Collaborative Research: Acheulean Hominin Behavior at Elandsfontein, South Africa

在国家科学基金会的支持下，大卫布劳恩博士和内奥米莱文博士以及一个国际同事团队将在南非西海岸的Elandsfontein进行两个考古研究季节。该团队汇集了来自美国的专家，南非、英国、澳大利亚和德国研究现代人类祖先阿舍利人的环境适应。 了解人类相对于其他物种的独特性是行为和认知科学最重要的目标之一。 人类实施一套行为策略，允许对新情况做出广泛而稳定和灵活的反应。这种灵活性直接关系到人类的特质，包括复杂的沟通，对社会学习策略的依赖，以及非凡的合作水平。有人认为，这些特征反映了人类在过去一百万年中生活的动态环境。目前对人类适应性和环境变化之间相互作用的理解几乎完全是从晚更新世背景（即，年龄小于13万年）。 然而，我们对中更新世（90万至13万年）人口的适应性多样性和环境背景知之甚少，因为这个时代的考古遗址数量有限，有足够的背景信息。 Elandsfontein是一个独特的网站，它是有可能探索阿舍利行为和环境变化之间的关系在中更新世。本研究的目的是评估是否阿舍利人在Elandsfontein采用特定的技术策略，以应对异质性环境。这项研究将需要密集的挖掘，以记录考古遗址，文物和化石的年龄恢复，以及他们的环境背景。现场研究将与回收材料的实验室研究相结合（例如，化石、人工制品、沉积物），以建立一个详细的图片，如何阿舍利古人类在Elandsfontein与他们生活的环境中相互作用。虽然古老的独特的人类行为是有据可查的，解释这些行为的起源是不可能的，如果没有一个全面的了解祖先种群的行为变异。在Elandsfontein的研究结果将直接评估目前的推理不足，通过生成关于这些祖先种群（在Elandsfontein的Acheulean hominis）的行为如何与环境多样性相关的数据。该项目将为国际社会提供一系列可衡量的更广泛的影响，包括学生培训和社区推广。这项研究将被纳入一个实地课程，培训美国和南非的本科生在考古领域的方法。该项目还将为美国和南非大学的学生（研究生和本科生）创造研究机会。研究工作将与西海岸化石公园协调，以扩大对南非遗产重要性的认识。该项目将有助于保护南非最重要的古生物和考古地点之一，该地点目前为一家采矿企业所有，可能会进行商业挖掘。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. David Braun and Naomi Levin, together with an international team of colleagues, will conduct two field seasons of archaeological research at Elandsfontein on the west coast of South Africa. The team brings together specialists from the U.S., South Africa, U.K., Australia, and Germany to study the environmental adaptations of Acheulean populations that were ancestral to modern humans. Understanding the distinctiveness of humans relative to other species is among the most important goals of the behavioral and cognitive sciences. Humans implement a set of behavioral strategies that allow for broad yet stable and flexible responses to novel situations. This flexibility directly relates to human traits that include complex communication, reliance on socially learned strategies, and extraordinary levels of cooperation. It has been suggested that these features reflect the dynamic environments in which humans have lived over the last million years. The current understanding of the interplay between human adaptability and environmental variation has developed almost entirely from late Pleistocene contexts (i.e., sites less than 130,000 years old). We know relatively little about the adaptive versatility and environmental context of preceding Middle Pleistocene (900 to 130 thousand years old) populations, however, because there are a limited number of archaeological sites of this age with adequate contextual information. Elandsfontein is a unique site where it is possible to explore the relationships between Acheulean behavior and environmental variability in the Middle Pleistocene.The goal of this research is to evaluate whether Acheulean hominins at Elandsfontein employed specific technological strategies in response to heterogeneous environments. This research will require intensive excavations to document the archaeological sites, the age of the artifacts and fossils recovered, and their environmental context. The field research will be integrated with laboratory studies on the recovered materials (e.g., fossils, artifacts, sediments) to build a detailed picture of how Acheulean hominins at Elandsfontein interacted with the environments in which they lived.Although the antiquity of distinctively human behaviors is well documented, explaining the origin of these behaviors is impossible without a comprehensive understanding of the behavioral variability in ancestral populations. The results of the research at Elandsfontein will directly assess this current inferential shortfall by generating data on how the behavior of some of these ancestral populations (Acheulean hominis at Elandsfontein) related to environmental diversity.This project will provide a series of measurable broader impacts to an international community in both student training and community outreach. The research will be integrated into a field course that trains American and South African undergraduates in archaeological field methods. The project also will generate research opportunities for students (graduate and undergraduate) at American and South African universities. Research efforts will be coordinated with the West Coast Fossil Park to expand the awareness of the importance of heritage in South Africa. This project will help preserve one of South Africa's most important paleontological and archaeological localities, which is currently owned by a mining enterprise and potentially subject to commercial excavations.