With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Emily Jones will analyze faunal remains from three Paleolithic sites on the Iberian Peninsula: Ambrosio, Estebanvela, and Nerja. This project will include travel to Spain to work with the collections and with Spanish colleagues, and subsequent statistical analysis at Utah State University.
These assemblages are of interest because they indicate a shift from diets based on a few, large, higher-return animals (such as reindeer) to those containing a "broad spectrum" of resources, including many smaller, lower-return items (such as rabbits). Why did diets broaden in this set of environmental circumstances? Perhaps there were fewer large mammals available, either because of climate change or human overhunting, so that smaller prey had to be added to the diets. However, changing hunting strategies can also result in an increase in small prey in a forager's diet. In southwestern France, for instance, this transition seems to have been neither a direct result of climate-driven environmental change nor a result of human impact on larger vertebrates, but rather, caused at least in part by the climate-driven migration of the European rabbit. By testing for warren-based hunting of the European Rabbit in Upper Paleolithic sites in Spain, the research proposed here will advance our understanding of the causes and contexts of Paleolithic rabbit hunting on the Iberian Peninsula, and, more broadly, our understanding of the Broad Spectrum Revolution in southwestern Europe.
The broader impacts of this proposal center on three areas. First, the proposed research will foster international collaboration; as part of the project, ties will be established between several Spanish universities and Utah State University. In addition, the project will involve American undergraduate students at the Utah State University - Brigham City campus in the analysis of data. USU-Brigham City primarily serves non-traditional students, including members of the Northwest Band of Shoshone and of the local Hispanic community; thus a number of populations traditionally underrepresented in science will have the opportunity to participate in scientific analysis and discovery. The most critical "broader impact," however, resides in the proposed research's applicability to larger discussions of human decision-making in light of environmental change. Archaeological data on human adaptation to climate change is increasingly recognized as essential in informing environmental policy; related research conducted by the Dr. Jones has been included, for instance, in the Climate Change Congress in Copenhagen. This project will contribute to this dialogue.
