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

了解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，探讨早期使用火的问题。研究人员将使用古代考古和环境数据，沿着现代数据，来模拟人类暴露于景观火灾将如何影响行为，以及人类使用火灾将如何影响景观。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。这项研究将被用于与美国自然历史博物馆合作开发一个教育推广项目，该项目的重点是提高经济和教育多样化的初中和高中学生的科学参与。考古挖掘和取样将被用于确定一个拥有大量化石和考古记录的地区的火灾，该地区的火灾发生在100万至200万年前，时间跨度为400万至100万年。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的沉积物核心中调查这些代理。这些模式在小尺度（考古遗址内）和在当地的区域生态系统水平（古土壤和沉积物核心）的调查将被用来开发基于代理的模型的生态系统对人类火灾的反应，并产生预测的频率和起源的景观火灾。该项目结合了实验和考古的进步与有针对性的实地研究，以解决这些问题，并提供对人类技术的这种关键适应的见解。该奖项反映了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。

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.