Survey of Hominin-Bearing Sediments in Western Turkey

在国家科学基金会人类学高风险研究奖的支持下，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的约翰·卡普尔曼博士将在土耳其西部的德尼兹利地区进行古人类学田野调查。2002年，在这些上新世-更新世沉积层的野外工作中发现了古人类头骨化石遗骸，这表明可能可以恢复更多的化石材料。这个地区代表了旧大陆的地理十字路口，迄今为止，人们对它的研究还不够充分，相对而言，欧洲、非洲和亚洲的古人类学田野调查要多得多。考虑到土耳其的地理位置，很可能有各种各样的人类物种生活在这个地区，并在这个地区迁徙。PI及其同事计划尝试恢复更多的古人类化石，确定考古遗址，并研究化石的沉积学，地质年代学和古生态背景。他们将对发现古人类化石的石灰华采石场进行详细调查，将调查范围扩大到广泛的河流和湖泊沉积物，这些沉积物在化石采石场的侧面和地层学上都在化石采石场的下方和上方，研究和描述动物群和沉积物以及发现的任何石器，开始一个放射性同位素和古地磁测年计划，以确定沉积物和化石的年龄。重建沉积史和古生态。该项目有望极大地扩展我们对世界上这一关键地区古人类的了解，并提供新的数据，可用于测试化石古人类扩散和进化的现有模型。

With support from a National Science Foundation award for High Risk Research in Anthropology, Dr. John Kappelman from the University of Texas Austin will carry out paleoanthropological fieldwork in the Denizli region of western Turkey. In 2002, fieldwork in these Plio-Pleistocene deposits produced fossil hominin cranial remains, which suggests additional fossil material may be recoverable. This region represents a geographical crossroads of the Old World and has - to date - been understudied, with relatively much more paleoanthropological fieldwork in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Given Turkey's geographic position, it is likely that various hominin species lived in and migrated across this region.The PI and colleague plans to attempt to recover additional fossil hominins, identify archaeological sites, and study the sedimentological, geochronological, and paleoecological context of the fossils. They will conduct a detailed survey of the travertine quarry where the fossil hominin was discovered, expand the survey into the extensive fluvial and lacustrine sediments that are lateral to and stratigraphically below and above the fossil quarry, study and describe the fauna and sediments along with any stone tools that are recovered, begin a program of radioisotopic and paleomagnetic dating in order to determine the ages of the sediments and fossils, and reconstruct the depositional history and paleoecology. This project promises to greatly expand our understanding of ancient hominins in this critical region of the world and provide new data that can be used to test existing models of fossil hominin dispersal and evolution.