Under the supervision of Prof. Curtis Marean, Jessica Thompson will collect and analyze data from two archaeological sites in the southwestern Cape, South Africa: Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (PP 13B). The dataset will consist of over 40,000 fossil animal bones that date to >70,000 (Blombos), and >181,000 (PP 13B). Thompson's study will determine what proportions of the collections represent the food remains from human inhabitants rather than residue from other bone accumulators such as carnivores, rodents, and raptors. Once this is determined, the hunting and butchering strategies of these people can be inferred from marks left on the bones: cut marks from removing meat and percussion marks from extracting marrow.
Both sites date to a time known as the Middle Stone Age (MSA), from ca. 250 to ca. 30 thousand years ago (ka). This is a critical period in human evolution because, although the skeletal remains dating to this time are physically modern, it is not clear if these humans behaved as modern people do. Recent discoveries of carved pigments and personal ornaments from Blombos have shown that creativity and symbolic behavior was present in our species at least 70,000, but the relationship between these factors and diet remains unknown. Work on this problem has been seriously hindered by a lack of empirical data: in all of Southern Africa only one other collection from this time period has been comprehensively analyzed and published. Thompson's study will create two new datasets that can be directly compared to this one (DK 1), thus effectively tripling the empirical record for faunal collections that are complete and have been fully analyzed. For the first time, behavioral comparisons can be made between sites with abundant evidence for symbolic behavior (Blombos) and with less such evidence (PP 13B and DK 1).
The methodology contains a heavy emphasis on proper curation of the faunal remains, so that future researchers can easily locate and examine any portion of the assemblages, including materials not used in this project (reptiles, birds, fish, etc.). Each specimen identifiable to element will be drawn into a Geographical Information System (GIS) database, creating a permanent digital record that can be shared instantaneously by researchers around the world.
Because of South African heritage laws, the data must be collected in Cape Town. This provides an opportunity for information be provided to the scientific and local communities in the country where the materials were discovered. Archaeological research into human behavior during this critical time period has the potential to identify and illustrate which behavioral aspects all modern humans share. This has particularly significant implications for a newly integrated multiracial and multiethnic country such as South Africa. As the study proceeds, Thompson will present information to middle and high school-aged students by participating in an outreach program organized by a colleague at the South African Museum. The program is designed to inform and excite, as well as to promote archaeological conservation to the future guardians of these irreplaceable resources.
