The development of human innovation in an arid biodiversity environment.

这项研究的目的是研究人类群体之间的联系和隔离模式，这些模式可能支持了人类适应能力的进化，最终使人类群体能够增加人口密度，在全球范围内扩张，并在地球上每个可居住的地区蓬勃发展。虽然人类基因和化石证据表明，所有现存人类的祖先都是在非洲进化的，但这一过程似乎很复杂，有多个相互联系的种群参与，并经历了重组时期。考古学通过对文化创新及其传播的研究，很好地为这些重组时期提供了证据，并提供了相关的过去环境以及它们如何响应全球气候模式而在当地发生变化的急需信息。该项目研究了技术创新何时以及如何出现，传播和被遗弃，在对过去环境和年表进行高级重建的背景下。该团队专注于世界上唯一的干旱生物多样性热点多肉卡鲁的考古学和环境历史。历史上，这些地区在人类进化的记录中被边缘化，但最近的证据表明，它们是过去12万年或更长时间的创新所在地。为了探索这些地区对人类适应能力进化的重要性，该项目制作了与占领该地区的早期人类创新的气候，环境和社会背景有关的全面的新数据集。这些结果测试了人类行为进化的流行模型，为人类的形成提供了新的线索。该项目为本科生和研究生提供培训机会，并特别关注传统上代表性不足的群体。这个奖项反映了NSF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。

The goal of this research is to study the patterns of connection and isolation among human populations that may have supported the evolution of humans’ adaptive capabilities, which ultimately allowed human populations to increase their population densities, expand globally, and thrive in every inhabitable region of earth. While human genetic and fossil evidence indicates that the ancestors of all living people evolved in Africa, the process appears to have been complex, with multiple connected populations contributing and periods of reorganization. Archaeology is well placed to provide evidence of these periods of reorganization, through the examination of cultural innovations and their transmission, and to provide critically-needed information on associated past environments and how they changed locally in response to global climatic patterns.The project examines when and how technological innovations appeared, spread, and were abandoned, in the context of advanced reconstructions of past environments and chronology. The team focuses on the archaeology and environmental history of the Succulent Karoo, the world’s only arid biodiversity hotspot. Such regions have historically been marginalized in accounts of human evolution yet recent evidence suggests that they were loci of innovation over the last 120,000 years or more. To explore the importance of such areas to the evolution of humans’ adaptive capabilities, this project produces comprehensive new datasets relating to the climatic, environmental, and social context of innovation among early humans occupying the region. The results test prevailing models of human behavioral evolution, shedding new light on how humans came to be. The project provides training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students with special attention to those from traditionally underrepresented groups. The project is also developing exhibits for local display.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.