Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/T001313/1
Improving the chronology of early human evolution
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr J Schwenninger, University of Oxford, School of Archaeology
- Grant held at:
- University of Oxford, School of Archaeology
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Freshwater
- Marine
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Panel C
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- Archaeology Of Human Origins
- Quaternary Science
- Science-Based Archaeology
- Abstract:
- The Turkana and Awash basins in the East African Rift, preserve an exceptional fossil and archaeological record and to a large extent, form the basis for our current understanding of early hominin environments. Ancient volcanic activity has left numerous ash deposits (tuffs) that can be dated using the radiometric dating method 40Ar/39Ar. Although precise, dates obtained by this method only provide broad envelopes with significant temporal gaps because volcanism is episodic, and tuffs do not always survive across the landscape. Furthermore, despite the abundance of archaeological finds and animal fossils in this region, datable tuffs are rare in the East African Rift. Consequently, age estimation often relies on imprecise relative methods, such as magnetostratigraphy and biostratigraphy. A method for obtaining absolute dates is urgently required in order to correlate all the sedimentary sequences within the eastern rift, as well as across Africa, and to help clarify the wider picture of early human biological and cultural events during the Plio-Pleistocene. Likewise, the South African sites also suffer from dating problems, albeit from different issues. In most of these cases they are karstic infills and only recently, have any absolute methods based on cosmogenic and uranium/lead isotope systems been applied. These techniques also leave huge gaps and/or do not precisely date the fossil or archaeological event of interest. For instance, U/Pb dates generally reflect the ages of over- or underlying flowstone and not that of a fossil. We propose to apply a novel luminescence-based method known as infrared-radiofluorescence (IR-RF), which the named researcher co-investigator on this proposal helped to develop, in order to determine the age (i.e. time of deposition) of fossil- and artefact-bearing sediments and/or volcanic tuffs in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa and to fill in the time gaps omitted by radiometric techniques. The IR-RF method is widely applicable due to the ubiquitous occurrence of sand sized feldspar mineral grains required for dating and the technique targets potassium- (K-) rich feldspar, one of the most common types of mineral on earth. Recent studies suggest that this methodology has the potential to extend the age range of luminescence dating from 0.5 million years to 4 million years, thus encompassing the majority of the time range over which the human family evolved. Methods of recording and analyzing luminescence data have developed significantly over the last five years, including improved light detection and more advanced analytical and statistical techniques, all of which have led to new approaches and more flexible ways of processing and visualizing data. Recent technological advances including the development of single photon imaging systems based on electron multiplying charge coupled devices (EMCCD) also suggest that the time is right to bring together and apply some of these new cutting-edge innovations to help achieve more reliable chronologies for early hominin evolution. This research will dramatically increase the number of well-dated sequences in areas archiving key evidence for early human evolution and it will enable us to provide significant improvements in correlating human fossil records across Africa. A new and more refined chronological framework will greatly improve our understanding of the diversity of adaptive challenges faced by early hominins since the Pliocene and it will help to shed more light on the hotly debated question of the role of climatic and ecological changes in driving hominin evolution.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/T001313/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Event/Action
- Scheme:
- Standard Grant FEC
- Grant Status:
- Active
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £501,869
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DI - Staff | DI - Equipment | DI - T&S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £103,285 | £138,434 | £18,094 | £27,156 | £153,299 | £22,169 | £39,432 |
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