最新研究揭示了南非失落的世界

最新研究揭示了南非失落的世界

Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence for human behavior, projectile weapons and much more at an amazing archaeological site in South Africa, a previously lost world revealed in new research.

科学家们在南非一处令人惊叹的考古遗址，发现了人类行为的最早证据、抛射武器以及更多的证据，这是先前在新研究中发现的失落的世界。

Researchers in the area have always faced a challenge in understanding the context of these evolutionary milestones since most of the landscape used by the ancient people who lived there is submerged underwater. The archaeological remnants are from caves and other areas that now look out on to the sea.

该地区的研究人员在理解这些进化里程碑的背景方面一直面临着挑战，因为居住在那里的古人所使用的大部分景观都被淹没在水下。考古遗迹来自洞穴和其他现在可以眺望大海的地区。

Now, the publication of 22 articles in Quaternary Science Reviews examines this “lost world” in a profound new way, thanks to the efforts of Arizona State University Institute of Human Origins Director Curtis Marean, who began assembling a team to build the ancient landscape’s ecology a decade ago.

如今，在《第四纪科学评论》上发表的22篇文章以一种全新的方式审视了这个“失落的世界”，这要归功于亚利桑那州立大学人类起源研究所所长柯蒂斯·马雷恩(Curtis Marean)的努力，他十年前就开始组建团队来构建古代景观的生态。

The work started by using the high-resolution South African regional climate model — running on US and South African supercomputers as a way to simulate glacial climate conditions. That climate output then fed into a vegetation model that allowed scientists to recreate the vegetation landscape.

这项工作首先使用了高分辨率的南非区域气候模型——在美国和南非的超级计算机上运行，以此来模拟冰川气候条件。然后，这种气候输出被输入到一个植被模型中，使科学家能够重现植被景观。

Scientists then harnessed things like marine geophysics and deep-water diving for sample collection to validate the model and adjust its output.

然后，科学家们利用海洋地球物理学和深海潜水等方法采集样本，用来验证模型并调整其输出。

“Pulling the threads of all this research into one special issue illustrates all of this science,” said Marean in a statement. “It represents a unique example of a truly transdisciplinary paleoscience effort and a new model for going forward with our search to recreate the nature of past ecosystems. Importantly, our results help us understand why the archaeological records from these South African sites consistently reveal early and complex levels of human behavior and culture.”

马雷恩Marean在一份声明中说：“把所有这些研究的线索放在一个特殊问题上说明了所有的科学道理。”“它代表了一个真正跨学科的古科学研究的独特例子，也为我们继续重建过去生态系统的研究提供了一个新的模式。”重要的是，我们的研究结果帮助我们理解为什么来自这些南非遗址的考古记录一贯揭示了早期和复杂的人类行为和文化水平。”

The Arizona State University IHO’s field study site of Pinnacle Point sits at the center of diverse and rich ancient record, both geographically and scientifically, having contributed much of the evidence for different milestones on the road to humanity’s modern evolution.

亚利桑那州立大学IHO的Pinnacle Point野外研究遗址位于地理和科学上丰富多样的古代记录的中心，为人类现代进化道路上的不同里程碑提供了大量证据。

“This unique confluence of food from the land and sea cultivated the complex cultures revealed by the archaeology and provided safe harbor for humans during the glacial cycles that revealed that plain and made much of the rest of the world unwelcoming to human life,” Marean said.

Marean说：“这种来自陆地和海洋的食物的独特汇合培育了考古学所揭示的复杂文化，并在冰川循环期间为人类提供了安全的港湾。冰川循环揭示了平原和世界其他大部分地区不欢迎人类生活。”