Doctoral Dissertation Research: Evaluating Seasonality and Migration as Ecological Drivers of Technological Transition in Human Evolutionary History

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

This interdisciplinary project integrates geochemistry, ecology, and archaeology to understand what drove the transition from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) to the Later Stone Age (LSA). This technological transition, which occurred around 50,000 years ago, is one of the most prominent behavioral changes observed in human evolutionary history. Possible environmental drivers of the MSA-LSA transition have been proposed, but establishing robust links between environmental and behavioral change has been challenging due to the lack of appropriate datasets. This project will quantify the degree of precipitation seasonality, dietary seasonality, and large animal movement through this key period while fostering research links and providing a foundation for undergraduate training in a collaborative environment. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the project would enhance public understanding of science and the scientific method broadly disseminating its findings. The proposed project advances our understanding of the MSA-LSA transition by addressing the question: Did seasonal changes in resource availability influence human behavior across the MSA-LSA transition? Three objectives will be used to address this question through stable isotope analysis of serially-sampled fossil herbivore teeth from Pleistocene fossil sites: (i) using strontium isotopes to reconstruct Pleistocene migratory systems; (ii) using carbon and oxygen isotopes to evaluate how migration relates to precipitation and dietary seasonality; and (iii) assessing how seasonality and migration have shaped human foraging strategies and technological change during the last glacial period. Understanding the ecology of animals during glacial periods through these methods is essential to grasping the full picture of the evolutionary ecology of both living and extinct species, with implications for human evolution, biology, and conservation. Furthermore, this study will be the largest ever to evaluate serially-sampled strontium isotopes in this research context. 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.