Investigating the Deep Roots of Human Behaviour

调查人类行为的深层根源

• 批准号: AH/N008804/1
• 负责人: Lawrence Stephen Barham
• 金额: $ 97.4万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FN008804%2F1
• 关键词: Investigating; Deep; Roots; Human; Behaviour

When did human ancestors start behaving like us? Recent research has shown that our direct ancestor, Homo heidelbergensis, lived in Africa 600,000-200,000 years ago and was probably capable of behaviour such as language, symbol use and complex tool-making.The African archaeological record offers some clues to support this thesis, eg, ochre use, possibly for symbolic purposes, and the invention of tools made of multiple parts.Indirect fossil record evidence suggests that this large-brained species formed extended social networks using language.But all this evidence is sparse, poorly dated, unevenly distributed across the continent and insufficient to answer the questions of how, where, when or why these developments took place. This project aims both to add a significant bank of data to the evidence base and expand its geographical coverage.It will provide a research model archaeologists can use elsewhere to generate more data with which to investigate the deep roots of behaviours once thought to be the hallmark of Homo sapiens.A multidisciplinary team will undertake excavation and analysis of three key localities (Victoria Falls, Kalambo Falls, Luangwa Valley) spanning 1100 km of south-central Africa which preserve artefacts from the period associated with H. heidelbergensis,the Early to Middle Stone Age transition,ESA/MSA,filling a large regional gap between the better known records of east and southern Africa.The team includes archaeologists, dating specialists and a research group investigating how stone tools were made and used. Materials with high symbolic content such as beads are unlikely to survive from this period thus our primary focus is on technology as a window on the past. Recent research in east and South Africa points to an invention in tool-making that took place before 300,000 years ago,marking a break with long established traditions of the Early Stone Age. A conceptually new approach to problem solving appeared: the combining of separate parts to invent a new whole. The process of adding a stone to a handle and securing it by various means sounds simple but required levels of planning and learning not previously needed. The individual components were themselves made using other tools, other materials and routines of assembly. This recursive principle of 'combinatorial technology' underpins all later technologies including industrial manufacturing. In the time of H. heidelbergensis we also see selection of purple, red and yellow ochres for purposes unknown but which in later periods have practical and symbolic values. These cognitively and socially complex behaviours, along with the fossil evidence for a large modern-like brain, point to a species that shared much with its descendant H. sapiens. We lack the depth of archaeological data to answer the basic questions of time, place and processes of change that make this a potentially key interval in human evolution. This project addresses the need for an Africa-wide perspective on the ESA/MSA transition. Our regional focus offers a test case of a new model of research integrating the best of new dating methods with innovations in the study of early technology. A 'primitive technologist' embedded in the fieldwork will make and use replica tools from the time of the transition. Contemporary local knowledge about materials used in tool-making will be incorporated in the replication experiments. These data will be used to interpret patterns of microscopic wear that accumulate on artefact surfaces in their making and use.Traces of long decayed handles can now be identified by their distinctive patterns of damage. Organic residues may also survive on tool surfaces under the right conditions for preservation. We will be looking for these traces along with evidence of ochre use in the project sites. The results will be compared with what we already know about the ESA/MSA transition in Africa and the research model evaluated in a multidisciplinary workshop.

