The excavation of Grotte Mandrin in France has revealed that early modern humans lived there some 54,000 years ago.

法國對格羅特曼陀林的發(fā)掘揭示了大約54000年前早期現(xiàn)代人類生活在那里

(CNN) — A child's tooth unearthed from a French cave has revealed the earliest evidence of humans -- Homo sapiens -- living in western Europe.

(美國有線電視新聞網(wǎng)）從一處法國洞穴中挖掘出的一枚兒童牙齒揭示了人類（智人）生活在西歐的最早期的證據(jù)。

The discovery of the molar from Grotte Mandrin, near Malataverne in the Rh?ne Valley in southern France, along with hundreds of stone tools dating back about 54,000 years ago, suggests that early humans lived in Europe about 10,000 years earlier than archaeologists had previously thought.

這顆來自法國南部羅納河谷馬拉塔凡爾納旁邊的格羅特·曼德林(Grotte Mandrin)的臼齒，伴隨著數(shù)百件能追溯到約54000年前的石器的出土，表明早期人類開始生活在歐洲的時(shí)間比考古學(xué)家此前預(yù)計(jì)的還要提早了約一萬年。

What's more, the Homo sapiens tooth was sandwiched between layers of Neanderthal remains, showing that the two groups of humans coexisted in the region. These findings challenge the narrative that the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe triggered the extinction of Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and parts of Asia for about 300,000 years before disappearing.

不止如此，智人的牙齒像三明治一樣被夾在了多層的尼安德特人遺骸中間，這說明兩種人類在該地區(qū)共同生存過。這些發(fā)現(xiàn)構(gòu)成了對智人到達(dá)歐洲造成尼安德特人滅絕這一敘事的挑戰(zhàn)，而后者在歐洲和亞洲部分地區(qū)生活了大約30萬年后才消失。

"We've often thought that the arrival of modern humans in Europe led to the pretty rapid demise of Neanderthals, but this new evidence suggests that both the appearance of modern humans in Europe and disappearance of Neanderthals is much more complex than that," said study coauthor Chris Stringer, a professor and research leader in human evolution at the Natural History Museum in London.

該研究參與者，任職倫敦自然歷史博物館的人類進(jìn)化領(lǐng)域負(fù)責(zé)人，教授Chris Stringer說:“我們過去一般認(rèn)為，正是現(xiàn)代人類在歐洲的到來導(dǎo)致了尼安德特人極為快速的消亡，但這次新發(fā)現(xiàn)的證據(jù)表明，現(xiàn)代人類在歐洲的出現(xiàn)和尼安德特人的消失這二者間的聯(lián)系要復(fù)雜得多?！?/b>
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It's the first time archaeologists have found evidence of alternating groups of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals living in the same place, and they rotated rapidly, even abruptly, at least twice, according to the study that published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday.

根據(jù)周三發(fā)表在《科學(xué)進(jìn)展》雜志上的研究顯示，這是考古學(xué)家第一次發(fā)現(xiàn)智人和尼安德特人交替居住在同一個(gè)地方的證據(jù)，而且他們快速的輪換，甚至是突然發(fā)生的，這種情形至少發(fā)生了兩次。

Previously, the arrival of early humans in Europe was dated to between 43,000 and 45,000 years ago, according to remains found in Italy and Bulgaria -- not long before the last surviving Neanderthal remains dating back 40,000 to 42,000 years ago were found. This time frx had led many to think the arrival of Homo sapiens and the disappearance of Neanderthals were inexorably lixed.

之前根據(jù)在意大利和保加利亞發(fā)現(xiàn)的遺骸推算，早期人類到達(dá)歐洲的時(shí)間可追溯到43000年至45000年前——在已發(fā)現(xiàn)的最后一具幸存的尼安德特人遺骸所追溯到的40000年至42000年前之前不久。這個(gè)時(shí)間框架讓許多人認(rèn)為智人的到來和尼安德特人的消失之間具有毋庸置疑的聯(lián)系。

Humans and Neanderthals, who we know from genetic analysis encountered one another and had babies, resulting in Neanderthal traces in our DNA, overlapped for a much longer period in Europe, this study suggests.

