一個由多國考古人員組成的研究小組日前在摩洛哥發(fā)掘出了一些用貝殼制成的飾品,，經(jīng)檢測它們已有約8萬年的歷史,。考古人員認為,，這說明人類在約8萬年前就已經(jīng)具備了思想,，能夠制作飾品。
法國國家科研中心8月29日發(fā)表公報說,，這項研究由該中心與摩洛哥,、以色列和德國的學(xué)術(shù)機構(gòu)合作完成?？脊湃藛T在摩洛哥的4處考古點發(fā)掘出了一些貝殼類的飾品,，其中有些埋藏在距今8.5萬年到7萬年的特殊地層中,。
考古人員隨即對它們進行了研究，注意到以下幾個特點：首先,，發(fā)現(xiàn)貝殼的地點距離海岸至少有40到60公里,，因此不可能是被自然的力量帶到此地的；其次,，貝殼上有穿孔染色的痕跡,；最后，這些貝殼都保存完好,，盡管表面上有細微的磨損，但那應(yīng)該是在佩戴時造成的,。在對以上幾點進行分析后,，他們認定，這些貝殼都是被當時人類刻意雕琢的飾品,，而并非隨意撒落在該地的貝殼,。
考古人員表示，能夠制作飾品標志著當時的人類已經(jīng)具有思想,。在很長一段時間里,，人們只在歐洲和中東地區(qū)發(fā)現(xiàn)過距今4萬年的飾品，但近10年來,，考古人員在非洲北部和南部不斷發(fā)現(xiàn)更為古老的飾品,，這說明人類更早地具備了這一本領(lǐng)。
這項研究成果已經(jīng)發(fā)表在最新一期美國《國家科學(xué)院院刊》（PNAS）上,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
PNAS August 28, 2009, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0903532106
Additional evidence on the use of personal ornaments in the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa
Francesco d'Erricoa,b,1, Marian Vanhaerenc, Nick Bartond, Abdeljalil Bouzouggare, Henk Mienisf, Daniel Richterg, Jean-Jacques Hubling, Shannon P. McPherrong and Pierre Lozoueth
aCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199, De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie, University of Bordeaux, Talence 33405, France;
bInstitute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2050 WITS, South Africa;
cEthnologie préhistorique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unité Mixte de Recherche 7041, Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquite, Nanterre 92023, France;
dInstitute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2PG, United Kingdom;
eInstitut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine, Hay Riad, Madinat Al Irfane, 10 000 Rabat, Morocco;
fNational Natural History Collections, Berman Building, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 01904, Israel;
gDepartment of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany; and
hCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Propre de l'Enseignement Supérieur Associee 8044, Laboratoire de Biologie des Invertébrés Marins et de Malacologie, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 75005, France
Recent investigations into the origins of symbolism indicate that personal ornaments in the form of perforated marine shell beads were used in the Near East, North Africa, and SubSaharan Africa at least 35 ka earlier than any personal ornaments in Europe. Together with instances of pigment use, engravings, and formal bone tools, personal ornaments are used to support an early emergence of behavioral modernity in Africa, associated with the origin of our species and significantly predating the timing for its dispersal out of Africa. Criticisms have been leveled at the low numbers of recovered shells, the lack of secure dating evidence, and the fact that documented examples were not deliberately shaped. In this paper, we report on 25 additional shell beads from four Moroccan Middle Paleolithic sites. We review their stratigraphic and chronological contexts and address the issue of these shells having been deliberately modified and used. We detail the results of comparative analyses of modern, fossil, and archaeological assemblages and microscopic examinations of the Moroccan material. We conclude that Nassarius shells were consistently used for personal ornamentation in this region at the end of the last interglacial. Absence of ornaments at Middle Paleolithic sites postdating Marine Isotope Stage 5 raises the question of the possible role of climatic changes in the disappearance of this hallmark of symbolic behavior before its reinvention 40 ka ago. Our results suggest that further inquiry is necessary into the mechanisms of cultural transmission within early Homo sapiens populations.
