Collaborative Research: Human Behavior Within the Context of Long Term Environment Change

面对现代前所未有的气候变化，人们越来越有兴趣了解气候变化如何塑造史前人类群体，以及如何被史前人类群体塑造。该项目将研究末次冰期期间的气候变化以及人类对这种变化的反应的性质。末次冰期的特点是气候发生了深刻的变化，最终在末次冰期最高峰期间，海平面下降到现代海岸线以下130米。在人类的层面上，这一阶段见证了重大的生物、文化和技术变化。在所研究的区域内，这包括现代人对尼安德特人的取代以及从旧石器时代中期到晚期的技术和文化的过渡。末次冰期也涵盖了上石器时代的大部分时间，这一时期对我们理解从觅食乐队到定居农业社会的过渡至关重要。关于气候变化在这些转变中所扮演的角色，一直存在相当大的争论，部分原因是缺乏高分辨率，文化相关的环境数据。通过结合高分辨率的古气候和动物考古数据，该项目将提供对人类发展后期关键时期人类与环境相互作用的洞察。该项目将为本科生提供在少数民族占多数的机构进行研究的机会，并支持在第二所大学进行研究生培训。鉴于深时间观点对当前气候变化讨论的重要性，研究结果将通过科普文章和公开讲座向公众传播。（约71- 21，000年前），这项研究考察了洞穴，作为一个理想的自然实验室，探索与人类有关的问题，战略区域的环境互动促进了洲际间的人文交流。该项目将把联合收割机传统的动物考古学分析与对主要猎物物种（瞪羚和休闲鹿）和考古沉积物中的植物蜡（正构烷烃）的同位素分析结合起来。合并后的数据集将提供高分辨率的古气候条件重建。这些数据还提供了一个独特的机会，记录整个末次冰期人类生存行为和景观利用的变化。这将有助于评估有关尼安德特人和现代人之间行为差异的假设，同时也为人类对末次冰期最大期（一个特别活跃和具有挑战性的气候变化时期）的反应提供了新的见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为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来支持。

In the face of the unprecedented climate change of the modern era, there is a growing interest in understanding the ways in which climate change shaped, and was shaped by, prehistoric human groups. This project will undertake research on climate change, and the nature of human responses to that change, during the Last Glacial Period. The Last Glacial is characterized by profound shifts in climate, culminating in the Last Glacial Maximum during which sea levels dropped to 130 m below the modern coastline. On a human scale, the phase witnessed significant biological, cultural and technological changes. Within the region studied, this includes the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans and the transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic technologies and culture. The Last Glacial also encompasses much of the Epipaleolithic, a period of key importance to our understanding of the transition from foraging bands to sedentary farming societies. There has been considerable debate about the role played by climate change in these transitions, fueled in part by a lack of high resolution, culturally linked environmental data. By combining high resolution paleoclimate and zooarchaeological data, this project will provide insight into human-environmental interactions during a key period in the later stages of human development. The project will provide research opportunities for undergraduates at a majority-minority institution, as well as supporting graduate student training at a second university. Given the importance of deep-time perspectives to current discussions about climate change, results will be disseminated to the public via popular science articles and by public lectures.With deposits spanning from the Middle Paleolithic through the Epipaleolithic (~71-21,000 years ago), this research examines caves that serves as an ideal natural laboratory for exploring questions relating to human-environmental interaction in the strategic region that facilitated inter-continental human and cultural exchanges. The project will combine traditional zooarchaeological analysis with the isotopic analysis of key prey species (gazelle and fallow deer) and plant waxes (n-alkanes) deriving from archaeological sediments. The combined datasets will provide a high-resolution reconstruction of paleoclimatic conditions. The data also provide a unique opportunity to document shifts in human subsistence behavior and landscape use throughout the Last Glacial. This will facilitate the evaluation of hypotheses about behavioral differences between Neanderthals and modern humans, while also providing new insights into the nature of human responses to the Last Glacial Maximum, a particularly active and challenging period of climate change.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.