Doctoral Dissertation Research: Standardized bone tools: investigating a new technology in the Middle Paleolithic

行为现代人的出现，大约5万年前，在多个其他晚更新世人类群体中，近年来引起了公众的极大兴趣，正如许多科普文章和电视节目所证明的那样。旧石器时代考古学和人类学研究的一个重点是研究现代人类行为的起源，包括我们的物种和我们最近的亲戚尼安德特人之间的认知和行为相似性和差异。许多证据表明，尼安德特人和现代人在地理上和时间上重叠，表现出相似的行为。然而，最终，现代人类取代了尼安德特人，但尼安德特人灭绝背后的机制仍然是一个持续争论的话题。该项目考虑了标准化的骨工具技术在尼安德特人的背景下的影响。这种特殊的技术可能是由尼安德特人发明的，通过文化适应从现代人传到尼安德特人，或者相反，现代人从尼安德特人那里学到的。从这个项目中收集的数据将提供一个独立的证据，有助于讨论与技术有关的认知的性质，尼安德特人和现代人之间的关系，以及对尼安德特人灭绝的理解。该项目的重要国际合作部分将把各种观点（更传统和更技术驱动的方法）结合在一起，形成一个有凝聚力的研究计划。此外，该项目将通过将传统的定性分析与创新的定量分析相结合，为骨工具的研究建立新的方法论途径。最终，该项目将通过对现代人取代尼安德特人之前和之后的骨骼工具进行详细分析，有助于理解古人类的行为。 该项目由博士候选人Naomi L. Martisius（加州大学戴维斯分校），在Teresa E.斯蒂尔将围绕最近描述的尼安德特人制造的骨骼工具（称为lissoirs（法语术语，意思是“平滑器”））的研究建立一个研究计划，并通过实验和比较研究来研究它们的潜在功能和创新。这一发现表明，尼安德特人能够生产标准化的骨骼工具，这种技术以前被认为仅限于现代人类。这项研究将评估现代人造利索，以了解它们在这些工具中的功能变化程度，进行实验和比较研究，以调查原材料选择，如果肋骨是预先成形或通过使用成形，以及如何通过创新方法使用它们来研究使用过程中在骨骼上留下的痕迹，并试图从其他尼安德特人的组合中识别出更多的碎片，以确定它们的时间跨度。尼安德特人对标准化骨骼技术的清晰、可论证的生产和使用将改变人们对他们行为以及尼安德特人与现代人之间关系的理解。

The emergence of behaviorally modern humans, approximately 50,000 years ago, amid multiple other Late Pleistocene hominin groups has been of great interest to the general public in recent years, as evidenced by many popular science articles and television programs. A key focus of Paleolithic archaeological and anthropological research is the study of the origin of modern human behaviors, including cognitive and behavioral similarities and differences between our species and our closest relative, the Neandertals. Much evidence suggests that the Neandertal and modern human populations that overlapped geographically and chronologically exhibited similar behaviors. Ultimately, however, modern human populations replaced Neandertals, but the mechanisms behind Neandertal extinction remain a subject of continued debate. This project considers the implications for standardized bone tool technology in Neandertal contexts. This particular technology may have been innovated by Neandertals, passed by acculturation from modern humans to Neandertals, or, conversely, learned by modern humans from Neandertals. The data collected from this project will provide an independent line of evidence that will contribute to the discussions on the nature of cognition related to technology, the relationship between Neandertals and modern humans, and the understanding of Neandertal extinction. The significant international collaborative component of this project will bring various viewpoints (more traditional and more technology-driven approaches) together to form a cohesive research program. Additionally, this project will establish new methodological approaches for research on bone tools by combining traditional qualitative with innovative quantitative analyses. Ultimately, this project will contribute to the understanding of hominin behavior through a detailed analysis of bone tools before and after the replacement of Neandertals by modern humans. This project by PhD candidate Naomi L. Martisius (University of California, Davis), under the supervision of Dr. Teresa E. Steele, will build a research program around the study of recently described Neandertal-made bone tools, called lissoirs (a French term meaning "smoothers"), and investigates their potential function and innovation through experimental and comparative research. This discovery shows that Neandertals were capable of producing standardized bone tools, a technology previously thought to have been restricted to modern humans. This research will assess modern human-made lissoirs to understand the extent of their variation in relation to function within these tools, engaging in experimental and comparative research to investigate raw material selection, if ribs were pre-shaped or shaped through use, and how they were used through an innovative approach to study the traces left on bones through use, and an attempt to identify additional pieces from other Neandertal assemblages to determine their temporal span. Clear, demonstrable production and use of standardized bone technology by Neandertals will transform understanding of their behavior and the relationship between Neandertals and modern humans.