9408920 Freeman Under the direction of Dr. Leslie Freeman, Mr. James Pokines will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will analyze microfaunal materials excavated from the archaeological site of El Juyo which is located in the Santander region of Spain. The site was occupied by Paleolithic hunters and gatherers about 14,000 years ago and the intermittent habitation spans a period of approximately 1,000 years. The extremely rich lithic and faunal remains recovered provide a unique insight into human adaptation at the end of the last Ice Age. Mr. Pokines wishes to use the abundant micromammal remains which are also present to reconstruct environment and determine how it changed over time. Because larger mammals entered the cave as food and therefore reelect human selection, they do not provide an accurate environmental signal. The incorporation of micromammals however results from a different process: owls which inhabited the cave during human absence regurgitate pellets which contain the bones of prey. Studies of modern owl behavior indicate that their prey selection closely mirrors natural abundances of small mammals in a region. Mr. Pokines will collect modern pellets to determine the present day species composition. With this as a baseline, he will then study the archaeological sample. This work is important for several reasons. Archaeological data provides excellent insight into human-environment interactions over long periods of time. They shed light on how humans both adapted to and in turn effected the natural surroundings on which they depended for survival. The data collected by Mr. Pokines will shed light on this relationship during an important period of human prehistory. The research will also assist in the training of a promising young scientist.
