Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Development of Human Technological Abilities

人类及其祖先具有独特的能力，能够根据环境的变化改变行为策略，并利用技术来科普适应性问题。化石记录中的改良石器的出现代表了人类谱系中潜在的适应性转变，因为祖先获得了营养丰富的食物，建立了灵活的生态位，并开始通过累积技术改变环境，并塑造了其中的选择压力。了解早期工具技术的起源和传播对人类谱系的进化具有内在的意义。早期工具制造者的行为策略是什么？石器制造者投入了多少精力来制作石器？工具行为在进化过程中是如何变化的？来自纽约城市大学的汤姆·普卢默博士和博士候选人艾玛·芬斯通将进行一项区域性研究，调查最早的持续性石器工业--被称为奥多维--跨越时间尺度。奥尔德沃工具在大小、形状、还原程度和石头原料类型上各不相同，这些属性被认为反映了人类谱系中的行为、认知和饮食变化，这些变化通常与解剖学和能量进化的已知趋势有关，包括体重和代谢率的增加。在奥尔德沃考古记录的趋势的调查将扩大最早的奥尔德沃的地理范围，并阐明了持久的工具使用在更广泛的进化背景下的起源。普卢默和Finestone将进行一个项目，比较在肯尼亚霍马半岛的三个奥尔德沃遗址跨越近一百万年的时间间隔的石器工具减少和原材料采购。这种方法提供了一个快照到区域Oldowan行为，并允许研究人员评估技术战略，流动性，以及随着时间的推移，一些最早的工具制造商的景观使用。利用能量色散X射线荧光（ED-XRF）地球化学分析，元素特征将把石器生产中使用的原材料与附近的主要露头和次级排水联系起来。这使研究人员能够识别原材料来源，并确定工具制造商使用了哪些来源，以及哪些岩石类型减少得最多。在确定石材资源采购的区域模式后，调查人员将重建三个地区的测距行为，并评估石材运输和工具制造商流动性的投资是否以及如何随着时间的推移而变化。这不仅解决了霍马半岛的行为和考古学的演变，而且还通知在人类谱系更广泛的适应性转变。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Humans and their ancestors are unique in their ability to alter behavioral strategies in response to changes in the environment and use technology to cope with adaptive problems. The appearance of modified stone tools in the fossil record represents a potential adaptive shift in the human lineage as ancestors accessed nutrient-dense foods, established flexible niches, and began to alter environments through cumulative technology and shape the selective pressures within them. Understanding the origin and transmission of early tool technology is of inherent interest to the evolution of the human lineage. What were the behavioral strategies of early toolmakers? How much energy did toolmakers invest in producing stone artifacts? How did tool behaviors change through evolutionary time? Dr. Tom Plummer and PhD candidate Emma Finestone, of the City University of New York, will conduct a regional study investigating the earliest persistent stone tool industry - termed the Oldowan - across time scales. Oldowan tools vary in size, shape, degree of reduction, and stone raw material type and these properties are thought to reflect behavioral, cognitive, and dietary changes in the human lineage that are often linked to known trends in anatomical and energetic evolution, including an increase in body mass and metabolic rate. This investigation of trends in the Oldowan archaeological record will expand the geographic range of the earliest Oldowan and shed light on the origins of persistent tool use in a broader evolutionary context.Plummer and Finestone will undertake a project comparing stone tool reduction and raw material procurement at three Oldowan sites spanning nearly a million year interval on the Homa Peninsula in Kenya. This approach offers a snapshot into regional Oldowan behavior and allows researchers to evaluate technological strategies, mobility, and landscape use of some of the earliest toolmakers over time. Using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) geochemical analyses, elemental signatures will link raw materials used in stone tool production to nearby primary outcrops and secondary drainages. This allows researchers to identify raw material sources and determine which sources were utilized by toolmakers and which rock types were most heavily reduced. After identifying regional patterns in stone resource procurement, investigators will reconstruct ranging behavior across the three localities and evaluate if and how investment in stone transport and toolmaker mobility changed through time. This not only addresses the evolution of behavior and archaeology on the Homa Peninsula, but also informs of broader adaptive shifts in the human lineage.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.