Collaborative Research: Quaternary Archaeology and Environments of Rusinga and Mfangano Islands, Kenya

来自美国的研究人员、他们的研究生以及肯尼亚国家博物馆的同事们正在肯尼亚维多利亚湖岸边附近的鲁辛加岛和姆法加诺岛进行考古和地质研究。遗传、化石和考古证据表明，人类的起源可以追溯到非洲东部晚更新世的早期智人群体，大约13万到4万年前。对Rusinga和Mfangano遗址的研究提供了一个重要的机会，可以检查这些东非来源人群的生物和行为多样性，以及可能促成这种多样性并最终促成我们物种进化成功的社会和环境背景。维多利亚湖位于赤道非洲东部，是非洲大陆上最大的湖泊，今天支持着多样化的生态系统和密集的人口。过去湖泊的大小在完全干涸和几乎翻倍之间周期性地剧烈波动，这些事件可能对周围环境和人口的组成、大小和分布产生重大影响。利用考古调查和挖掘以及各种野外地质和实验室地球化学和地球物理方法，通过研究中石器时代的文物来调查过去的人类多样性，通过对比和定年相关的火山灰沉积物来确定遗址年龄，通过分析沉积物和化石来重建古代环境。其中一些化石既包括已灭绝的物种，也包括现存的分类群，它们表明了干旱草原的环境，与今天的区域环境有很大的不同。将这些数据与邻近湖泊流域的详细研究相结合，有助于我们了解过去和现在的气候变化模式，特别是泛非干旱增加间隔的时间和周期性。这项研究提高了对非洲东部晚更新世古环境的认识，这对理解和缓和当今全球气候变化的影响具有明确的意义。这个为期两年的项目为美国本科生和研究生提供实地和实验室培训、论文研究机会和专业经验。此外，该项目还促进了美国大学之间的合作，并为肯尼亚国家博物馆和Rusinga和Mfangano的其他当地文化遗产博物馆做出了贡献。

Researchers from the United States, their graduate students, and colleagues from the National Museums of Kenya are conducting archaeological and geological research on the islands of Rusinga and Mfangano, near the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria. Genetic, fossil, and archaeological evidence suggest that the origins of living humans can be traced to early populations of Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene of eastern Africa, roughly 130,000-40,000 years ago. Research on the sites of Rusinga and Mfangano provides an important opportunity to examine the biological and behavioral diversity among these eastern Africa source populations, and the social and environmental contexts that may have contributed to this diversity and ultimately, the evolutionary success of our species. Located in equatorial eastern Africa, Lake Victoria is the largest lake on the continent and today supports diverse ecosystems and dense human populations. Past lake size has periodically dramatically fluctuated between completely drying up and nearly doubling in size, and these events have likely had major impacts on the composition, size, and distribution of surrounding environments and human populations. Using archaeological survey and excavation and a variety of field geological and laboratory-based geochemical and geophysical methods, past human diversity is investigated through the study of Middle Stone Age artifacts, site age is determined by correlating and dating associated volcanic ash deposits, and ancient environments are reconstructed through the analysis of sediments and fossils. Some of these fossils include extinct species, as well as extant taxa, that are indicative of arid grassland settings, substantially differing from today's regional environment. Integration of these data with detailed studies of neighboring lake basins contributes to our understanding of past and present patterns of climate change, particularly the timing and periodicity of pan-African intervals of increased aridity. This study provides an improved understanding of Late Pleistocene paleoenvironments of eastern Africa, which has clear implications for attempts to understand and moderate the effects of global climate change today. This two-year project is providing field and laboratory training, thesis research opportunities, and professional experience for US undergraduate and graduate students. Additionally, the project is fostering collaborations between US universities and contributes to the National Museums of Kenya and other local cultural heritage museums on Rusinga and Mfangano.