U.S.-Ethiopia Dissertation Enhancement: Investigation of Faunal Remains from Two Middle Stone Age Sites of Ethiopia: Garba III (Melka Konture) and Porc-epic

9731228 Marean&Amp；Assefa本论文增强补助金支持研究生Zelalem Assefa先生在纽约州立大学石溪分校人类学副教授Curtis Marean博士的指导下到埃塞俄比亚进行实地研究。东非是一个包含有关现代人起源进化史的重要信息的区域。生物学和文化证据表明，中石器时代(MSA)或旧石器时代中期是早期现代人现代行为形成阶段的重要时期。但对早期现代人在这些时期使用的生存模式的考察，对他们的资源开发行为提供了相互矛盾的解释。Assefa先生假设，MSA在非洲的早期出现与早期现代人在中更新世晚期和上更新世晚期干旱和寒冷阶段所做的适应性调整有关，他们在东非MSA晚期将季节性开发资源(植被和被捕食动物)发展为一种生存战略。狩猎的作用可能是导致MSA观察到的技术转变的因素之一，如果是这样，Assefa先生还假设，它将预测在阿舍利晚期和早期MSA组合之间动物群遗骸的埋藏学特征发生重大变化。该项目的结果将决定非洲和欧洲的行为进化轨迹是否相同。该项目将测试通过对来自旧世界和埃塞俄比亚不同地区的动物标本的分析而开发的生存模型，并利用MSA的记录，目的是确定和分析模型之间的任何矛盾。将使用基于地理信息系统的生态分析和区划调查的方法，从Garba III和Porc-EPIC遗址的动物和生态标本中收集数据。埃塞俄比亚国家博物馆的工作人员将在这个项目上与阿塞法先生合作。这些结果将为东非早期现代人的行为史提供重要的新信息。这组新的数据还将为东非的其他考古项目提供宝贵的参考资源。此外，助学金将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立一个强大的，独立的研究事业。国际方案司和社会、行为和经济研究司共同为该项目提供资金。

9731228 Marean & Assefa This dissertation enhancement grants supports a graduate student, Mr. Zelalem Assefa, working under the guidance of Dr. Curtis Marean, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, to do field research in Ethiopia. East Africa is a region that contains significant information about the evolutionary history of the origin of modern humans. Biological and cultural evidence has shown that the Middle Stone Age (MSA) or Middle Paleolithic was an important period in the formative phase of modern behavior of early modern peoples. But examination of the subsistence models used by early modern humans in these periods has provided contradictory explanations about their resource exploitation behaviors. Mr. Assefa hypothesizes that the early appearance of the MSA in Africa is related to adaptive adjustments early modern humans made during the arid and cold phases of the Late Middle and Upper Pleistocene, and that they developed their seasonal exploitation of resources (vegetation and prey animals) into a subsistence strategy during the late MSA in East Africa. The role of hunting may have been one of the factors responsible for the observed technological shift in the MSA, and if so Mr. Assefa also hypothesizes that it will predict major changes in the taphonomic features of faunal remains between late Acheulean and early MSA assemblages. The results of this project will determine if the trajectory for behavioral evolution was the same in both Africa and Europe. This project will test subsistence models that are developed from analyses of faunal specimens from different parts of the Old World and Ethiopia with the MSA record, for the purpose of identifying and analyzing any contradictions among the models. The methodological approaches of GIS-based ecological analysis and taphonomic investigation will be used to collect data from fauna and ecological specimens from the Garba III and Porc-epic sites. Staff members at The National Museum of Ethiopia will collaborate with Mr. Assefa on this project. These results will provide important new information on the behavioral history of the early modern humans in East Africa. The new set of data will also provide a valuable reference resource for other archeological projects in East Africa. Additionally, the grant will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong, independent research career. The Division of International Programs and the Division of Social, Behavioral and Economic Research are jointly providing funding for this project.