Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Tracking Climate-Driven Changes in Neandertal Subsistence Behaviors and Prey Migration Patterns

尼安德特人是在最后一个冰河时期占领欧洲的一种古代人类。 大约3万年前，他们完全被从非洲移民过来的现代人所取代，但他们消失的最终原因仍然存在争议。尼安德特人在欧洲的灭绝过程仍然是一个悬而未决的人类学话题，具有相当大的科学兴趣。拟议中的项目通过测试“气候压力模型”做出了贡献，该模型认为，在现代人类进入欧洲之前，连续的寒冷阶段注定了尼安德特人的灭绝。具体来说，该项目测试了模型的假设，即1）寒冷的气候对尼安德特人种群造成了压力，2）全球气候变化影响了当地的尼安德特人栖息地。 如果寒冷的气候给尼安德特人带来了压力，他们的生存行为可能已经改变，需要加强对猎物的利用。此外，如果全球气候破坏了当地的尼安德特人栖息地，它们应该会影响当地的哺乳动物迁徙。 为了检验尼安德特人受到寒冷气候压力的假设，将对来自法国Roc de Marsal（RDM）地点的红鹿和驯鹿骨骼材料进行分析。比较不同气候条件下的屠宰策略将解决寒冷气候是否会导致骨骼的过度加工。由于哺乳动物在温暖、植被良好的环境中迁移较少，而在寒冷、开放和资源贫乏的环境中迁移较多，因此全球气候影响当地生境的假设可以通过对大型哺乳动物（如马、红鹿、驯鹿和野牛）迁移模式的同位素重建来检验。这些重建是基于活组织吸收水和营养物质中的化学同位素的原理，这些化学同位素是它们所消耗的区域所特有的。确定哺乳动物化石中的同位素变异可以推断出家域的大小和迁移距离，从而表明佩奇和RDM的环境是否跟踪了全球气候。该项目使用独立的多代理方法来解决气候压力假说。了解尼安德特人及其猎物的气候介导行为将有助于解释气候波动如何影响尼安德特人的灭绝和现代人类对其栖息地的殖民。这个跨学科的项目将结合动物考古学，同位素和古生态学研究，以产生一个易于访问的关系数据库（Microsoft Access）。此外，还将绘制法国的锶同位素比率图，作为追踪更新世哺乳动物迁徙路线和推断欧洲原始人类活动模式的重要辅助工具。

The Neandertals were a species of ancient human that occupied Europe during the last ice age. By ~30,000 years ago, they were fully replaced by modern humans who emigrated from Africa, but the ultimate reason for their disappearance remains controversial. The process of the extinction of Neandertals in Europe remains an unanswered anthropological topic of considerable scientific interest. The proposed project contributes by testing the "Climatic Stress Model", which holds that successive cold phases doomed Neandertals to extinction before modern humans entered Europe. Specifically, this project tests the models assumptions that 1) cold climates stressed Neandertal populations, and 2) global climate changes affected local Neandertal habitats. If cold climates stressed Neandertals, their subsistence behaviors may have changed, requiring intensified use of prey. Additionally, if global climates disrupted local Neandertal habitats, they should have affected local mammal migrations. To test the hypothesis that Neandertals were stressed by cold climates, an analysis of Neandertal butchering will be completed on red deer and reindeer skeletal material deposited during global warm and cold phases from the French site of Roc de Marsal (RDM)). Comparing butchering strategies during different climates will address whether cold climates induced hyper-processing of bones. Because mammals migrate less in warm, well vegetated environments, but more in cold, open, and resource-poor environments, the hypothesis that global climates affected local habitats may be tested through isotopic reconstruction of large mammal (e.g. horse, red deer, reindeer and bison) migration patterns. These reconstructions are based on the principle that living tissues absorb chemical isotopes in the water and nutrients that are unique to the region in which they are consumed. Identifying isotopic variation in mammalian fossils enables home range size and migration distance to be inferred, providing an indication of whether environments at Pech and RDM tracked global climates. This project uses independent, multi-proxy methods to address the climate stress hypothesis.Understanding climate-mediated behaviors of Neandertals and their prey will help to explain how climatic fluctuations influenced Neandertal extinction and the colonization of their habitats by modern humans. This interdisciplinary project will incorporate zooarchaeological, isotopic, and paleoecological research to generate an easily accessible relational database (Microsoft Access). In addition, a strontium isotope ratio map of France will be developed as a critical aide for tracking the migration routes of Pleistocene mammals and inferring the mobility patterns of European hominids.