The Paleolithic Faunas of Hayonim Cave (Israel): An Integrated Plan for Research and Education on Hominid Ecology

Stiner这项由NSF教师早期职业发展竞赛颁发的奖项将为Mary Stiner博士提供五年的支持，以进一步她在以色列的古人类学研究，允许她在亚利桑那大学开发一个实验室，并允许将学生纳入她的项目。这笔资金将允许她和一名学生每年前往以色列，对通过考古挖掘发现的动物材料进行初步分析。样本将被运往亚利桑那州的设施，在那里他们将接受广泛的检查。资金还将允许购买必要的研究和培训设备和实验室用品，并将提供学生支助。斯泰纳博士的研究重点是对最近从以色列哈奥尼姆洞穴中挖掘出来的动物群进行分析。这项工作研究了中新世晚期至晚更新世早期近东地区的人类觅食生态位，这是了解该地区现代人类起源的基础问题。Hayonim的长动物群序列很重要，因为它填补了我们对解剖学上现代人类出现的认识中一个独特而关键的空白。在大约200,000到50,000年前的这段时间里，近东出现了两种不同的人类。其中一个是现代人的直接祖先，考古学家希望了解他们的行为以及他们如何适应不断变化的环境。通过对动物遗骸的分析，将有可能重建随着时间的推移而发生的环境变化，并洞察人们如何利用可供他们使用的各种动物资源。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将为人类与环境的相互作用提供新的线索。它将提供对现代行为出现的洞察，支持一位有前途的年轻科学家的研究和教学生涯，并帮助学生培训。

Stiner This award under the NSF Faculty Early Career Development competition will provide five years of support to Dr. Mary Stiner to further her paleoanthropological research in Israel, to permit her to develop a laboratory at the University of Arizona and to allow the incorporation students into her project. The funding will permit her and a student to travel to Israel each year to conduct preliminary analyses of faunal materials recovered through archaeological excavation. A sample will be shipped to the Arizona facility where they will be subjected to extensive examination. Funds will also permit the purchase of necessary research and training equipment and laboratory supplies and will provide student support. Dr. Stiner's study centers on the analysis of recently excavated faunas from Hayonim Cave in Israel. The work investigates the human foraging niche in the Near East during the late Middle through early Upper Pleistocene geologic periods, a question fundamental to understanding the origins of modern humans in this region. The long faunal sequence at Hayonim is important because it fills a unique and crucial gap in our knowledge about the emergence of anatomically modern humans. During this period between ca. 200,000 to 50,000 years ago two different kinds of humans were present in the Near East. One of these was directly ancestral to modern day peoples and archaeologists wish to understand their behavior and how they adapted to their changing environment. Through the analysis of faunal remains, it will be possible to reconstruct environmental change over time and to gain insight into the ways in which people utilized the range of animal resources available to them. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on human-environment interactions. It will provide insight into the emergence of modern behaviors, support the research and teaching career of a promising young scientist and assist in student training.