懒惰——最终将人类推向灭亡

原来早在沙发和外卖出现之前就已经有懒惰了。“何必麻烦呢?”这种态度不仅在几十万年前就存在了，而且可能还导致了一种古代人类祖先的衰亡。

Homo erectus first appeared 2 million years ago and went extinct some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. But compared with other hominins, like Neanderthals, this species may have been quite lazy and more reluctant to adapt to a changing environment, according to new study published July 27 in the Journal PLOS One.

直立人首次出现于200万年前，之后在大约5-10万年前灭绝。但根据7月27日发表于PLOS One杂志上的一篇新研究报告，相较于其他古人类，比如尼安德特人，直立人可能相当懒惰而且更不愿意适应变更的环境。

Archaeologists from Australian National University analyzed thousands of newfound and previously unearthed artifacts from an excavation site in the Arabian Peninsula in modern-day Saffaqah, Saudi Arabia, in 2014. Their findings suggested that the Homo erectus species in that area exerted the minimal effort necessary to make tools and find supplies.

来自澳大利亚国立大学的考古学家分析了数千个新发现的和之前发掘出的手工艺品，这些手工艺品出土于2014年沙特阿拉伯位于现今Saffaqah的阿拉伯半岛上一处考古地点。他们的发现暗示在这个区域的直立人在制作工具和寻找补给上只投入了最小的努力。

Instead, these early humans lived in places that had easy access to stones and water, the study found.

研究还发现，这些早期人类生活的地区很容易就能获取到石材和水。

"To make their stone tools, they would use whatever rocks they could find lying around their camp, which were mostly of comparatively low quality to what later stone-tool makers used," lead author Ceri Shipton, an archaeologist at Australian National University, said in a statement. Such tools included cores, flakes, hand axes and cleavers.

“为了制作他们的石质工具，他们会使用他们营地附近能找到的石料，而这些石质工具和后来的石质工具比起来质量相对较差，”论文的第一作者，澳大利亚国立大学的考古学家Ceri Shipton在声明中说。这些石器包括石核、石片、手斧和劈刀。

A little way away from the Homo erectus camps was a rocky outcrop that had higher-quality rock but required a trek up a hill. "But rather than walk up the hill, they would just use whatever bits had rolled down and were lying at the bottom," Shipton said.

离这个直立人营地没多远的地方就是一块质量更高的露出地面的岩层，但是需要爬山。“与其费力爬山，他们宁可使用那些从山上滚落的石头和那些散落在地面的石头，”Shipton说。

When the researchers examined the rocky outcrop, they found that it was untouched by Homo erectus — no traces of activity, no artifacts and no quarrying of the stone, Shipton said in the statement. By contrast Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens climbed mountains for high-quality stones and transported them over long distances, according to the statement.

当研究人员检查了这块露出地面的岩层，他们发现直立人根本都没碰过它——没有活动的痕迹，没有人工制品的痕迹，也没有采石的痕迹，Shipton在声明中说。作为对比，根据声明，尼安德特人和早期的智人会为了更高品质的石材翻山越岭，并进行长途运输。

These early humans were strong and skillful, and they thrived in the region for some time. But once the riverbeds dried out, as sediment samples from the area reveal happened, these people's lack of initiative doomed them.

这些早期人类很强壮并且很熟练，在这个区域他们兴盛过一段时间。但是当河床干涸了，正如这个区域的沉积物样本所揭示的那样，这些人类因为缺乏积极性最终走向了灭亡。

"Not only were they lazy, but they were also very conservative," Shipton said. Their tools stayed the same in both size and composition as the environment around them changed.

“他们不仅很懒惰，而且他们还非常保守，”Shipton表示。无论身边的环境怎么变，他们的器具的形状和构成都没变过。

"There was no progression at all, and their tools are never very far from these now-dry river beds," Shipton said. "I think, in the end, the environment just got too dry for them."

“完全没有任何进步，并且他们的石器从未远离过这片现已干涸的河床，”Shipton说，“我想，最终环境变得太过于干旱了，以至于他们无法生存。”