Technology, ecology and behavior of Oldowan hominins

与其他灵长类动物相比，人类（智人）是与众不同的。他们的大脑很大，行为灵活，他们吃营养丰富的食物，这些食物很难获得，而且被广泛分享，他们依靠文化传播的信息，包括技术，来生存。这一系列特征使智人能够适应各种各样的栖息地。通过对肯尼亚霍马半岛约200万年前的奥尔多瓦考古遗址的挖掘，该项目将记录人类祖先在环境变化条件下的适应性。虽然技术是人类适应策略的关键组成部分，但早期人类物种的适应性多样性，以及技术对他们生存的重要性，并没有得到充分的证明。本项目通过在霍马半岛的Kanjera South、Nyayanga和Sare River地区挖掘原始环境石器和化石组合，研究早期人类的行为和生态。这些地方的历史可以追溯到170万到200万年前，这是一个重要的时间间隔，考古遗址遍布非洲，人类祖先直立人出现在非洲大陆，并最终分散出去。这些地方保存了从河流林地到开阔草原的古栖息地，有小羚羊狩猎和大型动物食腐的证据，有植物食物获取（如块茎）的证据，以及技术多样化的工具组合。该项目通过确定早期人类是否采用特定的技术策略和觅食行为来应对环境变化，为评估早期人类的适应性提供了一个极好的机会。该项目将扩大我们对奥尔多瓦人行为的进化意义的理解，以及人类依赖文化生存的时间深度。该项目的更广泛影响包括培训来自美国的四名博士生，以及肯尼亚国家博物馆的一名博士生。这些学生中有四名是女性，她们历来是科学领域的弱势群体。最后，该项目通过汇集来自美国、英国、意大利、中国和肯尼亚的研究人员，加强了国际合作。

Humans (Homo sapiens) are distinctive relative to other primates. They have large brains and are behaviorally flexible, they eat nutritionally dense foods that are difficult to acquire and are extensively shared, and they depend on culturally transmitted information, including technology, for their survival. This package of traits allows Homo sapiens to adapt to a wide variety of habitats. Through excavation of ca. 2.0 million year old Oldowan archaeological sites on the Homa Peninsula, Kenya, this project will document adaptability of human ancestors under conditions of environmental variability. While technology is a key component of the human adaptive strategy, the adaptive versatility of earlier species of Homo, and the importance of technology to their survival, has not been well-documented. This project investigates the behavior and ecology of early Homo through the excavation of primary context stone tool and fossil assemblages at the localities of Kanjera South, Nyayanga, and Sare River on the Homa Peninsula. These localities date between 1.7 and 2.0 million years ago, a significant time interval during which archaeological sites spread across Africa, and the human ancestor Homo erectus appears in, and ultimately disperses out of, the continent. These localities preserve paleohabitats ranging from riverine woodland to open grassland, evidence of small antelope hunting as well as scavenging of larger animals, evidence of plant food acquisition (e.g., tubers), and technologically diverse tool assemblages. This project provides an excellent opportunity to assess the adaptability of early Homo, by ascertaining whether they employed specific technological strategies and foraging behaviors in response to environmental variability. The project will expand our understanding of the evolutionary significance of Oldowan behavior, and the time depth of hominin dependence on culture for survival. The broader impact of this project includes the training of four doctoral students from the USA, and one based at the National Museums of Kenya. Four of these students are women, an historically underprivileged group in science. Finally, this project strengthens international collaboration, by bringing together researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, China, and Kenya.