International Research Fellowship Program: Pliocene Technology: Hominin Adaption and Tool Use in the Turkana Basin

国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9到24个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并利用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件。该奖项将支持David R.Braun博士与Mzalendo Kibunjia博士、肯尼亚国家博物馆和内罗毕大学的Michael Mangala合作的为期12个月的研究奖学金。人类祖先使用工具的起源反映了人类与其所处的不同环境之间的复杂关系。技术策略与生态资源结构相结合的证据表明，片石技术对上新世(约200万年前)原始人的适应策略做出了重大贡献。石器形态中记录的这种技术决定可能代表了一种文化系统，包括在动态环境中使用资源的复杂战略。这个项目结合了人工制品的形态分析和这些人工制品的地球化学来源的数据，以回答人类工具制造和使用起源的两个主要问题：1)开发和维护资源获取的文化解决方案是否需要大量的能源支出？2)技术战略如何适应资源的景观分布，特别是石器制造的原材料？这项研究使用创新的现场新技术，捕捉和分析关于古代景观中不同石材来源的地球化学和材料科学数据。这项研究还在探索捕捉早期石器时代文物不同形态的新方法。Mzalendo Kibunjia博士是肯尼亚国家博物馆遗址和古迹部门的负责人，该博物馆是非洲史前考古的主要机构之一。迈克尔·曼加拉是内罗毕大学核科学研究所能量色散X射线荧光实验室的负责人。

0602021BraunThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twelve-month research fellowship by Dr. David R. Braun to work with Dr. Mzalendo Kibunjia, at the National Museums of Kenya in Kenya, and with Michael Mangala at University of Nairobi. The origins of tool use among human ancestors reflects the complicated relationship between humans and the diverse environments they inhabit. Evidence that technological strategies are coupled with ecological resource structure would suggest that flaked stone technology contributed significantly to Pliocene (~2 million years ago) hominin adaptive strategies. Such technological decisions, as recorded in stone artifact morphology may represent a cultural system comprising complex strategies of resource use in a dynamic environment. This project is incorporating data from morphological analyses of artifacts and the geochemical provenance of these artifacts to answer two major questions in the origins of human tool manufacture and use: 1) Did the development and maintenance of a cultural solution to resource acquisition require significant energy expenditure? 2) How are technological strategies adapted to the landscape distribution of resources, especially raw material for stone tool manufacture? This research is using innovative new field techniques of capturing and analyzing geochemical and material science data about the different source of stone on the ancient landscape. This research is also investigating new methods of capturing the diverse morphology of early stone age artifacts. Dr. Mzalendo Kibunjia is the head of the Sites and Monuments Division of the National Museums of Kenya one of the leading institutions for prehistoric African Archaeology. Michael Mangala runs the Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence lab at the Institute of Nuclear Science at the University of Nairobi.