Geoarchaeology of a Middle Stone Age paleo-landscape in the central interior of South Africa: paleoenvironments and foraging practices during the transition to behaviora

我们物种的生物学和行为起源在非洲，最近的研究表明，在石器时代中期（大约30万到3万年前），特别是在非洲南部，人们很早就使用了符号表达和早熟的技术。关于中石器时代行为的许多证据来自对洞穴遗址的挖掘，特别是在南非西部和南部海岸。尽管这些洞穴遗址意义重大，但由于大多数与觅食有关的活动都是在露天进行的，因此它们可以描绘出一幅有偏见的人类行为图景。在这里，我们建议对南非自由州的中石器时代古景观进行地质考古调查，以弗洛里斯巴德的重要遗址为中心。我们的目标是研究位于南非中部河流阶地和泛田内的三个露天遗址的沉积和沉积后过程。我们将在一个详细的遗址形成模型中对这些遗址进行背景化，以研究环境和景观的变化如何影响Florisbad地区中石器时代的觅食行为。

The biological and behavioral origins of our species lies in Africa, where recent research has demonstrated an early use of symbolic expression and precocious technologies during the Middle Stone Age (ca. 300,000 to 30,000 years ago), particularly in southern Africa. Much of the evidence for Middle Stone Age behavior comes from excavations of cave sites, particularly along the western and southern coasts of South Africa. Despite the significance of these cave sites, they can paint a biased picture of human behavior since most activities related to foraging were conducted in the open air. Here, we propose to conduct a geoarchaeological investigation of a Middle Stone Age paleolandscape in the Free State of South Africa, centered around the important site of Florisbad. We aim to study the depositional and post-depositional processes of three open-air sites located within the fluvial terraces and panfields of central South Africa. We will contextualize these sites within a detailed site formation model, in order to investigate how changing environments and landscapes influenced Middle Stone Age foraging practices in the region of Florisbad.