Exploration of Middle Stone Age Archaeology in Namaqualand, South Africa

对现代人类起源的研究对于理解我们现在是谁以及我们是如何变成这样的人来说是至关重要的。考古学在这项研究中扮演着重要的角色，因为它是唯一专门关注文化在人类进化中的作用的领域。大多数专家一致认为，非洲的文化创新允许所有活着的人类的祖先从5万年前开始在世界各地传播。然而，对于这些创新的原因以及它们的时间和空间模式的意义，人们存在分歧。一些研究人员认为，在中石器时代(MSA；约25万至4万年前)同步出现了许多新技术和行为，极大地提高了人类的适应能力。其他人则认为，这些创新在整个MSA中逐渐融合在一起。解决人类文化进化的这些核心问题需要更好地了解非洲MSA的技术和行为发展。在国家科学基金会的支持下，Teresa Steele博士和一个来自南非、澳大利亚和美国的国际团队将通过探索南非纳马夸兰省Knersvlakte的MSA事件来为这一问题提供重要的新信息，这是一个考古上没有记录的地区，位于开普敦以北265公里处。在现代陆地表面的几公里处有大量的MSA古代文物，至少已经发现了三个未经测试的岩石掩体，在其邻近的斜坡上包含了许多MSA文物。该项目将通过对至少两个此类避石场进行试掘，并通过分析露天遗址的空间和技术模式，来探索该地区的考古潜力。产生的数据将有助于澄清该地区文化创新的顺序，以及早期现代人适应空间和时间上的环境变化的方式。这项建议适合于NSF人类学高风险研究项目，因为它涉及到对一个潜在重要但目前未知的领域的首次探索。尽管无法预测避难所的内容，但当地丰富的MSA文物以及从南部地区类似避难所发现的丰富考古组合使Knersvlakte非常有希望。这个项目的学术价值来自这样一个事实，如果它成功了，将打开一扇研究MSA变异的新窗口，从而打开研究现代人类起源的窗口。该项目将通过为研究生提供培训和研究机会产生更广泛的影响。如果成功，这项提议将成为一个多年项目的基础，该项目还将为本科生提供教育经验。关于人类史前关键时期产生的信息将引起普遍关注，因此将提供机会让公众参与进来，特别是激发人们对未来将成为科学家的年幼儿童的兴趣。考虑到这一点，该项目的发现及其意义将通过学术渠道、当地社区讲座和教育推广计划进行交流。

The study of modern human origins is of fundamental importance for comprehending who we are now and how we came to be this way. Archaeology has a significant role to play in this research, because it is the only field that focuses specifically on the role of culture in human evolution. Most specialists agree that cultural innovations in Africa allowed the ancestors of all living humans to spread throughout the world beginning 50,000 years ago. There is disagreement, however, about the cause of these innovations and the significance of their temporal and spatial patterning. Some researchers suggest that numerous new technologies and behaviors appeared synchronously at the end of the Middle Stone Age (MSA; ~250,000 to ~40,000 years ago), dramatically improving the human adaptive capacity. Others argue that these innovations coalesced gradually throughout the MSA. Resolving such central questions of human cultural evolution requires improved understanding of technological and behavioral developments in the African MSA.With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Teresa Steele and an international team from South Africa, Australia, and the USA will contribute significant new information to this issue by exploring MSA occurrences in the Knersvlakte of Namaqualand, South Africa, an archaeologically undocumented region with a unique environmental setting 265 km N of Cape Town. Artifacts of MSA antiquity are abundant over several kilometers of the modern land surface, and at least three untested rockshelters have been identified which contain numerous MSA artifacts on their adjacent slopes. The project will explore the archaeological potential of the area through test-excavation of at least two of these rockshelter sites, and through analysis of spatial and technological patterns in open-air occurrences. The data produced will help clarify the sequence of cultural innovations in the area and the means by which early modern humans adapted to environmental variation through space and time. This proposal is appropriate for the NSF High-Risk Research in Anthropology Program because it involves the first exploration of a potentially important but presently unknown area. Though the contents of the rockshelters cannot be predicted, the local abundance of MSA artifacts and the richness of archaeological assemblages recovered from similar shelters in regions to the south render the Knersvlakte highly promising. The intellectual merit of this project derives from the fact that, if it is successful, a new window on MSA variation, and therefore modern human origins, will be opened.The project will have broader impacts through training and research opportunities for graduate students. If successful, this proposal will form the basis of a multi-year project that will also provide educational experiences for undergraduate students. The information generated about a crucial time in human prehistory will be of general interest, and as such will provide opportunities to engage the public, and especially to spark interest in younger children who will go on to become the scientists of tomorrow. With this in mind, the project's findings and their significance will be communicated through academic outlets, local community lectures and educational outreach programs.