Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Development of Human Technological Abilities

人类及其祖先在改变行为策略以应对环境变化和利用技术应对适应性问题方面的能力是独一无二的。化石记录中出现的改良石器代表了人类谱系中潜在的适应性转变，因为祖先获得了营养丰富的食物，建立了灵活的生态位，并开始通过累积技术改变环境，并形成了环境中的选择压力。了解早期工具技术的起源和传播对人类血统的进化具有内在的兴趣。早期工具制造者的行为策略是什么？工具制造者在制作石器上投入了多少能量？工具的行为在进化过程中是如何变化的？来自纽约城市大学的汤姆·普卢默博士和博士候选人艾玛·费斯通将进行一项跨时间尺度的区域性研究，调查最早的持续存在的石器工业——被称为奥尔道安石器工业。奥尔多瓦石器在大小、形状、还原程度和石头原料类型上各不相同，这些特性被认为反映了人类谱系中行为、认知和饮食的变化，这些变化通常与解剖学和能量进化的已知趋势有关，包括体重和代谢率的增加。对奥尔多瓦考古记录趋势的调查将扩大最早奥尔多瓦人的地理范围，并在更广泛的进化背景下阐明持久使用工具的起源。Plummer和Finestone将在肯尼亚Homa半岛的三个Oldowan遗址进行一个比较石器减少和原材料采购的项目，这些遗址跨越了近100万年的间隔。这种方法提供了奥尔dowan地区行为的快照，并允许研究人员评估一些最早的工具制造者随着时间的推移的技术策略、流动性和景观使用。利用能量色散x射线荧光（ED-XRF）地球化学分析，元素特征将把石制工具生产中使用的原材料与附近的初次露头和二次渗漏联系起来。这使研究人员能够确定原材料来源，并确定工具制造者使用的来源以及哪种岩石类型减少最多。在确定了石材资源采购的区域模式后，调查人员将重建三个地区的范围行为，并评估石材运输和工具制造商流动性的投资是否以及如何随着时间的推移而变化。这不仅说明了霍马半岛的行为和考古学的演变，而且还说明了人类谱系中更广泛的适应性转变。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

Humans and their ancestors are unique in their ability to alter behavioral strategies in response to changes in the environment and use technology to cope with adaptive problems. The appearance of modified stone tools in the fossil record represents a potential adaptive shift in the human lineage as ancestors accessed nutrient-dense foods, established flexible niches, and began to alter environments through cumulative technology and shape the selective pressures within them. Understanding the origin and transmission of early tool technology is of inherent interest to the evolution of the human lineage. What were the behavioral strategies of early toolmakers? How much energy did toolmakers invest in producing stone artifacts? How did tool behaviors change through evolutionary time? Dr. Tom Plummer and PhD candidate Emma Finestone, of the City University of New York, will conduct a regional study investigating the earliest persistent stone tool industry - termed the Oldowan - across time scales. Oldowan tools vary in size, shape, degree of reduction, and stone raw material type and these properties are thought to reflect behavioral, cognitive, and dietary changes in the human lineage that are often linked to known trends in anatomical and energetic evolution, including an increase in body mass and metabolic rate. This investigation of trends in the Oldowan archaeological record will expand the geographic range of the earliest Oldowan and shed light on the origins of persistent tool use in a broader evolutionary context.Plummer and Finestone will undertake a project comparing stone tool reduction and raw material procurement at three Oldowan sites spanning nearly a million year interval on the Homa Peninsula in Kenya. This approach offers a snapshot into regional Oldowan behavior and allows researchers to evaluate technological strategies, mobility, and landscape use of some of the earliest toolmakers over time. Using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) geochemical analyses, elemental signatures will link raw materials used in stone tool production to nearby primary outcrops and secondary drainages. This allows researchers to identify raw material sources and determine which sources were utilized by toolmakers and which rock types were most heavily reduced. After identifying regional patterns in stone resource procurement, investigators will reconstruct ranging behavior across the three localities and evaluate if and how investment in stone transport and toolmaker mobility changed through time. This not only addresses the evolution of behavior and archaeology on the Homa Peninsula, but also informs of broader adaptive shifts in the human lineage.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.