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

考古学研究的一个焦点问题是理解独特的人类属性（例如，大的大脑，复杂的技术和高保真的社会合作）可能与过去的饮食和觅食行为的变化有关。 例如，使用石器工具瞄准大型猎物以及随后的食物分享做法很可能形成了一种复杂的行为模式，既满足了热量和营养需求，又建立了社会凝聚力和复杂性。这个博士论文项目将研究小型哺乳动物猎物作为人类另一个潜在的重要饮食成分。小型哺乳动物的获得通常与技术复杂性有关（即，然而，这些动物同时也被认为是早期人类祖先的“容易”目标，他们不需要复杂的工具。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。该项目将推进有关饮食人类适应的知识，促进学生培训和指导，国际研究合作和公共科学推广工作。通过结合对晚更新世和全新世考古序列中小型哺乳动物遗骸的埋藏学，民族考古学和稳定同位素分析，研究人员将测试两个人类物种之间小型哺乳动物生存策略的差异（弗洛雷斯人和智人）和两种现代人类生存方式（狩猎采集和农业）之间的关系。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的骨骼组合中，以及哪些因素（例如，掠食者）负责。稳定同位素和民族考古学分析将用于阐明小哺乳动物的饮食和栖息地，通过时间，以及在确定从现代小哺乳动物狩猎实践中的骨表面修饰的援助，分别。这项研究也将提供一个框架，类似的小型哺乳动物埋藏研究调查生存策略的两个人类物种在不同的地理时间段和/或地区。此外，该项目将采用一种新的贝叶斯统计方法来预测聚集剂的组装水平。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.