非洲理论可靠吗？——石器新发现引发再思考
cathayan
来源：Past Horizons 时间：Sept 26,2014 翻译：穆鸟 校对：Sai 编辑：Leek链接： http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/09/2014/stone-tools-discovery-prompts-re-think-of-african-theory
《科学》杂志最近发表了一项研究，其中新发现的数千件石器和后续分析让我们得以窥探325,000年前人类的技术革新及其传播方式。研究表明，技术革新并不像以前所想的那样单一起源，而是在旧大陆上多点起源的。
研究者说：“以往的旧理论‘勒瓦娄哇技法（石片石叶用于制作狩猎武器等实用工具的技术）最先产生于非洲，然后随着人类扩张传播到其他大陆’，其可信度已经大打折扣了”
在位于亚美尼亚Nor Geghi 1号考古遗址中，研究者发现，这类工具在距今325,000到335,000年前就已经存在，同时遗址中还出土了“两面加工石器”（biface），表明当地人在更原始的技术的基础上发展出勒瓦娄哇技法。
考古学家称。勒瓦娄哇技法在非洲出现，之后随着人类扩张传播到欧亚大陆，在这个过程中逐渐取代了当地的两面加工技术（类似涌别技法）。这个学说将人口与技术联系在一起，把技术变革和人口变迁等同。而在Nor Geghi 1号考古遗址中，两种技术的并存则为新观点提供了证据：当地人在两面加工技术的基础上开发了勒瓦娄哇技术。
保存在两条熔岩流之间
Nor Geghi 1号是一个特殊的遗址，它位于距今20万到40万年前的两条熔岩流之间。熔岩流中的漫滩沉积物地层和古土壤中保存着考古遗物。通过对沉积物中的火山灰和沉积物本身的分析，研究者认为这些石器的年代大约在325,000-335,000年前，那个时候的气候与今天相似。
伦敦大学皇家霍洛威学院地理学系的Simon Blockley和Alison MacLeod博士分析了Kotayk 省Nor Geghi遗址中出土的火山岩材料。运用皇家霍洛威学院研发的全新程序，他们提取了合适的材料以对勒瓦娄哇类型石器进行测年。
康涅狄格大学人类学副教授、也是该项研究的领军人物Daniel Adler说：“不同技术在同一地点的共存表明，距今32万5000年前，这个地点的人们是多么富有创新性。”而且，对几百件黑曜石人工制品进行化学分析显示，这个地点的人们已经开始利用远达120公里（接近75英里）的露天黑曜石矿，表明他们具有了探索广阔多样环境的能力。
Blockley说：“我们的发现挑战了许多考古学家持有的观点：‘勒瓦娄哇技法在非洲产生，然后随着人类扩张传播到欧亚大陆。’通过对亚美尼亚遗址进行准确测年，我们可以为‘人类文明史上的重要技术进步是在不同人种之间独立发生的’这一理论提供证据。”
一次革新
考古学家声称，勒瓦娄哇技法在制造工具方面更富有创造性，因为它没有将石器修整阶段产生的石片废弃掉，而是按照预制的形状和尺寸制成较小而容易携带的工具。对于更为原始的两面加工技术来说，因为其主要目的是制作手斧类的大型工具，大型石料经过两面修理产生的石片都被废弃了。
Adler说：“修整和压片系统的奇异组合让勒瓦娄哇技术从其他技术中脱颖而出，也突出了它与两面加工技术的进化关系。通过对非洲、中东和欧洲考古遗址数据的比较，这项研究还证明了这一进化过程是循序渐进和断断续续的。而且，这一过程独立地发生在拥有共同技术祖先的不同人类群体中。”换言之，勒瓦娄哇技术在不同地点和不同时间从已有的两面器技术进化而来。
这一结论挑战了一些考古学家的观点：这一阶段技术上的变革归结于人口数量的变化。Adler说：“如果我把遗址中所有人工制品带给一位考古学家看，他们会立即开始将它们按时间顺序进行分类。”事实上，发现于Nor Geghi 1号考古遗址的人工制品反映了在人类行为和生物变化的重要时期单一人种技术上的灵活性和多样性。这些结果强调了反映人类创新能力的遗存的重要性。
编者按：
勒瓦娄哇技法详见：
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8B%92%E7%93%A6%E5%A8%84%E5%93%87%E6%8A%80%E6%B3%95
文中提到的两面器技术可参见涌别技法：
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B9%A7%E5%88%A5%E6%8A%80%E6%B3%95
原文：
A new discovery and subsequent analysis of thousands of Stone Age tools has provided a major insight into human innovation 325,000 years ago and how early technological developments spread across the world, according to research published in the journal Science. It shows that technological innovation occurred intermittently throughout the Old World, rather than spreading from a single point of origin, as previously thought.
