Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Ecological Context of Modern Human Adaptability

博士论文改进奖：现代人类适应性的生态背景

• 批准号: 2326691
• 负责人: Brian Stewart
• 金额: $ 3.15万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2326691&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Award; Ecological

xThis doctoral dissertation project investigates the ecological context of modern human evolution during the Late Quaternary. This is important because the key to understanding the evolution of behaviors characteristic of the human species, such as enhanced adaptive flexibility and the expansion of social interaction and exchange networks, among others, lies in tracking their trajectories through deep time. To date, archaeological evidence for adaptive flexibility comes mainly from sites dating to the latter half of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) from ca. 130,000 to 30,000 years ago.. However, the sites under study has several well-stratified MSA sequences that offer an excellent opportunity to track longer-term environmental changes and biocultural responses in a region central to the modern human evolution narrative. This work sets the context for further site-specific, high-resolution paleoenvironmental reconstructions and contributes knowledge on whether and how environmental changes precipitated innovation during the behavioral evolution of humans. It further assesses the connection between ranging patterns and environmental changes. The investigators also use the project to train interested students from local universities in archaeological field and lab methods. The project addresses questions as to whether site-level environmental reconstructions in the sites under consideration match local climatic and paleoenvironmental patterns recorded for the Late Quaternary. They are also determining if ranging patterns and degree of social connectivity differ during arid versus humid periods. Lastly, they are investigating whether lithic technological shifts through deep time suggest increasingly adept responses to environmental change. To achieve this, four MSA sites were excavated resulting in thousands of lithic artifacts. Various lithic technological attributes were recorded, and work is underway to develop a chronostratigraphic history of the region through chemical fingerprinting of the volcanic ashes and 40Ar/39Ar dating. This phase of the project is developing a high-resolution paleoenvironmental reconstruction using plant leaf waxes (δ13Cwax), bulk organic matter (δ13COM), and carbonate nodules, as well as at sourcing obsidian artifacts using a portable handheld X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) machine.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.

X这个博士学位论文项目研究了第四纪晚期的现代人类进化的生态环境。这很重要，因为了解人类行为特征的行为特征的演变的关键，例如增强的适应性灵活性以及社交互动和交换网络的扩展，以及其他依赖于深层时间跟踪其轨迹。迄今为止，自适应灵活性的考古证据主要来自可追溯到中石器时代后期（MSA）的地点。但是，研究的地点有几个良好的MSA序列，为追踪现代人类进化叙事核心的地区的长期环境变化和生物文化反应提供了一个绝佳的机会，提供了一个很好的机会。这项工作为进一步的特定地点的高分辨率古环境重建树立了背景，并就人类行为进化期间的环境变化以及如何变化促进了环境变化的知识。它进一步评估了范围模式与环境变化之间的联系。调查人员还使用该项目来培训当地大学的档案学领域和实验室方法的有兴趣的学生。该项目解决了有关在考虑的地点的现场环境重建是否符合当地气候和古环境模式，记录了晚期晚期的现场气候和古环境模式。他们还在确定在干旱时期与潮湿时期期间的范围模式和社会连通性差异的程度。最后，他们正在调查岩石技术在深层时期是否表明对环境变化的反应越来越熟练。为了实现这一目标，挖掘了四个MSA位点，从而产生了数千个岩性伪像。记录了各种岩性的技术属性，并正在进行通过火山灰的化学指纹和40AR/39AR约会来开发该地区年级地层学历史的工作。该项目的这一阶段是使用植物叶蜡（Δ13CWAX），散装有机物（Δ13COM）和碳酸盐结节开发高分辨率的古环境重建，并使用可移植的手持式X射线荧光（pxrf and deem and deem and shains and sanfore waperys and sanfore ways and sanfore wapers and sanfore wabors.通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响评估标准通过评估来支持。