Doctoral Dissertation Research: Interpreting hominin subsistence strategies from small mammal remains

Emory University, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

A focal issue in archaeological research has been to understand how the emergence of uniquely human attributes (e.g., large brains, complex technologies, and high-fidelity social cooperation) may relate to past changes in dietary and foraging behaviors. For example, using stone tools to target large-bodied prey and subsequent food-sharing practices most likely formed part of a complex behavioral pattern that satisfied both the caloric and nutritional needs while also building social cohesion and complexity. This doctoral dissertation project will investigate small mammal prey as another potentially important dietary component for hominins. Small mammal acquisition is typically associated with technological complexity (i.e., snares and nets) yet these animals have also been simultaneously considered "easy" targets for early human ancestors that obviate the need for complex tools. Reasons for this contradiction probably lie within the ecological and behavioral diversity of small mammals, which potentially demands a broad range of foraging strategies. The project will advance knowledge about dietary hominin adaptations, foster student training and mentoring, international research collaborations, and public science outreach efforts. By incorporating taphonomic, ethnoarchaeological, and stable isotope analyses of small mammals remains from a Late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sequence, the investigator will test how small mammal subsistence strategies vary between two hominin species (Homo floresiensis and Homo sapiens) and between two modern human subsistence lifestyles (hunting-gathering and agriculture). Taphonomic analyses of small mammal remains will identify which animals were accumulated in the bone assemblage at Liang Bua and what agents (e.g., predators) were responsible. Stable isotope and ethnoarchaeological analyses will be used to elucidate small mammal diet and habitat through time as well as aid in identifying bone surface modifications from modern small mammal hunting practices, respectively. This study will also offer a framework for similar small mammal taphonomic studies investigating subsistence strategies of two hominin species at different geographical time periods and/or regions. In addition, this project will employ a novel Bayesian statistical method for predicting accumulating agents on an assemblage-level. 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.