High Risk Research: Understanding Long Term Human Adaptation in a Challenging Environment

While pastoral empires had a tremendous impact on human history over recent millennia, the role of environmental variation in the development of these as well as in the earliest chapters of human prehistory remain difficult to trace. Preliminary investigations at rare and individual sites can play important roles in providing insight into these earlier chapters of the human story. Through interdisciplinary scientific excavation and digital conservation, this award helps to document, preserve, and protect one caves threatened cultural heritage and also provide insight which extends through the Neolithic potentially back into the Pleistocene period. The research focuses on a region in which during the Late Pleistocene three different species of hominids were present. In order to assess the transformative processes like the first human dispersals, the extinction of Ice Age megafauna, and the introduction of domesticated animals, this project focuses on the excavation and 3D scanning of recently identified archaeological deposits. The research investigates well-preserved archaeological deposits using cutting-edge archaeological and biomolecular techniques, including precision 3D scanning, radiocarbon dating, ancient DNA, and proteomics, using scientific results to gain insights into the trajectory of human history and to develop infrastructure to protect and preserve the cave for future generations. This project is funded through NSF” “High-Risk Research in Biological Anthropology and Archaeology” competition. While the site has very high scientific potential it is not known how far back in time archaeological materials extend. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.