科學60秒:歐洲祖先原來很晚才學會生火的
來源：滬江聽寫酷
2011-07-24 10:00
Imagine life without fire. A lot of huddling for warmth.
The ___1___ was that humans could make and control fire when they first migrated north to colder Europe, about a million years ago. But new research says those initial Europeans may not have been ___2___ until much later. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Wil Roebroeks and Paolo Villa, "On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe"]
Archaeologists identify ancient open-air encampments through tools, tool production and food remains. To check for evidence of fire, they may look for charred bones and pieces of charcoal. But those artifacts could be from ___3___.
Such heated remains would be more clearly linked to humans when found in caves. Two northern European caves in particular show clear evidence of fire. But only relatively recently compared with when humans first ___4___.
And in the Arago cave in France there’s evidence of fire from ___5___ younger than 350,000 years, but no such evidence in the older layers. The scientists say these findings show that the use of fire was not controlled for the first 600,000 years after humans arrived in Europe. Which made for quite a few long, chilly winters.
【視聽版科學小組榮譽出品】
The ___1___ was that humans could make and control fire when they first migrated north to colder Europe, about a million years ago. But new research says those initial Europeans may not have been ___2___ until much later. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Wil Roebroeks and Paolo Villa, "On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe"]
Archaeologists identify ancient open-air encampments through tools, tool production and food remains. To check for evidence of fire, they may look for charred bones and pieces of charcoal. But those artifacts could be from ___3___.
Such heated remains would be more clearly linked to humans when found in caves. Two northern European caves in particular show clear evidence of fire. But only relatively recently compared with when humans first ___4___.
And in the Arago cave in France there’s evidence of fire from ___5___ younger than 350,000 years, but no such evidence in the older layers. The scientists say these findings show that the use of fire was not controlled for the first 600,000 years after humans arrived in Europe. Which made for quite a few long, chilly winters.
【視聽版科學小組榮譽出品】
consensus
fire experts
volcanic eruptions or natural fires
showed up
settlements
假如生活沒有火，大概很多人要冷得蜷成一團了吧。
一直以來人們都認為約100萬年前人類祖先首次向北遷徙到更寒冷的歐洲時就能夠熟練掌握生火技能了。然而，一項新的研究表明，歐洲祖先們知道很后來才真正掌握生火技能。這項研究成果刊登在《美國國家科學院院刊》上。考古學家發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些工具和殘留食物，以此判斷出祖先有露營活動。為尋找祖先們生火的證據(jù)，考古學家們就要找到燒焦的骨頭還有木炭。不過，這些東西也有可能是因為火山爆發(fā)或者是自然大火而造成的。
而在洞穴中發(fā)現(xiàn)的焦骨頭、木炭等則很有可能是人為造成的?？脊艑W家們在位于北歐的兩處洞穴中發(fā)現(xiàn)了明顯的生火跡象，但和人類首次踏足歐洲的時間相比，生火年代距今要近得多。
法國的阿拉戈溶洞中發(fā)現(xiàn)的生火跡象距今約35萬年，目前還沒找到再早之前的證據(jù)?？茖W家稱，這些發(fā)現(xiàn)表明人類在歐洲生活的最初60萬年間都沒有掌握生火技術(shù)，祖先們得經(jīng)歷多少個漫漫寒冬啊~
