Doctoral Dissertation Research: Interpreting hominin subsistence strategies from small mammal remains

考古学研究的一个焦点问题是了解人类独特属性（例如，大大脑、复杂技术和高保真社会合作）的出现如何与过去饮食和觅食行为的变化相关。 例如，使用石器来瞄准大型猎物以及随后的食物分享实践很可能构成了复杂行为模式的一部分，该行为模式既满足了热量和营养需求，同时也建立了社会凝聚力和复杂性。该博士论文项目将研究小型哺乳动物猎物作为古人类另一种潜在的重要饮食成分。小型哺乳动物的获取通常与技术复杂性（即圈套和网）相关，但这些动物也同时被认为是早期人类祖先的“简单”目标，从而消除了对复杂工具的需要。这种矛盾的原因可能在于小型哺乳动物的生态和行为多样性，这可能需要广泛的觅食策略。该项目将增进有关古人类饮食适应的知识，促进学生培训和指导，国际研究合作以及公共科学推广工作。通过对晚更新世和全新世考古序列中的小型哺乳动物遗骸进行埋藏学、民族考古学和稳定同位素分析，研究人员将测试小型哺乳动物的生存策略在两种古人类物种（弗洛勒斯人和智人）之间以及两种现代人类生存方式之间有何不同生活方式（狩猎采集和农业）。对小型哺乳动物遗骸的埋藏学分析将确定哪些动物聚集在梁布阿的骨骼组合中，以及哪些因素（例如捕食者）对此负责。稳定同位素和民族考古学分析将分别用于阐明小型哺乳动物随时间变化的饮食和栖息地，以及帮助识别现代小型哺乳动物狩猎实践中的骨表面变化。这项研究还将为类似的小型哺乳动物埋藏学研究提供一个框架，研究不同地理时期和/或地区的两种古人类物种的生存策略。此外，该项目将采用一种新颖的贝叶斯统计方法来预测组合水平上的累积代理。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A focal issue in archaeological research has been to understand how the emergence of uniquely human attributes (e.g., large brains, complex technologies, and high-fidelity social cooperation) may relate to past changes in dietary and foraging behaviors. For example, using stone tools to target large-bodied prey and subsequent food-sharing practices most likely formed part of a complex behavioral pattern that satisfied both the caloric and nutritional needs while also building social cohesion and complexity. This doctoral dissertation project will investigate small mammal prey as another potentially important dietary component for hominins. Small mammal acquisition is typically associated with technological complexity (i.e., snares and nets) yet these animals have also been simultaneously considered "easy" targets for early human ancestors that obviate the need for complex tools. Reasons for this contradiction probably lie within the ecological and behavioral diversity of small mammals, which potentially demands a broad range of foraging strategies. The project will advance knowledge about dietary hominin adaptations, foster student training and mentoring, international research collaborations, and public science outreach efforts.By incorporating taphonomic, ethnoarchaeological, and stable isotope analyses of small mammals remains from a Late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sequence, the investigator will test how small mammal subsistence strategies vary between two hominin species (Homo floresiensis and Homo sapiens) and between two modern human subsistence lifestyles (hunting-gathering and agriculture). Taphonomic analyses of small mammal remains will identify which animals were accumulated in the bone assemblage at Liang Bua and what agents (e.g., predators) were responsible. Stable isotope and ethnoarchaeological analyses will be used to elucidate small mammal diet and habitat through time as well as aid in identifying bone surface modifications from modern small mammal hunting practices, respectively. This study will also offer a framework for similar small mammal taphonomic studies investigating subsistence strategies of two hominin species at different geographical time periods and/or regions. In addition, this project will employ a novel Bayesian statistical method for predicting accumulating agents on an assemblage-level.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.