Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Uncovering the First South Asians: The Prehistoric Colonization of Coastal Western India

在Jeanne Sept博士的指导下，August Costa先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他的研究将解决以下问题：谁是第一批南亚人，他们是何时在印度次大陆定居的？这是南亚人类学中最关键的未解决问题之一。这项研究的目的是为南方扩散假说提供考古学检验，该假说表明，在解剖学和行为学上现代人类智人在5万多年前首先通过非洲沿海路线殖民南亚。近年来，由于遗传学研究表明一些南亚种群的古老性高达70，000年，南部扩散越来越受欢迎。然而，目前在南亚缺乏这种情况的直接化石和考古证据，最近的研究也没有针对适当年龄的遗址。总而言之，还没有人通过在沿着南亚海岸寻找现代人的过时证据来验证这一迁移场景。Costa先生将通过重新调查位于印度西部古吉拉特邦索拉什特拉半岛沿着的已知（125 000年前）考古遗址来解决这个问题。这个环境是南亚少数几个有石器时代遗址年代的地方之一。此外，索拉什特拉是南亚唯一已知的沿海石器时代遗址。这项研究将通过以下方式完成：1）重新评估索拉什特拉的已知遗址; 2）调查索拉什特拉，寻找新的沿海遗址（5万年）; 3）评估该地区的人工制品，以确定其代表现代人类的属性（例如象征意义：珠宝和艺术，技术和经济创新：复杂的石器和骨器，长途贸易）。与其他晚更新世人群（如尼安德特人）相比，现代人类的直系祖先表现出某些新的行为（如艺术表达，复杂的狩猎），这些行为通常在考古记录中很明显。如果南方扩散假说是正确的，科斯塔先生应该找到与土著前现代南亚人的规范相比异常行为的证据，这预示着我们这个物种在该地区的出现。这项工作将有望阐明现代人在一个国家的起源，这构成了人类进化故事的地理缺失环节。如果得到证实，这项研究将表明，早期人类在到达欧洲之前数万年就定居在印度，并从根本上改变了最早的欧亚人是谁的观念。这项研究也将对澳大利亚、东南亚和东亚的人口增长产生重要影响。这项研究将有助于促进有意义的学术对话，并进一步发挥印度在史前研究中的作用。这项工作的结果将通过同行评议的出版物和在学术会议上介绍这项研究，提高西方考古学家对印度考古记录的认识。最后，这项研究将通过建立一个研究领域、实验室资源和一个印度研究人员网络，为科斯塔先生未来在石器时代考古学方面的职业生涯奠定基础，他可以在未来继续与这些研究人员合作。

Under the direction of Dr. Jeanne Sept, Mr. August Costa will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. His research will address the questions: Who were the first South Asians and when did they settle the Indian subcontinent? Such are among the most critical unresolved problems in South Asian anthropology. The aim of this research is to provide an archaeological test of the southern dispersal hypothesis, which suggests that anatomically and behaviorally modern humans Homo sapiens first colonized South Asia via a coastal route from Africa more than 50,000 years ago. The southern dispersal gained popularity in recent years due to genetic studies suggesting an antiquity of up to 70,000 years for some South Asian populations. Direct fossil and archaeological evidence for this scenario, however is currently lacking in South Asia and recent studies have not targeted sites of the appropriate age. In sum, no one has yet tested this migration scenario by searching for dated evidence of modern humans along the South Asian coast. Mr. Costa will address this issue by reinvestigating known (125,000 year old) archaeological sites located along the coast of the Saurashtra peninsula in Gujarat, Western India. This setting is one of few places in South Asia where Stone Age sites have been dated. Moreover, Saurashtra is the only place in South Asia where coastal Stone Age sites are known. This study will be accomplished by 1) reevaluating known sites from Saurashtra; 2) surveying Saurashtra, for new coastal sites (50,000 years old); and 3) assessing artifacts from the area for attributes indicative of modern humans (e.g. symbolism: jewelry and art, technological and economic innovations: complex stone and bone tools, long distance trade). In contrast to other Late Pleistocene populations (e.g. Neanderthals), present day humans' direct ancestors exhibited certain novel behaviors (e.g. artistic expression, complex hunting) which are often apparent from the archaeological record. If the southern dispersal hypothesis is correct, Mr. Costa should find evidence of anomalous behaviors compared to the norms of indigenous pre-modern South Asians which heralds the emergence of our species in the region. This work will hopefully illuminate the origins of modern people in a nation, which constitutes a geographical missing link to the story of human evolution. If confirmed this research would show that early humans settled India tens of thousands of years before their arrival in Europe and radically alter notions of who the earliest Eurasians were. This study would also have important implications for the peopling of Australia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. This research will help promote meaningful scholarly dialogue and further the role of India in prehistoric studies. The results of this work will raise awareness about the archaeological record of India among Western archaeologists through peer-reviewed publications and presentations of this research at scholarly meetings. Finally, this research will form the foundation of Mr. Costa's future career in Stone Age archaeology by establishing a study area, lab resources and a network of Indian researchers with whom he can continue to work with in the future.