研究表明，尼安德特人通过潜入海洋获取新工具
研究表明，尼安德特人通过潜入海洋获取新工具
Neanderthals are not nearly as oafish or as dim-witted as we once thought. Not only did this fellow hominin walk upright with a posture not unlike our own, but some populations in Western Europe might even have swum on a regular basis.
尼安德特人并不像我们曾经认为的那样愚蠢。这个古人类不仅直立行走的姿势与我们人类没有什么不同，而且西欧的一些人群甚至可能经常游泳。
A fresh analysis of 171 shells, found in a Neanderthal archaeological site in Italy, suggests this long-extinct population used to dive for tools on the ocean bottom, long before the arrival of modern humans and their fishing practices.
在意大利一个尼安德特人考古遗址发现的171枚贝壳的最新分析表明，早在现代人类到来和他们的捕鱼习惯出现之前，这个早已灭绝的种群就曾在海底潜水寻找工具。
The cave where these ancient artefacts were found, known as the Grotta dei Moscerini, was first excavated in 1949, and the contents have been dated to more than 70,000 years ago - a time when modern humans were yet to to establish themselves across Europe.
这些古代文物被发现的洞穴，被称为Grotta dei Moscerini，在1949年第一次被挖掘，其内容可以追溯到7万多年前——那个时候，现代人类还没有在欧洲建立自己的社会。
Unfortunately, this cave is no longer accessible. But its assortment of 171 clam shells has been well curated over the decades, allowing researchers to carry out a microscopic analysis that revealed Neanderthals were capable of far more than we thought.
不幸的是，这个洞穴已无法进入。但在过去的几十年里，它的171个蛤壳的分类已经得到了很好的管理，这使得研究人员能够进行微观分析，揭示尼安德特人的能力远远超出我们的想象。
Not only were these shells shaped by hand into useful tools, the authors say nearly a quarter had been collected underwater from the seafloor as live animals.
这些贝壳不仅是手工制成的有用工具，而且作者说，他们在海底收集了近四分之一的活的动物。
The live animals that lived in the sea had a shiny shell, archaeologist Paola Villa from the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History explained to The New York Times.
科罗拉多大学自然历史博物馆的考古学家保拉·维拉在接受《纽约时报》采访时解释说:“生活在海里的动物有一个闪亮的外壳。”
The ones that are thrown by storms or dragged by a current onto the beach, because they sat in the sun and in the sand, their outer shells are opaque and not as shiny.
“那些被风暴或水流拖到海滩上的，因为它们坐在阳光下和沙子里，它们的外壳不透明，也没有那么闪亮。”
Many of these thin and sharp shells showed evidence of 'knapping', which suggests they were used as tools, although it remains unclear as to whether the Neanderthals actually ate what meat was inside.
这些又薄又尖的贝壳中有许多显示出“敲碎”的证据，这表明它们被用作工具，尽管尼安德特人是否真的吃了里面的肉还不清楚。
The new findings join a growing body of evidence that suggests Neanderthals did not simply wade for shells. Instead, similar sites and recent anatomical studies suggest skin-diving in low waters, probably two to four metres deep, was a common activity for these early hominins.
越来越多的证据表明，尼安德特人不仅仅是涉水寻找贝壳，这项新发现也加入了其中。相反，相似的地点和最近的解剖学研究表明，在可能2到4米深的低水域潜水是这些早期人类的一种常见活动。
