德国马克斯普朗克人类历史科学研究所Michael D. Petraglia、Huw S. Groucutt.研究组取得一项新突破。他们揭示了过去40万年间，不同古人类在西南亚的迁徙情况。相关论文于2021年9月1日发表在《自然》杂志上。
研究人员报告了一系列与石器时代和脊椎动物化石相关的年代久远的古湖序列，这些序列来自内福德沙漠的Khall Amayshan和Jubbah盆地。研究发现包括阿拉伯最古老的人类职业，揭示了至少五次人类向阿拉伯内部的扩张，这与约400、300、200、130-75和55000年前的短暂“绿色”窗口相吻合。每个占领阶段都具有不同形式的物质文化特征，表明不同人类群体的殖民化，以及缺乏长期的西南亚人口连续性。该研究结果揭示了在被更新世撒哈拉-阿拉伯干旱区隔离的非洲和欧亚古人类群体一般模式中，由气候调节窗口介导的人口传播和混合特征。
据了解，在更新世时期，人从非洲向外的扩散过程必然需要穿越西南亚，西南亚具有多样且具有挑战性的环境。黎凡特地区的考古和古生物学记录揭示了主要的生物和文化转变，例如智人和尼安德特人的交替居住。然而，对晚第四纪时期西南亚大部分广阔干旱地区的文化、生物和环境记录仍然稀缺，这限制了在区域尺度对人类人口统计学和行为变化的理解。
附：英文原文
Title: Multiple hominin dispersals into Southwest Asia over the past 400,000 years
Author: Groucutt, Huw S., White, Tom S., Scerri, Eleanor M. L., Andrieux, Eric, Clark-Wilson, Richard, Breeze, Paul S., Armitage, Simon J., Stewart, Mathew, Drake, Nick, Louys, Julien, Price, Gilbert J., Duval, Mathieu, Parton, Ash, Candy, Ian, Carleton, W. Christopher, Shipton, Ceri, Jennings, Richard P., Zahir, Muhammad, Blinkhorn, James, Blockley, Simon, Al-Omari, Abdulaziz, Alsharekh, Abdullah M., Petraglia, Michael D.
Issue&Volume: 2021-09-01
Abstract: Pleistocene hominin dispersals out of, and back into, Africa necessarily involved traversing the diverse and often challenging environments of Southwest Asia1,2,3,4. Archaeological and palaeontological records from the Levantine woodland zone document major biological and cultural shifts, such as alternating occupations by Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. However, Late Quaternary cultural, biological and environmental records from the vast arid zone that constitutes most of Southwest Asia remain scarce, limiting regional-scale insights into changes in hominin demography and behaviour1,2,5. Here we report a series of dated palaeolake sequences, associated with stone tool assemblages and vertebrate fossils, from the Khall Amayshan 4 and Jubbah basins in the Nefud Desert. These findings, including the oldest dated hominin occupations in Arabia, reveal at least five hominin expansions into the Arabian interior, coinciding with brief ‘green’ windows of reduced aridity approximately 400, 300, 200, 130–75 and 55 thousand years ago. Each occupation phase is characterized by a distinct form of material culture, indicating colonization by diverse hominin groups, and a lack of long-term Southwest Asian population continuity. Within a general pattern of African and Eurasian hominin groups being separated by Pleistocene Saharo-Arabian aridity, our findings reveal the tempo and character of climatically modulated windows for dispersal and admixture.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03863-y
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03863-y
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