The belief that a type of technology known as Levallois – where the flakes and blades of stones were used to make useful products such as hunting weapons was invented in Africa and then spread to other continents as the human population expanded can now be discounted say the researchers.
At an archaeological site in Armenia called Nor Geghi 1, the researchers discovered that these types of tools already existed there between 325,000 and 335,000 years ago, suggesting that local populations developed them out of a more basic type of technology, known as biface, which was also found at the site.
Archaeologists have argued that Levallois technology was invented in Africa and spread to Eurasia with expanding human populations, replacing local biface technologies in the process. This theory draws a link between populations and technologies and thus equates technological change with demographic change. The co-existence of the two technologies at Nor Geghi 1 provides the first clear evidence that local populations developed Levallois technology out of existing biface technology.
Preserved between two lava flows
Nor Geghi 1, is a unique site preserved between two lava flows dated to 200,000–400,000 years ago. Layers of floodplain sediments and an ancient soil found between these lava flows contain the archaeological material. The dating of volcanic ash found within the sediments and detailed study of the sediments themselves allowed researchers to correlate the stone tools with a period between 325,000 and 335,000 years ago when the Earth’s climate was similar to today’s.
Dr Simon Blockley and Dr Alison MacLeod, from the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, analysed the volcanic material that preserved the archaeological site in the village of Nor Geghi, in Kotayk Province. By employing innovative procedures developed at Royal Holloway, they extracted suitable material to help date the Levallois tools.
“The combination of these different technologies in one place suggests to us that, about 325,000 years ago, people at the site were innovative,” says Daniel Adler, associate professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut, and the lead author of the study. Moreover, the chemical analysis of several hundred obsidian artefacts shows that humans at the site utilized obsidian outcrops from as far away as 120 kilometres (approximately 75 miles), suggesting they must also have been capable of exploiting large, environmentally diverse territories.
“Our findings challenge the theory held by many archaeologists that Levallois technology was invented in Africa and spread to Eurasia as the human population expanded. Due to our ability to accurately date the site in Armenia, we now have the first clear evidence that this significant development in human innovation occurred independently within different populations.” said Dr Blockley.
An innovation
Archaeologists argue that Levallois technology was a more innovative way of crafting tools, as the flakes produced during the shaping of the stone were not treated as waste but were made at predetermined shapes and sizes and used to make products that were small and easy to carry. With the more primitive biface technology, a mass of stone was shaped through the removal of flakes from two surfaces in order to produce bigger tools such as a hand axes.
It is the novel combination of the shaping and flaking systems that distinguishes Levallois from other technologies, and highlights its evolutionary relationship to biface technology. Based on comparisons of archaeological data from sites in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, the study also demonstrates that this evolution was gradual and intermittent, and that it occurred independently within different human populations who shared a common technological ancestry, says Adler. In other words Levallois technology evolved out of pre-existing biface technology in different places at different times.
This conclusion challenges the view held by some Archaeologists that technological change resulted from population change during this period. “If I were to take all the artefacts from the site and show them to an archaeologist, they would immediately begin to categorize them into chronologically distinct groups,” Adler said. In reality, the artefacts found at Nor Geghi 1 reflect the technological flexibility and variability of a single population during a period of profound human behavioural and biological change. These results highlight the antiquity of the human capacity for innovation.