Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Development of Human Technological Abilities

Cuny Graduate School University Center, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

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.