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是如何塑造史前人类群体的，以及被史前人类群体塑造的。该项目将对末次冰期的气候变化以及人类对这种变化的反应性质进行研究。末次冰期的特点是气候发生了深刻的变化，在末次冰期极大期达到高潮，在此期间海平面下降到现代海岸线以下130米。就人类而言，这一阶段见证了重大的生物、文化和技术变化。在研究的区域内，这包括现代人取代尼安德特人，以及从旧石器时代中期到晚期的技术和文化过渡。末次冰期也包含了大部分的旧石器时代，这一时期对我们理解从觅食部落向定居农业社会的转变至关重要。关于气候变化在这些转变中所起的作用，一直存在相当大的争论，部分原因是缺乏高分辨率、与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，该项目将深入了解人类发展后期关键时期的人与环境相互作用。该项目将为一所少数民族大学的本科生提供研究机会，并为第二所大学的研究生培训提供支持。考虑到深度视角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。从旧石器时代中期到上石器时代（约71- 21000年前），本研究考察了洞穴，这些洞穴作为一个理想的自然实验室，在促进洲际人类和文化交流的战略区域探索与人类环境相互作用有关的问题。该项目将把传统的动物考古学分析与主要猎物物种（瞪羚和黇鹿）和从考古沉积物中提取的植物蜡（正构烷烃）的同位素分析结合起来。合并后的数据集将提供古气候条件的高分辨率重建。这些数据还提供了一个独特的机会来记录整个末次冰期人类生存行为和景观利用的变化。这将有助于评估关于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盛冰期（一个特别活跃和具有挑战性的气候变化时期）的反应本质提供新的见解。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。

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.