Collaborative Research: Developing a high-resolution framework to define human-environment interactions

This interdisciplinary project will examine the role of climate-driven environmental change in shaping the behavioral evolution of early modern humans. Scientists have long proposed that environmental pressures influenced complex behaviors that parallel those of recent hunter-gatherers. Yet, it has been challenging to identify cause-effect relationships in the archaeological record.

These challenges stem from the rarity of precisely dated sites that preserve the archaeological and paleoenvironmental data needed to disentangle natural and human system interactions. This project will resolve this issue by assembling a diversity of high-resolution climatic, environmental, and archaeological datasets to understand the nature of the transition from Middle to Later Stone Age technologies.

In addition to addressing fundamental questions about the emergence of behavioral complexity in Homo sapiens, this work builds U.S. scientific research capacity by fostering research links across networks of scholars, and providing a foundation for undergraduate and graduate student training.

The transition from Middle to Later Stone Age technologies is one of the most prominent behavioral shifts observed in Homo sapiens’ evolutionary history. Understanding what precipitated this transition is closely intertwined with discussion and debates about the origins of modern human behavior. This project tests the hypothesis that the technological, dietary, and social shifts associated with the Middle to Later Stone Age transition result from climate-driven environmental change, specifically changes in the seasonal distribution of foods and other resources.

This work will be accomplished through a combination of (i) archaeological excavations that will document behavioral change across the Middle to Later Stone Age transition, coupled with (ii) the assembly of both local- and regional-scale paleoenvironmental records that will inform on past climate dynamics and its effects on terrestrial ecosystems. The datasets generated in this study will contribute to unresolved questions about modern human origins.

They will also enable future research across numerous disciplines, including archaeology, paleontology, paleoecology, and paleoclimatology.

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.