澳大利亚格里菲斯大学Jayne Wilkinsn团队取得最新进展。他们揭示了105,000年前湿润的喀拉哈里沙漠中智人创新行为。相关论文于2021年3月31日发表于国际顶尖学术期刊《自然》杂志上。
他们表明，人类早期创新与大约200,000年前内陆非洲南部沿海地区的人类创新大约同时存在。他们的报告表明，他们专门收集卡拉哈里盆地南部分层岩棚沉积物的开挖过程中的非功利性物品（方解石晶体）和鸵鸟蛋壳，然后通过光学激发发光来确定其日期，大约105 ka。残存的石灰岩沉积物的铀–期表明零星的时期存在大量新鲜的流动水。这些事件中最古老的事件可追溯到110至100 ka之间，与考古遗址同等。他们的结果表明，非洲南部内部人类之间的行为创新并不落后于沿海地区的人们，并且这些创新可能是在潮湿的热带稀树草原环境中发展的。因此，将行为创新的出现与人类对沿海资源的开发联系起来的模型可能需要修改。
据介绍，非洲的考古记录为出现以智人为特征的复杂象征和技术行为提供了最早的证据。晚更新世时代许多考古遗址的沿海环境，以及从中恢复的丰富贝类，导致了一种占主导地位的叙述，其中，非洲南部的现代人类起源与海岸和海洋资源有着内在的联系，以及内部的行为创新滞后。然而，在非洲南部内部很少有具有良好保存和稳健年代的分层晚更新世遗址，因此沿海假说仍未经检验。
附：英文原文
Title: Innovative Homo sapiens behaviours 105,000 years ago in a wetter Kalahari
Author: Jayne Wilkins, Benjamin J. Schoville, Robyn Pickering, Luke Gliganic, Benjamin Collins, Kyle S. Brown, Jessica von der Meden, Wendy Khumalo, Michael C. Meyer, Sechaba Maape, Alexander F. Blackwood, Amy Hatton
Issue&Volume: 2021-03-31
Abstract: The archaeological record of Africa provides the earliest evidence for the emergence of the complex symbolic and technological behaviours that characterize Homo sapiens1,2,3,4,5,6,7. The coastal setting of many archaeological sites of the Late Pleistocene epoch, and the abundant shellfish remains recovered from them, has led to a dominant narrative in which modern human origins in southern Africa are intrinsically tied to the coast and marine resources8,9,10,11,12, and behavioural innovations in the interior lag behind. However, stratified Late Pleistocene sites with good preservation and robust chronologies are rare in the interior of southern Africa, and the coastal hypothesis therefore remains untested. Here we show that early human innovations that are similar to those dated to around 105 thousand years ago (ka) in coastal southern Africa existed at around the same time among humans who lived over 600 km inland. We report evidence for the intentional collection of non-utilitarian objects (calcite crystals) and ostrich eggshell from excavations of a stratified rockshelter deposit in the southern Kalahari Basin, which we date by optically stimulated luminescence to around 105 ka. Uranium–thorium dating of relict tufa deposits indicates sporadic periods of substantial volumes of fresh, flowing water; the oldest of these episodes is dated to between 110 and 100 ka and is coeval with the archaeological deposit. Our results suggest that behavioural innovations among humans in the interior of southern Africa did not lag behind those of populations near the coast, and that these innovations may have developed within a wet savannah environment. Models that tie the emergence of behavioural innovations to the exploitation of coastal resources by our species may therefore require revision.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03419-0
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03419-0
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
