Descrizione del progetto
L’analisi biomolecolare rivela strategie di caccia all’età della pietra
Ad oggi, mancano dati sulle prede basati sul sesso per la maggior parte degli assemblaggi di ossa del Pleistocene, informazioni chiave per esaminare la capacità di pianificazione dei cacciatori neanderthaliani. Il progetto IBERHUNT, finanziato dall’UE, effettuerà analisi biomolecolari avanzate in assemblaggi dentali e sedimenti di ungulati provenienti da sei ricchi siti faunistici del Paleolitico medio e superiore nella penisola iberica orientale. L’obiettivo è utilizzare sequenze proteiche ottenute dall’analisi dello smalto dei denti per determinare il sesso dei resti di ungulati e identificare biomarcatori paleoambientali dai rapporti isotopici composto-specifici di campioni di sedimento. I risultati del progetto forniranno dati quantificabili ad alta risoluzione sull’efficienza del foraggiamento umano nel Pleistocene, compresi gli adattamenti ai cambiamenti climatici, e contribuiranno a nuovi metodi per la ricerca archeologica.
Obiettivo
Recent zooarchaeological analyses have suggested that Neanderthals were skilled hunters. Yet, there is still a vivid debate on whether Middle Palaeolithic human groups were also capable of more effective, and diverse, sophisticated food-processing behaviours, in particular through specialised hunting. Traditionally, archaeologists have relied on the osteological analysis of bone assemblages to determine prey mortality patterns, where species variability, age and seasonality data are calculated. Although this approach has yielded a great deal of important information about the Pleistocene hominin hunting strategies, there is a considerable lack of sex-based prey data for most Pleistocene bone assemblages, a key information that has direct implications for hominin planning depth, anticipatory abilities, mobility and land use.
IBERHUNT project will conduct advanced biomolecular analyses in ungulate dental assemblages and sediments from six rich-faunal Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. The anthropic occupation deposits range Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5 to 3, making them exemplary case studies for comparative-based research.
We aim to address 1) the determination of the biological sex of ungulate remains, by reading protein sequences through the analysis of tooth enamel amelogenin, and 2) the identification of palaeoenvironmental biomarkers, by the analysis of sediments’ compound-specific isotope ratios. This combination of state of the art techniques will provide contextualised and quantifiable high-resolution data on Pleistocene human foraging efficiency, allowing to re-evaluate Neanderthal predatory economics through an optimal foraging perspective that includes climate adaptations.
IBERHUNT results will bring the discussion of evolutionary relationships between Neanderthals and modern humans in a broader perspective, and will contribute to the development of new methods for archaeological research.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
38200 SAN CRISTOBAL DE LA LAGUNA
Spagna