MSA考古遗址挖掘的材料，该考古遗址位于埃塞俄比亚西北部沿青尼罗河主要支流辛法河的一个以前未被研究的地区。该遗址的年代超过5万年，接近现代人离开非洲的时间。这项研究将研究在该遗址挖掘的动物，其中包括人类狩猎、捕获、收集并带回遗址食用的各种陆生和水生动物。对这些动物遗骸的调查将详细说明收集了哪些物种，何时收集，以及它们是如何处理的。该地点对于海洋管理局来说是不寻常的，因为除了陆生动物外，还存在大量的水生动物(如鱼、鳄鱼和软体动物)，这种物种的组合使对早期河流适应和有组织的季节性资源利用的证据进行了评估。这两项活动都对现代人类行为和社会制度的演变具有重要影响，而且都被认为在MSA期间基本上没有。这项研究的数据还将有助于关于水生资源在人类进化过程中的重要性的更广泛的辩论。此外，该项目首次研究了在临时河流生态系统的背景下，如何在MSA中为灵活的适应战略选择区域季节极端，以及这种特殊的生态环境可能如何影响早期人类行为。这个更广泛的项目涉及美国和埃塞俄比亚学者、学生、官员和当地社区之间的合作，其由NSF支持的本科生研究经验培训美国和埃塞俄比亚学生，并重点关注科学中代表性较低的群体的参与者。在约翰·卡普尔曼博士的监督下，博士生克里斯托弗·戴维斯将重建考古遗址的觅食行为，重点回答两个研究问题：1)该遗址是否记录了早期的河流适应？2)场地文件是否有组织的季节性占用和资源开发？这些方法是从大量的民族考古学和实验研究中提取出来的，这些研究使用动物遗骸来重建过去的人类行为。动物群分析将记录该遗址存在的分类群和骨骼元素。挖掘生物学分析将确定场地形成的动因(S)、动物群元素是如何处理的，以及哪些自然过程可能改变了组合。行为分析将重建觅食策略，并检查系统的河边觅食和季节性捕食的证据。对比分析将评估该遗址的觅食行为与埃塞俄比亚其他类似年代遗址的觅食行为相比如何。

Modern humans originated in Africa during the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and during this time period developed complex foraging behaviors that facilitated their later migration out of Africa and across the world. Studying the full range of these early behaviors is critical to both understanding how modern humans adapted to diverse environments and refining models of human evolution and migration. The proposed research is based on materials excavated from a MSA archaeological site located in a previously unstudied region of the lowlands of northwestern Ethiopia along the Shinfa River, a major tributary to the Blue Nile River. The site is dated to greater than 50,000 years in age, close to the time when modern humans dispersed out of Africa. The research will study the fauna excavated at the site that includes a diverse array of terrestrial and aquatic animals that the humans hunted, trapped, collected, and brought back to the site to eat. Investigation of these animal remains will detail which species were collected, when they were collected, and how they were processed. The site is unusual for the MSA because in addition to terrestrial animals a large quantity of aquatic animals (e.g., fish, crocodile, and mollusk) are also present, and this combination of species permits an evaluation of the evidence for early riverine adaptations and structured seasonal resource use. Both of these activities have important implications for the evolution of modern human behavioral and social systems, and both have been argued to be largely absent during the MSA. Data from this study will also contribute to the broader debate about the significance of aquatic resource use during hominin evolution. Additionally, this project is the first to examine how regional seasonal extremes selected for flexible adaptive strategies in the MSA specifically within the context of temporary river ecosystems and how this particular ecological setting might have influenced early human behavior. The broader project involves a collaboration between US and Ethiopian scholars, students, officials, and local communities, and its NSF-supported research experience for undergraduates trains US and Ethiopian students and includes a focus on participants from groups underrepresented in the sciences.Under the supervision of Dr. John Kappelman, Ph.D. candidate Christopher Davis will reconstruct foraging behavior at the archaeological site with a focus on answering two research questions: 1) Does the site document an early riverine adaptation? and 2) Does the site document structured seasonal occupation and resource exploitation? The methods are drawn from a large body of ethnoarchaeological and experimental research that uses faunal remains to reconstruct past human behavior. Faunal analyses will document the taxonomic groups and skeletal elements present at the site. Taphonomic analyses will identify the agent(s) of site formation, how the faunal elements were processed, and which natural processes potentially altered the assemblage. Behavioral analyses will reconstruct foraging strategies, and examine evidence for systematic riverine foraging and seasonal occupation. Comparative analyses will evaluate how foraging behaviors at this site compares with those from other similarly aged sites in Ethiopia.