Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Zooarchaeological tests for modern human behavior at Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, Southwestern Cape, South Africa

在Curtis Marean教授的监督下，Jessica Thompson将收集和分析南非开普敦西南部两个考古遗址的数据：Blombos Cave和Pinnacle Point Cave 13B（PP 13B）。 该数据集将包括超过40，000个动物骨骼化石，可追溯到70，000（Blombos）和181，000（PP 13B）。 汤普森的研究将确定收集的食物中有多少比例是来自人类居民的食物残留，而不是来自其他骨骼动物如食肉动物、啮齿动物和猛禽的残留。 一旦确定了这一点，这些人的狩猎和屠宰策略就可以从骨头上留下的痕迹中推断出来：割肉时留下的切割痕迹和抽取骨髓时留下的敲击痕迹。 这两个网站日期的时间被称为中石器时代（MSA），从约。250人左右。 3万年前（ka）。 这是人类进化的一个关键时期，因为尽管这一时期的骨骼遗骸在身体上是现代的，但尚不清楚这些人是否表现得像现代人一样。 最近在布隆伯斯发现的雕刻颜料和个人装饰品表明，创造力和象征性行为存在于我们的物种中，至少有70，000人，但这些因素与饮食之间的关系仍然未知。 关于这一问题的工作因缺乏经验数据而受到严重阻碍：在整个南部非洲，只有一个来自这一时期的其他收集得到了全面分析和出版。 汤普森的研究将创建两个新的数据集，可以直接与这个数据集（DK 1）进行比较，从而有效地将完整并经过充分分析的动物群收集的经验记录增加两倍。 这是第一次，可以在具有丰富的象征性行为证据（布隆伯斯）和较少此类证据（PP 13B和DK 1）的地点之间进行行为比较。该方法非常强调对动物群遗骸的适当管理，以便未来的研究人员可以轻松定位和检查组合的任何部分，包括本项目中未使用的材料（爬行动物，鸟类，鱼类等）。 每一个可识别元素的标本都将被提取到地理信息系统（GIS）数据库中，创建一个永久的数字记录，可供世界各地的研究人员即时共享。由于南非遗产法，数据必须在开普敦收集。 这为向发现材料的国家的科学界和当地社区提供信息提供了机会。 对这一关键时期人类行为的考古学研究有可能确定和说明所有现代人类共有的行为方面。 这对南非这样一个新融合的多种族和多族裔国家具有特别重大的影响。 随着研究的进行，汤普森将通过参加由南非博物馆的一位同事组织的外展计划，向中学生和高中生提供信息。 该计划旨在为这些不可替代资源的未来监护人提供信息和激励，并促进考古保护。

Under the supervision of Prof. Curtis Marean, Jessica Thompson will collect and analyze data from two archaeological sites in the southwestern Cape, South Africa: Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (PP 13B). The dataset will consist of over 40,000 fossil animal bones that date to 70,000 (Blombos), and 181,000 (PP 13B). Thompson's study will determine what proportions of the collections represent the food remains from human inhabitants rather than residue from other bone accumulators such as carnivores, rodents, and raptors. Once this is determined, the hunting and butchering strategies of these people can be inferred from marks left on the bones: cut marks from removing meat and percussion marks from extracting marrow. Both sites date to a time known as the Middle Stone Age (MSA), from ca. 250 to ca. 30 thousand years ago (ka). This is a critical period in human evolution because, although the skeletal remains dating to this time are physically modern, it is not clear if these humans behaved as modern people do. Recent discoveries of carved pigments and personal ornaments from Blombos have shown that creativity and symbolic behavior was present in our species at least 70,000, but the relationship between these factors and diet remains unknown. Work on this problem has been seriously hindered by a lack of empirical data: in all of Southern Africa only one other collection from this time period has been comprehensively analyzed and published. Thompson's study will create two new datasets that can be directly compared to this one (DK 1), thus effectively tripling the empirical record for faunal collections that are complete and have been fully analyzed. For the first time, behavioral comparisons can be made between sites with abundant evidence for symbolic behavior (Blombos) and with less such evidence (PP 13B and DK 1).The methodology contains a heavy emphasis on proper curation of the faunal remains, so that future researchers can easily locate and examine any portion of the assemblages, including materials not used in this project (reptiles, birds, fish, etc.). Each specimen identifiable to element will be drawn into a Geographical Information System (GIS) database, creating a permanent digital record that can be shared instantaneously by researchers around the world.Because of South African heritage laws, the data must be collected in Cape Town. This provides an opportunity for information be provided to the scientific and local communities in the country where the materials were discovered. Archaeological research into human behavior during this critical time period has the potential to identify and illustrate which behavioral aspects all modern humans share. This has particularly significant implications for a newly integrated multiracial and multiethnic country such as South Africa. As the study proceeds, Thompson will present information to middle and high school-aged students by participating in an outreach program organized by a colleague at the South African Museum. The program is designed to inform and excite, as well as to promote archaeological conservation to the future guardians of these irreplaceable resources.