High Risk Research: Long Term Human Adaptation in a Tropical Environment

研究人员早就认识到，人口迁移是文化、技术和生态变化的关键过程，往往对社会产生广泛的、有时甚至是灾难性的后果。为了更好地理解人类迁徙如何影响文化变迁及其后果，研究人员越来越多地转向考古记录，其中已知的史前迁徙对形成当代社会至关重要。该项目的主要目标是更好地了解史前最大的人类迁徙事件之一的催化剂、时间、性质和后果——大约5000至2000年前讲班图语的农民在撒哈拉以南非洲地区的扩张。为了调查这一鲜为人知的事件，本研究将重点挖掘中非共和国的Nangara-Komba岩石避难所，该避难所跨越了班图人扩张前后的关键时期。该项目产生的信息将涉及更广泛的问题，如人口迁移的原因以及掌握新技术的人口对土著人民和环境的影响。这个合作研究项目汇集了来自中非共和国和美国的科学家，中非共和国是一个在科学领域代表性不足的国家。将美国和中非学生纳入研究支持学术和文化交流。该项目将培养中非研究生的智力，他们将接受在本国无法获得的考古方法方面的培训。在中非和美国，透过电台访谈、公开演讲、部落格和数位媒体等公共外展活动，将这个计划的发现和影响传播给不同的受众。人们普遍认为，讲班图语的农民在撒哈拉以南非洲的扩张，对语言、文化、人口和技术以及当代非洲人民的发展轨迹产生了重大而持久的影响。尽管它很重要，但人们对它的环境催化剂、确切时间、性质和后果知之甚少。Nangara-Komba岩石避难所是中非这一地区最古老的岩石避难所之一，从5600年前一直持续到19世纪。重要的是，该遗址位于桑加河区间，许多人认为这是班图人迁徙到中非森林的重要自然走廊。在避难所的挖掘将产生有机材料，这些材料可以用来构建一个准确的地点年表，以及与班图人有关的陶瓷和铁制品出现的日期。对人工制品和有机材料的分析将为了解班图人之前的土著狩猎采集者和早期班图语使用者的生活方式提供重要信息。随着时间的推移，对这些材料的比较分析将提供与班图人扩张有关的史前生活方式变化的信息。对该遗址和邻近地区沉积物的地球化学分析将用于重建迁移前后的植被和气候变化。累积起来，这个项目的信息将大大提高目前对移民和中非史前的理解。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。

Researchers have long recognized that population migration is a pivotal process of cultural and technological and ecological change that often has wide-ranging and sometimes cataclysmic consequences for societies. To better understand how human migration influences cultural change and its consequences, researchers have increasingly turned to the archaeological record where known prehistoric migrations were important in forming contemporary societies. The main goal of this project is to gain a better understanding of the catalysts, timing, nature, and consequences of one of the largest human migration events in prehistory - the expansion of Bantu-speaking farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa some 5,000 to 2,000 years ago. To investigate this poorly understood event, this research will focus on excavating Nangara-Komba Rock Shelter in the Central African Republic which spans the critical time period before and after the Bantu expansion. Information generated from this project will speak to broader issues about why populations migrate and the impact incoming populations with new technologies have on indigenous peoples and environments. This collaborative research project brings together researchers from the Central African Republic, a country underrepresented in the sciences, and the United States. The inclusion of American and Central African students in the research supports scholarly and cultural exchange. The project will build intellectual capacity for Central African graduate students who will receive training in archaeological methods that is unavailable in their country. Public outreach activities such as radio interviews, public lectures, blogs and digital media in Central Africa and the US will disseminate the findings and implications of this project to different audiences.The expansion of Bantu-speaking farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa is widely recognized as having a significant and lasting impact on language, culture, demography and technology, as well as the trajectories of contemporary African peoples. Despite its importance, very little is known about the environmental catalysts, exact timing, nature and consequences of this event. Nangara-Komba Rock Shelter is one of the oldest rock shelters in this part of Central Africa with prehistoric occupations spanning from 5,600 years ago into the nineteenth century. Importantly, the site lies in the Sangha River Interval believed by many as an important natural corridor for Bantu migrations into Central African forests. Excavations in the shelter will yield organic materials that can be used to construct an exact chronology of the site and date when ceramic and iron artifacts associated with Bantu-speaking populations appear. Analysis of artifacts and organic materials will provide crucial information on the lifeways of pre-Bantu indigenous hunter-gatherers and early Bantu-speakers. Comparative analyses of these materials over time will provide information on changes in prehistoric lifeways associated with the expansion of Bantu peoples. Geochemical analyses of sediment from the site and adjacent areas will be used to reconstruct vegetation and climate changes spanning the period before and after the migration. Cumulatively, information from this project will significantly enhance current understanding of migration and Central African prehistory.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.