Collaborative Research: Developing a high-resolution framework to define human-environment interactions

协作研究：开发高分辨率框架来定义人类与环境的相互作用

• 批准号: 2149759
• 负责人: John Faith
• 金额: $ 5.19万
• 依托单位: University of Utah
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2149759&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Developing; resolution; framework

This interdisciplinary project will examine the role of climate-driven environmental change in shaping the behavioral evolution of early modern humans. Scientists have long proposed that environmental pressures influenced complex behaviors that parallel those of recent hunter-gatherers. Yet, it has been challenging to identify cause-effect relationships in the archaeological record. These challenges stem from the rarity of precisely dated sites that preserve the archaeological and paleoenvironmental data needed to disentangle natural and human system interactions. This project will resolve this issue by assembling a diversity of high-resolution climatic, environmental, and archaeological datasets to understand the nature of the transition from Middle to Later Stone Age technologies. In addition to addressing fundamental questions about the emergence of behavioral complexity in Homo sapiens, this work builds U.S. scientific research capacity by fostering research links across networks of scholars, and providing a foundation for undergraduate and graduate student training.The transition from Middle to Later Stone Age technologies is one of the most prominent behavioral shifts observed in Homo sapiens’ evolutionary history. Understanding what precipitated this transition is closely intertwined with discussion and debates about the origins of modern human behavior. This project tests the hypothesis that the technological, dietary, and social shifts associated with the Middle to Later Stone Age transition result from climate-driven environmental change, specifically changes in the seasonal distribution of foods and other resources. This work will be accomplished through a combination of (i) archaeological excavations that will document behavioral change across the Middle to Later Stone Age transition, coupled with (ii) the assembly of both local- and regional-scale paleoenvironmental records that will inform on past climate dynamics and its effects on terrestrial ecosystems. The datasets generated in this study will contribute to unresolved questions about modern human origins. They will also enable future research across numerous disciplines, including archaeology, paleontology, paleoecology, and paleoclimatology.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.

这个跨学科的项目将研究以气候驱动的环境变化在塑造早期现代人类行为进化中的作用。长期以来，科学家一直建议，环境压力影响了与最近的狩猎采集者相似的复杂行为。然而，确定考古记录中的因果关系的挑战。这些挑战源于精确过时的地点的稀有性，这些地点保留了消除自然和人类系统相互作用所需的考古和古环境数据。该项目将通过组装多种高分辨率气候，环境和考古数据集来解决此问题，以了解从中间到以后的石器时代技术的过渡的性质。除了解决有关同性恋智慧的行为复杂性出现的基本问题外，这项工作还通过促进跨学者网络的研究联系，并为本科生和研究生培训提供基础，从而建立美国科学研究能力。了解这种过渡的原因与关于现代人类行为的起源的讨论和辩论紧密相关。该项目检验了以下假设：与气候驱动的环境变化相关的技术，饮食和社会转变与石器时代转变相关，特别是食品和其他资源的季节性分布的变化。这项工作将通过（i）考古发掘的结合来完成，这些发掘将记录整个中部到以后的石器时代过渡，再加上（ii）（ii）局部和区域规模的古环境记录的组装，这些记录将告知过去的气候动态及其对地面生态系统的影响。本研究中产生的数据集将导致有关现代人类起源的未解决问题。他们还将在众多学科中实现未来的研究，包括考古学，古生物学，古生态学和古气候学。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响评估标准来评估，被认为是宝贵的支持。