Taphonomic Perspectives on the Susbsistence Transition between Archaic and Modern Humans in Upper Pleistocene Northeast Asia

在Robert Blumenschine博士的监督下，Christopher Norton将分析来自东北亚上更新世两个重要遗址的动物遗骸：周口店上洞(中国)和花泉(日本)。周口店由一系列遗址组成，其中最著名的是地点1，通常被称为直立人的家园。在有关现代人进化的争论中，一个同样重要的遗址是周口店上洞(约34000-10000 BP)，它目前代表着东北亚最早的人类埋葬实例。除了种类繁多的人类遗骸外，在同一背景下还发现了过多的人工材料(如石器、骨针、穿孔石头和骨饰、用于绘画的红色赭石)和动物遗骸收藏品。Hanaizumi(约35,000-20,000 BP)是位于今日本本州东北部的一个露天遗址，在泥炭沼泽中暴露了动物骨骼和植物化石。尽管挖掘人员注意到与动植物相关的石器很少，但有人建议使用木器和骨器。分析周口店上洞和花泉的动物堆积具有重要意义，原因有很多。首先，虽然动物考古学研究在西方旧大陆很常见，但传统上对东亚更新世沉积物的重视主要局限于分类名录的制作。因此，在东北亚史前研究中，没有关于旧石器时代晚期狩猎-采集生存模式的最近动物考古学研究。第二，由于动物考古学领域在过去30年中取得了大量的理论和方法进步，这项研究将首次将其中的许多应用纳入周口店上洞和花泉动物群组合的分析。第三，不同研究人员创建的分类名录导致了关于古环境重建的差异和混乱。这项研究将对这些组合中存在的动物群如何实际反映该地区35,000-10,000 BP之间的古环境提供更仔细的检查。

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert Blumenschine, Christopher Norton will analyze the faunal remains from two important Northeast Asian Upper Pleistocene sites: Zhoukoudian Upper Cave (China) and Hanaizumi (Japan). Zhoukoudian is comprised of a series of sites, with the best-known being Locality 1, commonly referred to as the home base of Homo erectus. An equally important site to the debate over the evolution of modern humans is Zhoukoudian Upper Cave (ca. 34,000 - 10,000 BP) that currently represents the earliest example of human burials in Northeast Asia. In addition to a wide assortment of human remains, a plethora of artifactual materials (e.g., stone tools, a bone needle, perforated stone and bone ornaments, red ochre for painting) and a collection of faunal remains were discovered in the same context. Hanaizumi (ca. 35,000 - 20,000 BP) is an open-air site located in northeast Honshu in present-day Japan that exposed fossilized animal bones and plant remains in a peat bog. Although the excavators noted that few stone artifacts were associated with the flora and fauna, it has been suggested that wooden and bone implements were used instead.Analysis of the faunal accumulations from both Zhoukoudian Upper Cave and Hanaizumi is important for a number of reasons. First, although zooarchaeological research is common in the Western Old World, the traditional emphasis for Pleistocene deposits from East Asia has been limited largely to the production of taxonomic lists. Accordingly, no recent zooarchaeological studies exist in Northeast Asian prehistoric research that addresses Late Paleolithic hunter-gatherer subsistence patterns. Second, due to the fact that a significant number of theoretical and methodological advances have occurred in the field of zooarchaeology over the course of the past three decades, this study will serve to incorporate many of these applications for the first time to the analysis of the Zhoukoudian Upper Cave and Hanaizumi faunal assemblages. Third, the taxonomic lists created by different researchers have resulted in variation and confusion regarding paleoenvironmental reconstructions. This study will afford a closer examination as to how the fauna present in these assemblages actually reflect the paleoenvironment of the region between 35,000 - 10,000 BP.