《解读奥尔杜威——BedⅠ遗址的埋藏学研究》评述

由西班牙马德里大学史前学系的Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo、Rebeca Barba及美国印第安纳大学人类学系的Charles P．Egeland三位学者撰写的《解读奥尔杜威——BedⅠ遗址的埋藏学研究》（Deconstructing Olduvai：A Taphonomic Study Of The Bed Ⅰ Sites）一书于2007年由Springer出版公司正式出版发行。     

浅议古人类活动遗址的动物埋藏学研究方法

随着学科的发展,有关古人类活动遗址的研究手段逐渐多样化,学者们从不同研究视角分别揭示了早期人类对遗址的利用行为。近年来,作为古人类行为研究的重要分支,动物埋藏研究在阐释遗址形成过程及其背后的影响因素方面起到了重要作用。本文简要梳理了对保存有动物遗存的古人类活动遗址进行动物埋藏研究的主要方法和思路,同时,文章介绍了部分动物埋藏的典型模型与经典案例,以此对动物埋藏研究中存在的缺陷与可能的解决方式进行探讨。此外,作者对动物埋藏研究的方法演进进行了简单回顾,为解决遗址中出现的多个埋藏因素相互影响而导致的混乱及重叠现象提供了可供参考的研究思路;在此基础上,结合中国古人类活动遗址的相关研究进展,本文也对中国考古遗址相关研究的思路和方向提出了建议。     

Olduvai Bed I post-cranial fossils: A reassessment

New fossil specimens can be interpreted as strong indications that there were two Plio-Pleistocene hominid post-cranial morphotypes. This new evidence may alter the functional interpretations placed on the important specimens, OH 8 and OH 10 from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. When these interpretations are critically examined there is now doubt that the OH 8 foot belongs to Homo and that the OH 10 terminal plalanx is necessarily part of a functional limb complex like that of modern Man.     

Taphonomic perspectives on hominid site use and foraging strategies during Bed II times at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

The faunal assemblages excavated by Mary Leakey in Bed II of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, have, like the more well-known Bed I assemblages, traditionally been interpreted as the result of hominid butchering activities in the lake margin and riverine settings of the paleo-Olduvai Basin. A reexamination of all of Leakey's Bed I sites has shown that hominids played little or no role in the formation of all but one of those faunal assemblages, a finding that prompted the reanalysis of the Bed II sites presented here. We expand upon a previous taphonomic study that provided systematic data for HWK East Levels 1–2, MNK Main, and BK. In addition to these assemblages, we provide data on HWK East Levels 3–5, FC West, TK, and SHK. Our data contradict previous interpretations of MNK Main as a hominid accumulation but uphold the contention that BK represents a primarily hominid accumulation reflecting early access to carcasses. The small and poorly preserved assemblages from FC West and TK are difficult to link unambiguously to either hominids or carnivores. Site MNK Main and HWK East Levels 3–5 appear to be death arenas where carcasses accumulated via natural deaths and/or serial predation. Site SHK is severely biased by selective retention and therefore little can be said of its formational history. Nevertheless, no hominid modifications were documented in this assemblage. Comparisons with other Olduvai sites indicate a more conspicuous hyena taphonomic signal during Bed II times than Bed I times, which appears to mirror the changing configuration of the large carnivore guild. These findings also beg the question of what activities were being carried out by hominids with the stone tools discarded at these sites. Although it seems clear that hominids were utilizing stone tools to carry out subsistence activities unrelated to carcass butchery, more excavation and techniques such as phytolith analysis should be employed to explore alternative explanations.     

A revised stratigraphic framework for Olduvai Gorge Bed I based on tuff geochemistry

Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania has rich records of Plio-Pleistocene fauna and flora, hominin fossils, and stone artifacts preserved between well-dated tephra layers (tuffs). Accurate correlation between sites in the two million year section is complicated by faulting, erosion, change in physical appearance of the tuffs, and quality of preservation. Traditional tuff geochemical techniques using glass cannot be applied because of poor glass preservation, and previous physical mapping has led to miscorrelations in Bed I. A new approach, using a combination of glass and mineral compositions (feldspar, augite, hornblende, and oxides) produced successful geochemical fingerprints for all ten major Bed I (∼2.03-1.79 Ma) tuffs. These fingerprints make available a reliable means for correlating specific tuffs between the well-dated "Junction" sites, such as FLK and HWK, and less well-dated sites at the basin margins. The new correlations provide a high-resolution stratigraphic framework for Bed I and correct previous miscorrelations in the west of the basin. Olduvai Hominin 65, from western Olduvai, was recovered from a level between Tuff IC and the Ng’eju Tuff, and therefore dates to 1.79-1.84 Ma.     