人类祖先什么时候开始像我们一样生活？最近的研究表明，我们的直接祖先海德堡人生活在60万至20万年前的非洲，可能有语言、符号使用和复杂工具制造等行为能力。非洲考古记录提供了一些线索来支持这一论点，例如，赭石的使用，可能是为了象征目的，以及发明由多个部分组成的工具。间接的化石记录证据表明，这种大脑大的物种使用语言形成了扩展的社交网络。但所有这些证据都很稀少，日期也很难确定，这些数据在整个非洲大陆分布不均衡，不足以回答这些事态发展如何、在何处、何时或为何发生的问题。该项目旨在为证据库增加重要的数据库，并扩大其地理覆盖范围。它将提供一个研究模型，考古学家可以在其他地方使用，以生成更多数据，从而调查一度被认为是智人标志的行为的深层根源。一个多学科团队将对三个关键地点进行挖掘和分析（维多利亚瀑布、卡兰博福尔斯、卢安瓜山谷），横跨非洲中南部1100公里，保存着与H.该团队由考古学家、年代测定专家和一个研究小组组成，他们调查石器是如何制造和使用的。具有高度象征意义的材料，如珠子，不太可能在这一时期幸存下来，因此我们的主要重点是技术作为过去的窗口。最近在东非和南非进行的研究指出，在30万年前就有一种工具制造的发明，标志着与早期石器时代长期建立的传统的决裂。一种新的解决问题的方法出现了：将不同的部分结合起来创造一个新的整体。将石头添加到手柄并通过各种方式固定它的过程听起来很简单，但需要以前不需要的计划和学习水平。单个部件本身是使用其他工具、其他材料和组装程序制造的。“组合技术”的递归原理支撑了所有后来的技术，包括工业制造。在H.我们还看到选择紫色、红色和黄色的赭石用于未知的目的，但在后来的时期具有实用和象征价值。这些复杂的认知和社会行为，沿着化石证据表明有一个类似现代人的大脑，指向一个与其后代H共享很多东西的物种。智人我们缺乏深入的考古数据来回答时间、地点和变化过程等基本问题，这些问题使这一时期成为人类进化的一个潜在关键时期。该项目解决了从全非洲角度看待欧空局/管理事务协定过渡的需要。我们的区域重点提供了一个新的研究模式的测试案例，将最好的新测年方法与早期技术研究的创新相结合。一个“原始的技术专家”嵌入在现场工作将使和使用复制工具从过渡的时候。将在复制实验中纳入关于工具制造所用材料的当代当地知识。这些数据将用于解释在制造和使用过程中在人工制品表面积累的微观磨损模式。现在可以通过其独特的损坏模式来识别长腐烂手柄的痕迹。在适当的保存条件下，有机残留物也可以在工具表面上存活。我们将寻找这些痕迹，沿着在项目现场使用赭石的证据。这些结果将与我们已经知道的非洲欧空局/MSA过渡情况以及在一个多学科讲习班上评估的研究模型进行比较。

项目成果

Electron spin resonance dating of quartz from archaeological sites at Victoria Falls, Zambia

赞比亚维多利亚瀑布考古遗址石英的电子自旋共振测年

• DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2022.101345
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Quaternary Geochronology
• 影响因子: 2.7
• 作者: Richter M

Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic

• DOI: 10.1007/s10816-020-09480-9
• 发表时间: 2020-08-10
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHOD AND THEORY
• 影响因子: 2.3
• 作者: Barham, Lawrence;Everett, Daniel
• 通讯作者: Everett, Daniel

Challenges of dating quartz OSL samples with saturated grains: Lessons from single-grain analyses of low dose-rate samples from Victoria Falls, Zambia

• DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2022.101344
• 发表时间: 2022-05
• 期刊: Quaternary Geochronology
• 影响因子: 2.7
• 作者: Quaternary Geochronology;M. S. Chapot;G. Duller;L. Barham

Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06557-9
• 发表时间: 2023-10
• 期刊: NATURE
• 影响因子: 64.8
• 作者: Barham, L.;Duller, G. A. T.;Candy, I.;Scott, C.;Cartwright, C. R.;Peterson, J. R.;Kabukcu, C.;Chapot, M. S.;Melia, F.;Rots, V.;George, N.;Taipale, N.;Gethin, P.;Nkombwe, P.
• 通讯作者: Nkombwe, P.

The variability of single grain quartz luminescence properties investigated using EMCCD imaging

• DOI: 10.1016/j.radmeas.2022.106748
• 发表时间: 2022-04
• 期刊: Radiation Measurements
• 影响因子: 2
• 作者: J. Durcan;G. Duller