Collaborative Research: Examining Pyrotechnology and Ecosystem Change in the Archaeological Record

知道人类何时开始使用火可以让我们更好地了解我们的进化和生物历史。该项目将通过对100万至200万年前人类活动的考古调查，探索早期使用火的问题。调查人员将使用古代考古和环境数据，以及现代数据，模拟人类暴露于景观火灾会如何影响行为，以及人类使用火会如何影响景观。这项研究将为人类与火的关系提供见解，并有助于澄清火在多大程度上是人类文化和生物发展的催化剂。该项目将支持早期职业研究人员，努力扩大古人类学的参与，并为研究生和本科生提供研究机会。这项研究将用于与美国自然历史博物馆（American Museum of Natural History）合作制定一项教育推广计划，重点是提高经济和教育水平不同的初高中学生对科学的参与。考古挖掘和采样将用于在一个拥有大量化石和考古记录的地区确定100万至200万年前的火灾，这些化石和考古记录跨越了400万至100万年前。研究人员将使用多环芳烃、植物蜡、骨骼和沉积物的红外光谱、微观木炭的鉴定和微观植物化石来研究有机物的燃烧。他们将在考古遗址、化石土壤和与研究区域接壤的水体沉积物核心中调查这些代用物。在小尺度（考古遗址内）和地方到区域生态系统水平（古土壤和沉积物核心）对这些模式的调查将用于开发基于主体的生态系统对人类使用火的反应模型，并产生关于景观火灾频率和起源的预测。该项目将实验和考古进展与有针对性的实地研究相结合，以解决这些问题，并为人类技术的关键适应提供见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Knowing when humans began using fire allows us to better understand our evolutionary and biological history. This project will explore the question of early fire use through archaeological investigation of human activities from 1 to 2 million years ago. The investigators will use ancient archaeological and environmental data, along with modern data, to simulate how human exposure to landscape fire would influence behavior and how human use of fire would have affected landscapes. This research will provide insights into human relationships with fire and help clarify the extent to which fire was a catalyst for human cultural and biological development. The project will support early career researchers, efforts to broaden participation in paleoanthropology, and research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. The research will be used to develop an educational outreach program with the American Museum of Natural History that is focused on increasing scientific participation of economically and educationally diverse middle and high school students.Archaeological excavation and sampling will be used to identify fire 1 to 2 million years ago in a region with a vast fossil and archaeological record that spans between 4 and 1 million years ago. The investigators will study burning of organic matter using polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, plant waxes, infrared spectroscopy of bone and sediment, identification of microscopic charcoal, and microscopic plant fossils. They will investigate these proxies at archaeological sites, in fossil soils, and a sediment core from a body of water that borders the research area. Investigations of these patterns at small scales (within archaeological sites) and at local to regional ecosystem levels (paleosols and sediment core) will be used to develop agent-based models of ecosystem responses to human fire use and generate predictions about the frequency and origin of landscape fires. This project combines experimental and archaeological advances with targeted field studies to address these questions and provide insights into this critical adaptation in human technology.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.