Long-distance carcass transport at Olduvai Gorge? A quantitative examination of Bed I skeletal element abundances

Relative abundances of skeletal elements at Plio-Pleistocene archaeological sites have long been interpreted to represent selective transport of portions of large prey. Models from optimal foraging theory suggest that the degree of carcass transport selectivity reflects transport constraints, particularly transport distance. A quantitative analysis of skeletal element abundances in five bone assemblages from Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, indicates that within the subset of elements most likely to resist attritional processes, there is no evidence for preferential transport of small or large mammals. The results suggest relatively low carcass transport costs and are most consistent with site formation models favoring short-distance carcass transport. The data are also consistent with the possibility that hominins were not responsible for transporting bones at some sites. Several Bed I assemblages, with the exception of FLK-Zinjanthropus, lack evidence of a functional relationship between flaked stone artifacts and the faunal remains, such as cut-marks or percussion-marks on bone. In conjunction with the skeletal part data, this suggests that hominin involvement with the bone assemblages was minimal at all sites but FLK-Zinjanthropus. The patterning at Bed I contrasts strongly with Middle Stone Age and Middle Paleolithic assemblages, which provide clear evidence for selective transport, suggesting higher transport costs and longer transport distances.     

Analysis of orientation patterns in Olduvai Bed I assemblages using GIS techniques: implications for site formation processes

Mary Leakey’s excavations at Olduvai Beds I and II provided an unparalleled wealth of data on the archaeology of the early Pleistocene. We have been able to obtain axial orientations of the Bed I bone and stone tools by applying GIS methods to the site plans contained in the Olduvai Volume 3 monograph (Leakey, 1971). Our analysis indicates that the Bed I assemblages show preferred orientations, probably caused by natural agents such as water disturbance. These results, based on new GIS techniques applied to paleoanthropological studies, have important implications for the understanding of the formative agents of Olduvai sites and the behavioral meaning of the bone and lithic accumulations in Bed I.     

A New Horned Crocodile from the Plio-Pleistocene Hominid Sites at Olduvai Gorge,Tanzania

Background

The fossil record reveals surprising crocodile diversity in the Neogene of Africa, but relationships with their living relatives and the biogeographic origins of the modern African crocodylian fauna are poorly understood. A Plio-Pleistocene crocodile from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, represents a new extinct species and shows that high crocodylian diversity in Africa persisted after the Miocene. It had prominent triangular “horns” over the ears and a relatively deep snout, these resemble those of the recently extinct Malagasy crocodile Voay robustus, but the new species lacks features found among osteolaemines and shares derived similarities with living species of Crocodylus.

Methodology/Principal Findings

The holotype consists of a partial skull and skeleton and was collected on the surface between two tuffs dated to approximately 1.84 million years (Ma), in the same interval near the type localities for the hominids Homo habilis and Australopithecus boisei. It was compared with previously-collected material from Olduvai Gorge referable to the same species. Phylogenetic analysis places the new form within or adjacent to crown Crocodylus.

Conclusions/Significance

The new crocodile species was the largest predator encountered by our ancestors at Olduvai Gorge, as indicated by hominid specimens preserving crocodile bite marks from these sites. The new species also reinforces the emerging view of high crocodylian diversity throughout the Neogene, and it represents one of the few extinct species referable to crown genus Crocodylus.     

万寿岩旧石器时代遗址埋藏学研究

本文对福建三明万寿岩遗址文化层形成、遗物与动物骨骼埋藏、风化、破坏等现象进行观察,认为灵峰洞旧石器早期文化遗物和化石,由于暴露于洞内表面时间较长而经受强烈风化、侵蚀与钙质胶结;船帆洞旧石器晚期遗址因洞口坍塌和外部水流侵漫进洞而被废弃,在潮湿环境下,遗物和化石遭受腐蚀、铁锰质浸染严重。3个文化层的遗物及伴生哺乳动物化石均属原地埋藏类型;而船帆洞内3号支洞化石的集聚是高层洞穴作为排泄通道时由流水携带堆积而成的异地埋藏。     

Deconstructing the DGAT1 Enzyme: Membrane Interactions at Substrate Binding Sites

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) is a key enzyme in the triacylglyceride synthesis pathway. Bovine DGAT1 is an endoplasmic reticulum membrane-bound protein associated with the regulation of fat content in milk and meat. The aim of this study was to evaluate the interaction of DGAT1 peptides corresponding to putative substrate binding sites with different types of model membranes. Whilst these peptides are predicted to be located in an extramembranous loop of the membrane-bound protein, their hydrophobic substrates are membrane-bound molecules. In this study, peptides corresponding to the binding sites of the two substrates involved in the reaction were examined in the presence of model membranes in order to probe potential interactions between them that might influence the subsequent binding of the substrates. Whilst the conformation of one of the peptides changed upon binding several types of micelles regardless of their surface charge, suggesting binding to hydrophobic domains, the other peptide bound strongly to negatively-charged model membranes. This binding was accompanied by a change in conformation, and produced leakage of the liposome-entrapped dye calcein. The different hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions observed suggest the peptides may be involved in the interactions of the enzyme with membrane surfaces, facilitating access of the catalytic histidine to the triacylglycerol substrates.     

The age and stratigraphic position of Olduvai Hominid I

A short history of Olduvai Hominid I is given. On the basis of absolute and relative dating its position in the Naisiusiu Bed, part of the former Bed V, is affirmed. Some connection, on morphological grounds, with other hominids in East Africa is postulated, as well as with cultural material.