Taphonomic Perspectives on the Susbsistence Transition between Archaic and Modern Humans in Upper Pleistocene Northeast Asia

东北亚更新世晚期古人类与现代人类生存转变的埋藏学视角

• 批准号: 9907159
• 负责人: Robert Blumenschine
• 金额: $ 1.17万
• 依托单位: Rutgers University New Brunswick
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-12-01 至 2006-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9907159&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Taphonomic; Perspectives; Susbsistence; Transition; between

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert Blumenschine, Christopher Norton will analyze the faunal remains from two important Northeast Asian Upper Pleistocene sites: Zhoukoudian Upper Cave (China) and Hanaizumi (Japan). Zhoukoudian is comprised of a series of sites, with the best-known being Locality 1, commonly referred to as the home base of Homo erectus. An equally important site to the debate over the evolution of modern humans is Zhoukoudian Upper Cave (ca. 34,000 - 10,000 BP) that currently represents the earliest example of human burials in Northeast Asia. In addition to a wide assortment of human remains, a plethora of artifactual materials (e.g., stone tools, a bone needle, perforated stone and bone ornaments, red ochre for painting) and a collection of faunal remains were discovered in the same context. Hanaizumi (ca. 35,000 - 20,000 BP) is an open-air site located in northeast Honshu in present-day Japan that exposed fossilized animal bones and plant remains in a peat bog. Although the excavators noted that few stone artifacts were associated with the flora and fauna, it has been suggested that wooden and bone implements were used instead.Analysis of the faunal accumulations from both Zhoukoudian Upper Cave and Hanaizumi is important for a number of reasons. First, although zooarchaeological research is common in the Western Old World, the traditional emphasis for Pleistocene deposits from East Asia has been limited largely to the production of taxonomic lists. Accordingly, no recent zooarchaeological studies exist in Northeast Asian prehistoric research that addresses Late Paleolithic hunter-gatherer subsistence patterns. Second, due to the fact that a significant number of theoretical and methodological advances have occurred in the field of zooarchaeology over the course of the past three decades, this study will serve to incorporate many of these applications for the first time to the analysis of the Zhoukoudian Upper Cave and Hanaizumi faunal assemblages. Third, the taxonomic lists created by different researchers have resulted in variation and confusion regarding paleoenvironmental reconstructions. This study will afford a closer examination as to how the fauna present in these assemblages actually reflect the paleoenvironment of the region between 35,000 - 10,000 BP.

在 Robert Blumenschine 博士的指导下，Christopher Norton 将分析东北亚上更新世两个重要遗址：周口店上洞（中国）和花泉（日本）的动物遗骸。 周口店由一系列遗址组成，其中最著名的是 1 号地点，通常被称为直立人的大本营。 关于现代人类进化争论的一个同样重要的地点是周口店上洞（距今约 34,000 - 10,000 年），它是目前东北亚最早的人类墓葬实例。 除了各种各样的人类遗骸之外，还在同一背景下发现了大量的人工材料（例如石器、骨针、穿孔石和骨装饰品、绘画用红赭石）和一系列动物遗骸。 花泉（距今约 35,000 - 20,000 年）是位于今日本本州东北部的一处露天遗址，在泥炭沼泽中暴露出动物骨骼化石和植物遗骸。 尽管挖掘者指出很少有石制品与动植物群相关，但有人建议使用木器和骨器来代替。出于多种原因，对周口店上洞和花泉的动物堆积物进行分析很重要。 首先，尽管动物考古学研究在西方旧大陆很常见，但对东亚更新世沉积物的传统重视主要限于分类列表的制作。因此，东北亚史前研究中最近没有动物考古学研究来解决旧石器时代晚期狩猎采集者的生存模式。 其次，由于过去三十年来动物考古学领域在理论和方法上取得了大量进展，这项研究将首次将其中许多应用纳入对动物考古学的分析中。周口店上部洞穴和花泉动物群。 第三，不同研究人员创建的分类列表导致了古环境重建的变化和混乱。 这项研究将更仔细地研究这些组合中的动物群实际上如何反映该地区距今 35,000 - 10,000 年间的古环境。