這項(xiàng)研究表明，我們目前通過基因分析已知的現(xiàn)代智人和尼安德特人相遇并生育后代，導(dǎo)致我們的基因中有尼安德特人的基因片段這一族群融合事件所發(fā)生的時(shí)間在歐洲要長得多。

Clues from ancient stone tools

古石器帶來的線索

Did humans and Neanderthals hang out together in this French cave overlooking the Rh?ne valley? The researchers don't have any hard evidence of interaction between the two groups.
The tools found in the layers representing the Homo sapiens and Neanderthal occupations are distinct in style and don't show any sign that they taught one another knapping or flaking stonework techniques. The stone tools associated with humans, known as Neronian tools, are smaller than those used by Neanderthals, known as Mousterian tools.
But the authors feel that it's likely that the two groups must have bumped into one another in the neighborhood -- even if direct contact didn't take place in this particular cave.
The hundreds of stone tools found at the site suggest that the rock shelter was occupied intensively by both groups of humans -- and was not just a place for an occasional stopover

人類和尼安德特人曾在這個(gè)能俯瞰羅納河谷的法國洞穴里攜手閑逛嗎？研究人員沒有任何證明這兩個(gè)群體間發(fā)生過互動的確鑿證據(jù)。 出土的智人和尼安德特人的工具在工作風(fēng)格上是截然不同的，也沒有跡象表明他們互相傳授過打碎和剝片的石工技藝。人類使用過的被稱為Neronian的石器，比尼安德特人使用的莫斯特風(fēng)格的工具要小。 但筆者認(rèn)為，這兩個(gè)群體一定在附近偶遇過——即便不是在這個(gè)特別的洞穴里直接接觸。在該遺址發(fā)現(xiàn)的數(shù)百件石器表明，這一巖石避難所被兩組人群密集地占據(jù)，而且不僅僅是一個(gè)偶爾歇腳的地方。

Astonishingly, the team was able to determine that the period between the Neanderthals relocating and the first modern humans moving into the cave 56,000 years ago was just one year. The researchers did this by mapping and analyzing soot deposits from fires made by humans in the cave.

令人驚訝的是，研究小組能夠確定，從尼安德特人搬離到5.6萬年前第一批現(xiàn)代人類走進(jìn)洞穴，之間只隔了一年時(shí)間。研究人員通過繪制和分析洞穴中人類生火遺留下的煙灰沉積層來判斷出這一點(diǎn)。

"The soot is deposited to the roof of the rock shelter, and when there was a period of no one living there, there's no soot deposition," explained Stringer.

“煙灰沉積在洞頂上，當(dāng)一段時(shí)間內(nèi)沒有人繼續(xù)居住，就沒有煙灰沉積，”Stringer解釋說。

Lead author Ludovic Slimak, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Toulouse who has been working on the site for 30 years, said he believed the two groups must have exchanged knowledge in some way.

第一作者Ludovic Slimak是法國國家科學(xué)研究中心和圖盧茲大學(xué)的研究員，已經(jīng)在這個(gè)遺址投注了30年精力，并且堅(jiān)信這兩個(gè)團(tuán)體一定曾以某種方式交流過知識。

Right from the beginning of their occupation, Slimak said, the modern humans were using flint sourced from hundreds of kilometers away, the stone tools found in the cave show. That knowledge likely came from the indigenous Neanderthals, Slimak explained.

Slimak說，從智人剛開始在這居住的時(shí)候，就已經(jīng)在使用遠(yuǎn)在數(shù)百公里外的燧石了，這些石器在洞穴中被發(fā)現(xiàn)，Slimak解釋說，這些經(jīng)驗(yàn)很可能就來自當(dāng)?shù)氐哪岚驳绿厝恕?/b>

"The territory appears to be immediately well known by Homo sapiens, and they immediately know flint sources that are very localized," he said.

“這塊領(lǐng)地似乎立即被智人所熟知，他們立刻就知道了當(dāng)?shù)氐撵菔搹哪恼?。?br />