Doctoral Dissertation Research: Regional Variation in Late Upper Paleolithic Human Postcrania

来自欧洲的旧石器时代晚期的早期现代人表现出颅骨后生物力学特征的时间趋势。这些趋势包括上肢健壮性的适度增加和前后下肢力量的减少，尽管股骨整体力量停滞不前。这种变化似乎与表明资源集约化和流动性下降的行为变化有关。由于化石材料的短缺，以及对欧洲以外地理区域的现代人类遗骸的古生物学分析水平较低，目前尚不清楚这些是区域性的还是全球性的趋势。因此，本研究的目标是分析颅骨后的鲁棒性，将现有的欧洲数据与非欧洲晚期上旧石器时代化石材料中可用或即将产生的数据相结合。本次分析的重点非欧洲样本包括Tam Hang，这是一个以前未被研究过的东南亚人群；来自北非的瓦迪哈勒法、杰贝尔萨哈巴、塔福拉尔特、阿法卢、图什卡和埃斯纳；以色列人拿哈因基夫、尼弗大卫、阿哈罗。将使用骨干截面生物力学特性分析这些样本的上肢和下肢的鲁棒性。关于附肢骨骼的尺寸和强度的附加信息将补充这一强健性数据。补充方法将包括分析肌肉强度（肌肉肥大和骨骼肌杠杆系统的机械效率水平）和关节健壮性（关节大小和形状）。这些特征将被用于对这些非欧洲样本的颅后材料进行功能和生物力学分析，并与其他更知名的区域样本相结合，以提供有关旧石器时代晚期晚期生物行为变化的相对测量和推断。这项研究的知识意义包括：1)对旧石器时代晚期晚期未被研究的种群进行生物力学描述和分析；2)提供了晚更新世人类生物行为变异的额外证据。鉴于更新世末期是一个与末次盛冰期（18ky BP）相关的剧烈环境变化时期，目前的证据表明，与生存相关的行为也发生了变化。这项研究将扩展目前对旧石器时代晚期晚期现代人类的看法，进一步研究更新世晚期狩猎采集进化，并扩大粮食生产社会出现的背景，以及与这种生存变化相关的深刻的文化和生物变化。这项研究的广泛影响包括与来自欧洲（英国伦敦、法国巴黎、意大利罗马）、非洲（南非开普敦）和亚洲（以色列特拉维夫、日本京都）的研究人员的国际合作。此外，它还将探讨世界上一个在晚更新世中代表性不足和知之甚少的地区，并提供有关东南亚人类进化的进一步信息。

Upper Paleolithic early modern humans from Europe exhibit chronological trends in postcranial biomechanical features. These trends include a modest increase in upper limb robusticity and a decrease in antero-posterior lower limb strength, despite stasis in femoral overall strength. This variation is seemingly related to behavioral changes that indicate resource intensification and decreased mobility. It is unknown whether these are regional or global trends due to a shortage of fossil material and the low level of paleobiological analysis of modern human remains from geographical areas outside of Europe. As such, the goal of this research is the analysis of postcranial robusticity, combining existing European data with that available for or to be generated from non-European Late Upper Paleolithic fossil material. The non-European samples at the focus of this analysis include Tam Hang, a previously unstudied population from southeast Asia; Wadi Halfa, Jebel Sahaba, Taforalt, Afalou, Tushka and Esna from north Africa; and Nahal Ein Gev, Neve David and Ohalo 2 from Israel. Robusticity will be analyzed for the upper and lower limbs of these samples using diaphyseal cross-sectional biomechanical properties. Additional information about the size and strength of the appendicular skeleton will supplement this robusticity data. Supplemental methods will include analysis of muscularity (muscular hypertrophy and levels of mechanical efficiency in bone-muscle lever systems) and articular robusticity (joint size and shape). These traits will be used to perform a functional and biomechanical analysis of the postcranial material from these non-European samples, in the context of other better known regional samples, in order to provide relative measures of robusticity and inferences regarding biobehavioral variation in the Late Upper Paleolithic.The intellectual significance of this research includes 1) biomechanical description and analysis of previously unstudied populations of the Late Upper Paleolithic and 2) the contribution of additional evidence of biobehavioral variation in late Pleistocene humans. Given that the terminal Pleistocene is a period of dramatic environmental changes associated with the Last Glacial Maximum (18 ky BP), current evidence suggests shifts in subsistence-related behavior as well. This research will expand the current perspective on modern humans of the Late Upper Paleolithic and further address Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer evolution and expand the background to the emergence of food producing societies and the profound cultural and biological changes associated with such changes in subsistence.The broader impacts of this study include international collaboration with researchers from Europe (London, UK, Paris, France, Rome, Italy), Africa (Cape Town, South Africa) and Asia (Tel Aviv, Israel, Kyoto, Japan). Additionally, it will address a region of the world that is underrepresented and poorly understood in the late Pleistocene and offer further information about human evolution in southeast Asia.