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

这个跨学科项目将研究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，科学家们一直认为，环境压力影响了与现代狩猎采集者相似的复杂行为。然而，在考古记录中确定因果关系一直是一项挑战。这些挑战源于精确确定年代的遗址的稀少，这些遗址保存了解开自然和人类系统相互作用所需的考古和古环境数据。该项目将通过收集各种高分辨率的气候、环境和考古数据集来解决这个问题，以了解从中石器时代到晚期石器时代技术过渡的本质。除了解决有关智人行为复杂性出现的基本问题外，这项工作还通过促进学者网络之间的研究联系，并为本科生和研究生培训提供基础，从而建立美国的科学研究能力。从中石器时代到晚期石器时代的技术转变是智人进化史上观察到的最显著的行为转变之一。理解是什么促成了这一转变，与关于现代人类行为起源的讨论和辩论密切相关。该项目验证了这样一种假设，即与中晚期石器时代过渡相关的技术、饮食和社会转变是由气候驱动的环境变化引起的，特别是食物和其他资源的季节性分布变化。这项工作将通过以下两方面的结合来完成：(1)考古发掘，这将记录石器时代中期到晚期过渡时期的行为变化；(2)收集地方和区域尺度的古环境记录，这将为过去的气候动态及其对陆地生态系统的影响提供信息。在这项研究中产生的数据集将有助于解决有关现代人类起源的悬而未决的问题。它们还将使未来的研究跨越许多学科，包括考古学、古生物学、古生态学和古气候学。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。

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.