A geoarchaeological investigation of Middle Stone Age human response to environmental change on the shores of Lake Malawi

非洲的中石器时代通常可以追溯到28万到3万年前，是人类进化的关键时期，当时人们开始表现出与我们人类相似的行为特征。最近来自马拉维湖的古环境研究表明，与石器时代中期相对应的时间段以极端干旱为标志，这可能导致了人类觅食策略、定居行为和人口统计学的变化。在这里，我们打算通过研究马拉维湖沿岸保存完好的古景观来研究极端环境变化对石器时代中期人类的影响。利用各种地质考古分析和年代测定方法，我们将构建详细的、按年代划分的遗址形成和景观发展历史，并将其与高分辨率的湖泊记录进行比较。我们的景观开发模型将允许我们直接将古环境、古景观和考古数据联系起来，以调查石器时代中期人类如何应对极端的环境变化。

The Middle Stone Age of Africa, generally dated between 280,000 and 30,000 years ago, is a key period in human evolution when people began exhibiting behavioral characteristics similar to our own. Recent paleoenvironmental research from Lake Malawi suggests that the time period corresponding to the Middle Stone Age was marked by extended periods of extreme drought, which may have induced changes in human foraging strategies, settlement behavior, and demography. Here we propose to investigate the influence of extreme environmental change on Middle Stone Age people by studying a well-preserved paleolandscape along the shores of Lake Malawi. Using various geoarchaeological analyses and dating methods, we will construct a detailed and chronologically robust history of site formation and landscape development that we will compare with the high-resolution lacustrine records. Our landscape development model will allow us to directly link paleoenvironmental, paleolandscape, and archaeological datasets, in order to investigate how Middle Stone Age humans responded to extreme environmental change.