研究表明，尼安德特人通過潛入海洋獲取新工具

研究表明，尼安德特人通過潛入海洋獲取新工具

Neanderthals are not nearly as oafish or as dim-witted as we once thought. Not only did this fellow hominin walk upright with a posture not unlike our own, but some populations in Western Europe might even have swum on a regular basis.

尼安德特人并不像我們曾經(jīng)認為的那樣愚蠢。這個古人類不僅直立行走的姿勢與我們?nèi)祟悰]有什么不同，而且西歐的一些人群甚至可能經(jīng)常游泳。

A fresh analysis of 171 shells, found in a Neanderthal archaeological site in Italy, suggests this long-extinct population used to dive for tools on the ocean bottom, long before the arrival of modern humans and their fishing practices.

在意大利一個尼安德特人考古遺址發(fā)現(xiàn)的171枚貝殼的最新分析表明，早在現(xiàn)代人類到來和他們的捕魚習慣出現(xiàn)之前，這個早已滅絕的種群就曾在海底潛水尋找工具。

The cave where these ancient artefacts were found, known as the Grotta dei Moscerini, was first excavated in 1949, and the contents have been dated to more than 70,000 years ago - a time when modern humans were yet to to establish themselves across Europe.

這些古代文物被發(fā)現(xiàn)的洞穴，被稱為Grotta dei Moscerini，在1949年第一次被挖掘，其內(nèi)容可以追溯到7萬多年前——那個時候，現(xiàn)代人類還沒有在歐洲建立自己的社會。

Unfortunately, this cave is no longer accessible. But its assortment of 171 clam shells has been well curated over the decades, allowing researchers to carry out a microscopic analysis that revealed Neanderthals were capable of far more than we thought.

不幸的是，這個洞穴已無法進入。但在過去的幾十年里，它的171個蛤殼的分類已經(jīng)得到了很好的管理，這使得研究人員能夠進行微觀分析，揭示尼安德特人的能力遠遠超出我們的想象。

Not only were these shells shaped by hand into useful tools, the authors say nearly a quarter had been collected underwater from the seafloor as live animals.

這些貝殼不僅是手工制成的有用工具，而且作者說，他們在海底收集了近四分之一的活的動物。

The live animals that lived in the sea had a shiny shell, archaeologist Paola Villa from the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History explained to The New York Times.

科羅拉多大學自然歷史博物館的考古學家保拉·維拉在接受《紐約時報》采訪時解釋說:“生活在海里的動物有一個閃亮的外殼。”

The ones that are thrown by storms or dragged by a current onto the beach, because they sat in the sun and in the sand, their outer shells are opaque and not as shiny.

“那些被風暴或水流拖到海灘上的，因為它們坐在陽光下和沙子里，它們的外殼不透明，也沒有那么閃亮。”

Many of these thin and sharp shells showed evidence of 'knapping', which suggests they were used as tools, although it remains unclear as to whether the Neanderthals actually ate what meat was inside.

這些又薄又尖的貝殼中有許多顯示出“敲碎”的證據(jù)，這表明它們被用作工具，盡管尼安德特人是否真的吃了里面的肉還不清楚。

The new findings join a growing body of evidence that suggests Neanderthals did not simply wade for shells. Instead, similar sites and recent anatomical studies suggest skin-diving in low waters, probably two to four metres deep, was a common activity for these early hominins.

越來越多的證據(jù)表明，尼安德特人不僅僅是涉水尋找貝殼，這項新發(fā)現(xiàn)也加入了其中。相反，相似的地點和最近的解剖學研究表明，在可能2到4米深的低水域潛水是這些早期人類的一種常見活動。