The earliest evidence for anatomically modern humans in northwestern Europe

摘要

在解剖上,现代人被认为是在距今44,000～rn42,000年前到达欧洲的.关于早期人类的物理rn证据很少,这些年代所依据的基本上是关于各rn类石器的研究工作.本期Nature上发表的两篇rn论文,利用最新放射碳年代测定和形态分析方rn法来重新评估博物馆中的原人样本.Higrlartl等rn人研究了来自英国Kent's Cavern的ALIrignaciarlrn时期考古点的一块人上颌骨(这块上颔骨是rn1927年发现的,以前将其年代确定为35,000年rn左右),得出其年龄为44.200～41,500年.下rn颌骨的牙齿形态表明,其作为早期人类、而不rn是作为"穴居人"(尼安德特人)的属性是可靠rn的.Berlazzi等人重新分析了来自意大利南部rnUluzziarl时期考古点Grotta del Cavallo的两颗rn牙齿,得出结论认为,它们肯定是现代人,而不rn是"穴居人",其所生活的年代距今约45,OOO～43,000年.从这项研究工作得出的进一步结论rn是,欧洲南部的UILJzziarl文化(从地层学上来说,rn这种文化总是在作为现代人标志的Aurignaciarlrn文化之下发现的)可能代表着欧洲最早的现代rn人,而不是最后的"穴居人".%The earliest anatomically modern humans in Europe are thought to have appeared around 43,000-42,000 calendar years before present (43-42 kyr cal bp), by association with Aurignacian sites and lithic assemblages assumed to have been made by modern humans rather than by Neanderthals. However, the actual physical evidence for modern humans is extremely rare, and direct dates reach no farther back than about 41-39 kyr cal bp, leaving a gap. Here we show, using stratigraphic, chronological and archaeological data, that a fragment of human maxilla from the Kent's Cavern site, UK, dates to the earlier period. The maxilla (KC4), which was excavated in 1927, was initially diagnosed as Upper Palaeolithic modern human1. In 1989, it was directly radiocarbon dated by accelerator mass spectrometry to 36.4-34.7 kyr cal bp2. Using a Bayesian analysis of new ultrafiltered bone collagen dates in an ordered stratigraphic sequence at the site, we show that this date is a considerable underestimate. Instead, KC4 dates to 44.2-41.5 kyr cal bp. This makes it older than any other equivalently dated modern human specimen and directly contemporary with the latest European Neanderthals, thus making its taxonomic attribution crucial. We also show that in 13 dental traits KC4 possesses modern human rather than Neanderthal characteristics; three other traits show Neanderthal affinities and a further seven are ambiguous. KC4 therefore represents the oldest known anatomically modern human fossil in northwestern Europe, fills a key gap between the earliest dated Aurignacian remains and the earliest human skeletal remains, and demonstrates the wide and rapid dispersal of early modern humans across Europe more than 40 kyr ago.