Research project The behaviour of early Homo
Archaeological and taphonomic studies of the Phillip Tobias Korongo (PTK) site, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. A three years project, financed by Swedish Research Council.
History
Hominin strategies of carcass procurement (hunting vs. scavenging) and exploitation (meat and/or marrow consumption) are some of the most debated topics in African Plio-Pleistocene archaeology. The social and adaptive complexity of the hominins is clearly reflected in the types of animals that they consumed and in the activities that they performed at their foraging places. This project addresses the early Homo socio-economic behaviour (resources acquisition and environment interactions) in PTK site, dated to 1.84 million of years ago.
Project description
This project has a multidisciplinary focus integrating taphonomy, osteology and archaeology analyses, which are connected with previous studies about the geology, paleobotany and paleochemistry developed by The Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project. Artificial intelligence techniques (Deep Learning computer vision 3D methods) and multivariate approaches are carried out to solve some taphonomic challenges.
Findings
Findings of paleosurfaces with stone tools and fossil bones associated, including human bones from different species allow us to shed more light on the earliest stages of evolution of the genus Homo.
