Josep Maria PARÉS
Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos 09002 Spain
FIRST PARAGRAPH: All current evidence points to Africa as the place where the human lineage originated. However, the questions of when humans first left the continent and where they went in Eurasia remain highly controversial [1-4]. Until the mid 1990’s, most researchers would have accepted a date of about 1.2 Ma as a maximum for the first appearance of Homo erectus in Eurasia [5]. In western Eurasia the earliest human fossils were dated to 0.5 Ma, but archaeological discoveries within the past twelve years have reopened the question of the age of the first Europeans [6-8]. Findings in Atapuerca provided the oldest direct evidence for a human presence in Europe at around 1.2 Myr [9]. The most parsimonious interpretation of this finding in the Sierra de Atapuerca is that Western Europe was settled during the Early Pleistocene by a hominin population coming from the east. It has been suggested that this population may be related to the first demographic expansion out of Africa, currently represented by the Dmanisi hominins [9]. The validation of such hypothesis is hampered by the absence of an accurate chronostratigraphic context for early to Middle Pleistocene sites [1,4]. A solid knowledge of the chronology, biostratigraphy and geologic context of hominin sites would enable us to address important issues such as possible migration routes, whether there were several pulses of migration and the role of climate and/or technical-cultural selection on the expansion outside Africa.
Recieved: Oct.10, 2010 Accepted: Dec.2, 2010 Corresponding: josep.pares@cenieh.es
《现代人类学通讯》第四卷e30篇 第180-183页 2010年12月16日网上发行
会议摘要
出非洲记:老迁徙的新观点
约瑟普•派瑞斯
国立人类进化研究中心, 西班牙 布尔戈斯 09002
首节:现在所有的证据都指向非洲是现代人类的起源地。然而,何时人类第一次离开非洲,他们到达了欧亚大陆的哪些地方,这些问题还是很有争议[1-4]。直到十九世纪九十年代中期,大多数研究者已经接受,最早出现在欧亚大陆的直立人最多为120万年前[5]。在欧亚大陆的西部,最早的人类化石为50万年,但考古学家在过去12年来的发现,为最早的欧洲人的年代问题又提供了新的证据[6-8]。阿塔坡卡遗址的发现又提供了最古老的证据,证明约120万年前欧洲就有人类出现[9]。阿塔坡卡山的发现可以简单的解释为,在更新世早期就有来自东方的人群居住在欧洲西部。有证据显示,这个人群可能和德曼尼西人代表的第一次出非洲的人口膨胀有关。这个假说由于缺乏精确的更新世中期遗址年代地层环境而难以验证[1,4]。详细地了解年代学、生物地层学和地质环境将有助于我们解决一些重要问题,如可能的迁徙路线、是否有多次迁徙、气候的作用和科技文化对走出非洲扩张的选择。
参考文献 References
1. Roebroeks W, Kolfschoten T (1994) The earliest occupation of Europe: a short chronology. Antiquity 63: 489-503.