科学60秒:欧洲祖先原来很晚才学会生火的
来源：沪江听写酷
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.
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
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.
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
consensus
fire experts
volcanic eruptions or natural fires
showed up
settlements
假如生活没有火，大概很多人要冷得蜷成一团了吧。
一直以来人们都认为约100万年前人类祖先首次向北迁徙到更寒冷的欧洲时就能够熟练掌握生火技能了。然而，一项新的研究表明，欧洲祖先们知道很后来才真正掌握生火技能。这项研究成果刊登在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。考古学家发现了一些工具和残留食物，以此判断出祖先有露营活动。为寻找祖先们生火的证据，考古学家们就要找到烧焦的骨头还有木炭。不过，这些东西也有可能是因为火山爆发或者是自然大火而造成的。
而在洞穴中发现的焦骨头、木炭等则很有可能是人为造成的。考古学家们在位于北欧的两处洞穴中发现了明显的生火迹象，但和人类首次踏足欧洲的时间相比，生火年代距今要近得多。
法国的阿拉戈溶洞中发现的生火迹象距今约35万年，目前还没找到再早之前的证据。科学家称，这些发现表明人类在欧洲生活的最初60万年间都没有掌握生火技术，祖先们得经历多少个漫漫寒冬啊~
