Doctoral Dissertation Research Award: use of Eggshell Isotopes for Mobility

博士论文研究奖：利用蛋壳同位素进行移动

• 批准号: 2152718
• 负责人: Teresa Steele
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 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: 2022-03-15 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2152718&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Award; use

This doctoral dissertation research will investigate human mobility by analyzing how a traditional group managed resource procurement in a marginal environment using isotopic analyses of ostrich eggshell. Understanding how groups of humans behaviorally adapted as they moved across the world is a core component to understanding how humans came to be the most populous large mammal on earth. One way people adapted to a diversity of environments and changing climates was by adjusting their mobility patterns, resource catchment areas, and trade networks. This project will utilize the stable isotopes in ostrich eggshell to create paleoclimatic reconstructions while employing strontium isotope analysis to discern mobility patterns and identify possible trade networks, assessing how movement responded to climatic change. Ostrich eggshell is an often-overlooked resource that is abundant in many archaeological deposits, signaling the importance of these eggs as a subsistence resource. Because ostrich eggshell is common in many archaeological sites, establishing standardized methods of collecting clean samples and of producing maps of bioavailable strontium on the landscapes of interest will allow researchers the benefit of generating data that can be easily compared and serve as a baseline for future projects. Complex human behavior is linked to ostrich eggshell through use in bead making, symbolic engravings, and containers that carry or cache water in environments where water is sparse. The archaeological record significantly informs investigations into modern human origins and hunter-gatherer and pastoralist lifeways before and after European colonization and provides a wide range of ecosystems from which to study early human behavior and to explore how past human groups made their living. To achieve the goals of this project adoctoral candidate at the University of California Davis will engineer the creation of a map illustrating regional biogenic strontium. This map will be a valuable tool as a baseline to this project as well as to other researchers in a variety of disciplines. McNeill will investigate mobility and resource catchment variables by comparing strontium values in archaeological ostrich eggshell to the map to assess the likely source of the eggshell, allowing one to discern how far groups were willing to travel or trade to obtain this valuable and versatile resource. The researchers will develop and refine methods for extracting uncontaminated calcite from the eggshell to be processed for strontium isotope analysis to facilitate the spatial assessment. This uncontaminated shell material along with collagen from the organic component of the shell will then be sampled for stable isotope analysis to facilitate the paleoclimatic reconstruction of the study region. Incorporating multiple lines of isotopic evidence enhances the interpretive power of these analyses for understanding human mobility and the food webs humans exploited, especially in the context of past environmental variability. The richness of data that can be gleaned from ostrich eggshells will provide researchers with another resource to employ in the mission to understand the human past.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.

本博士论文研究将利用鸵鸟蛋壳的同位素分析，分析传统群体如何在边缘环境中管理资源采购，从而研究人类的流动性。了解人类群体在世界各地迁徙时如何适应行为，是理解人类如何成为地球上人口最多的大型哺乳动物的核心组成部分。人们适应环境多样性和气候变化的一种方式是调整他们的流动模式、资源集水区和贸易网络。该项目将利用鸵鸟蛋壳中的稳定同位素进行古气候重建，同时利用锶同位素分析来辨别迁徙模式和确定可能的贸易网络，评估迁徙如何响应气候变化。鸵鸟蛋壳是一种经常被忽视的资源，在许多考古沉积物中都有丰富的鸵鸟蛋壳，这表明了这些鸡蛋作为生存资源的重要性。由于鸵鸟蛋壳在许多考古遗址中很常见，建立标准化的方法来收集干净的样本，并在感兴趣的景观上绘制生物可利用锶的地图，将使研究人员受益于生成易于比较的数据，并作为未来项目的基线。复杂的人类行为与鸵鸟蛋壳有关，比如制作珠子、象征性雕刻，以及在缺水的环境中携带或储存水的容器。这些考古记录为研究欧洲殖民前后的现代人类起源、狩猎采集和游牧生活方式提供了重要信息，并为研究早期人类行为和探索过去人类群体如何谋生提供了广泛的生态系统。为了实现这个项目的目标，加州大学戴维斯分校的博士候选人将设计绘制一幅区域生物成因锶的地图。这张地图将是一个有价值的工具，作为这个项目的基线，以及其他研究人员在各种学科。麦克尼尔将通过将考古鸵鸟蛋壳中的锶值与地图进行比较来调查流动性和资源集水区变量，以评估蛋壳的可能来源，从而使人们能够辨别出群体愿意旅行或交易多远以获得这种有价值的多用途资源。研究人员将开发和改进从蛋壳中提取未受污染方解石的方法，用于锶同位素分析，以促进空间评估。这些未受污染的贝壳材料以及贝壳有机成分中的胶原蛋白将被取样进行稳定同位素分析，以促进研究区域的古气候重建。结合多种同位素证据增强了这些分析的解释力，有助于理解人类的流动性和人类利用的食物网，特别是在过去环境变化的背景下。从鸵鸟蛋壳中收集到的丰富数据将为研究人员提供另一种资源，用于了解人类的过去。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。